Dead Space 2

=== Setting and characters ===
Dead Space 2 takes place in the year 2511, three years after the events of Dead Space. The action takes place on the Sprawl, a space station built by the Earth Government (EarthGov) in the remains of Saturn's moon Titan in a period where humanity survived near-extinction due to resource depletion by mining other planets. During the previous game's events on the planet Aegis VII, an artifact called the Red Marker−copied from an alien artifact by EarthGov during a disastrous attempt to harvest its energy−was uncovered during an illegal mining operation. The mining colony was funded by the Church of Unitology, a group that worships the Markers as divine and seeks an event of physical and spiritual union called Convergence. The Marker's influence triggered crippling mental illness in the colony, then the outbreak of a virus-like organism that reanimates corpses and turns them into Necromorphs, which overwhelmed the colony and the mining ship USG Ishimura. By the events of Dead Space 2, the Aegis VII incident has been covered up, and new Marker experiments begun on the Sprawl.
The protagonist is Isaac Clarke, a Concordance Extraction Corporation (CEC) engineer who was sent with a team to the Ishimura and narrowly survived the infestation while destroying the Marker and the Necromorphs. Assisting Isaac are Ellie Langford, a CEC heavy machinery pilot; Nolan Stross, a fellow patient of Isaac whose exposure to the Aegis VII Marker has left him insane; and Daina Le Guin. Director Hans Tiedeman is an EarthGov administrator in charge of the Sprawl who initiates a project to build another Marker in an attempt to control its power and opposes Isaac. Isaac is also frequently tormented by visions of Nicole Brennan, his girlfriend who died on the Ishimura. Minor characters include Franco Delille, a hacker sent to rescue Isaac and protagonist of the spin-off Dead Space Ignition, and EarthGov doctor Foster Edgars. The downloadable content (DLC) story Dead Space: Severed follows Sergeant Gabe Weller, a Sprawl security officer who races to save his wife Lexine Murdoch from both the Necromorphs and EarthGov. Both are returning characters from the spin-off Dead Space: Extraction.



Plot

Isaac Clarke, suffering from Marker-induced dementia and violent hallucinations, escapes from Necromorphs at the mental hospital holding him and is guided to safety by Le Guin. Isaac finds the Sprawl overrun and being evacuated en masse, with the citizens left behind either being killed or committing suicide due to the Marker's influence. Le Guin reveals that Tiedemann recreated a Marker using the data in Isaac's mind, using memory-blocking drugs on Isaac to prevent that data from destroying his mind. Isaac runs into the highly disturbed Stross, who claims to know how to destroy the new Marker. When Isaac reaches Le Guin, she reveals herself as a Unitologist sent to capture Isaac. An EarthGov ambush kills her and her henchmen, allowing Isaac to escape. He soon allies with Ellie, who reluctantly guards Stross as they navigate the Sprawl, fighting both the Necromorphs and Tiedemann's attempts to contain them. Isaac is regularly tormented by visions of Nicole Brennan, who keeps asking Isaac to make them "whole". To reach the Sprawl's government sector where Tiedemann is holding up with the Marker, Isaac is forced to navigate the decommissioned Ishimura, triggering more hallucinations.
Stross's mental state worsens to the point of attacking Ellie, gouging out her right eye with a screwdriver, then attacking Isaac, who is forced to kill him in self-defense. Ellie helps Isaac get into the government sector, but then he tricks her into getting aboard a shuttle and sends her away to safety. Guided by a friendly version of Nicole, he gets inside the government sector, letting the Necromorphs inside to eliminate Tiedemann's security forces. The Necromorphs gather at the Marker, starting off Convergence, and Isaac uses a machine to unlock the Marker data in his mind. He kills Tiedemann, but is then forced to fight off a final hallucination of Nicole as she was a projection used by the Marker to fulfill its wish of completing Convergence by merging with its creator, Isaac. As the Sprawl begins collapsing from the damage caused by the Marker, Ellie flies in and rescues Isaac. In a post-credits audio conversation, two EarthGov agents discuss further Marker sites.



Severed

Gabe Weller is on patrol in the Sprawl's mines when the Necromorph attacks begin, warning Lexine, who is pregnant with their child, as he makes his way back to her. Weller is betrayed by his superior Victor Bartlett, who reveals that the pair were subjects of the Oracle Program, intended to study both Lexine and Weller's survival of the Aegis VII incident and the potential use of their child. Bartlett, whom Tiedemann ordered to kill all Marker-related subjects, is later subdued by two high-ranking EarthGov agents known as the Oracles, who take Lexine from him. Weller chases after them, with Lexine retreating into a shuttle when Necromorphs kill the Oracles. Bartlett suicidally attacks Weller with a grenade before he can board; fatally injured, Weller helps Lexine escape the Sprawl. An epilogue reveals Weller's body has been taken for study by EarthGov, while the missing Lexine is to be killed once found.