Dead Space 2
The game begins in an asylum on the Sprawl, a densely populated civilian space station built onto the last remaining shard of Titan, one of Saturn's moons, and site of the first planet crack. Isaac Clarke awakens with no memory of the past 3 years since Aegis VII, having just been awoken by Franco Delille (protagonist of Dead Space Ignition), an engineer on the Sprawl who was sent by Daina to rescue Isaac. With the already-ongoing Necromorph outbreak, an Infector kills and mutates Franco into a Slasher in front of Isaac, leaving Isaac to escape on his own.
While running away from the chaos of the Necromorph outbreak, he stumbles upon a bloodied Foster Edgars, a scientist that oversaw Isaac and Nolan Stross' sessions, put him in a neck hold with a medical knife to Isaac's neck. Isaac pleads with Edgars to let him go while they can still evac the station. Edgars frees Isaac from his straight-jacket and kills himself. Soon, Isaac is contacted by Daina Le Guin, a woman claiming to have a cure for his "condition". He is also contacted by fellow patient Nolan Stross (a main character from Dead Space: Aftermath), who endured a treatment similar to Isaac's. Daina explains that Sprawl Director, Hans Tiedemann, is building a new Marker using information encoded in Isaac and Stross' brains. She also claims that a self-replicating signal was imprinted on Isaac's mind by his previous encounter with the Marker, putting his life in grave danger, which Tiedemann kept in check with memory suppressants. Ignoring Stross, Isaac fights his way through the city (still filled with survivors trying to escape the Necromorphs) to reach Daina. Along the way, Isaac experiences hallucinations of Nicole, which become more vivid as "she" tries to deter him from his task. Once he reaches Daina, she reveals herself to be a Unitologist agent and has Isaac restrained. Isaac pleads her to leave him alone and give him a cure but she assures him that there is no cure and claiming that they need him to build more Markers to spread Convergence, an event foretold in Unitology, across the universe; however, an EarthGov gunship strikes their space ship, killing Daina and her associates and allowing Isaac to escape.
Stross contacts Isaac, claiming that they can destroy the Marker, telling him its location in the Sprawl's Government Sector; left with no choice, Isaac reluctantly decides to trust Stross. As he makes his way there, Isaac comes across Ellie Langford, a CEC pilot who lost her crew during the outbreak. She eventually joins their mission after coming across Stross, almost killing him but was convinced by Isaac to keep him alive and safe from danger. As they travel through the Sprawl, they encounter several obstacles caused by Tiedemann and the Necromorphs. Tiedemann uses a solar array beam that Isaac activated earlier to turn back on the life support in the station, to cut off the transport tube to the government sector, forcing Isaac to venture back inside the Ishimura, which is docked at the Sprawl for decontamination and repair after the events of the first game. Later on, Stross' dementia worsens, causing him to gouge Ellie's eye out with a screwdriver, repeating "steps" to her; she survives, and Isaac kills him in self-defense. After weathering further verbal assaults from Nicole, Isaac comes to accept the guilt of being unable to prevent her death, causing the visions to become benign.
They later find an enormous mining drill and uses the machine to drill into the Government Sector. Upon reaching the Government Sector, Isaac sends Ellie away (against her will) on a gunship to protect her. Once inside, he releases the Necromorphs onto Tiedemann's forces near the Marker chamber, causing the Government Sector to be overrun quickly. When Isaac reaches the Marker, he finds it surrounded by Necromorphs, which triggers Convergence. With Nicole's guidance, he uses the NoonLight Diagnostic Machine, a device which had been used on both himself and Stross prior to the events of the game, activating the parts of his brain that had been affected by the Marker. He fights his way to the Marker, where he encounters and kills Tiedemann. At this point, the Nicole hallucinations pull Isaac into his own mind, revealing that the only way to make the Marker "whole" is to absorb the body and mind of the one who created it — in this case, Isaac himself. Infuriated and betrayed, Isaac destroys "Nicole" and the Marker codes in his mind in a grueling mental battle.
Waking up, Isaac discovers that the Marker has been rendered nonfunctional, and that the accumulated damage to the Sprawl has resulted in its reactors melting down. Isaac slumps to the ground, ready to accept his fate, to be interrupted by Ellie, who crashes the gunship through the ceiling. The two escape as the Sprawl explodes.
In a post-credits scene, an audio transmission is heard between two people: an unknown man and his ranking superior, known only as "the Overseer". The subordinate relays that Titan Station, which he calls "Marker Site 12," and its Marker have been destroyed. The Overseer replies that the other sites will have to pick up the pieces.
=== Severed ===
Dead Space 2: Severed is set three years after the events of Dead Space: Extraction, and shortly before those of Dead Space 2. Gabe Weller now works for the Sprawl Security, and Lexine is now his wife. Gabe's story runs parallel to Isaac Clarke's experiences in Dead Space 2; this can be seen throughout Severed as Gabe stumbles upon the remains of Isaac's various battles.
During a patrol in the Titan Mines, the Necromorph outbreak is unleashed. After the death of most of his patrol squad, Gabe contacts Lexine to warn her of the outbreak. After his emergency warning is transferred, Gabe makes his way through the mines, passing through many areas that will be visited by Isaac Clarke. During this, he receives a transmission from Director Tiedemann ordering all surviving security teams to scrub the facility and eliminate all key subjects.
Once Gabe finally arrives at the Titan Mines exit, he is fired upon by his superior officer, Victor Bartlett, who is in a gunship. After launching explosive canisters at the gunship, Gabe is able to force Victor to retreat. Gabe then demands an answer for his commander's seemingly random act of violence, leading to the revelation that Gabe's wife Lexine is on the list of key subjects to terminate because of her involvement in the "Oracle program", which has something to do with Lexine's recent pregnancy.
Gabe reaches the hospital in a gunship to try to get to Lexine before his superior officer can reach her. Gabe is finally able to make it through the Hospital to the Psych Ward only to find Victor being disabled by two Unitologists claiming to have orders to capture Lexine for further study.
Gabe chases after the two men to a docked ship, where Lexine escapes into the ship while her two kidnappers are transformed into Necromorphs. Once Gabe dispatches the threats, he and Lexine attempt to make their escape but they find the airlock is locked and only accessible from a hackable console near the ship. As Gabe attempts to hack the airlock, Victor ambushes him with a live grenade. After a struggle, the grenade explodes, killing Victor and leaving Gabe severely injured. During his final moments, he shoots the four airlock fuses, allowing Lexine and their unborn child to escape. Gabe, after saying goodbye, succumbs to his wounds. An epilogue reveals Gabe's body has been taken for study, while Lexine's whereabouts are unknown.
violence, cruelty, murder, sadist