“Bugger off, will you? This is complicated enough without someone looking over my shoulder.”

EA has revealed that Viceral Studios is hard at work on imaginatively titled Dead Space 2 for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Though details are presently scarce, the publisher did confirm a couple of key points. Protagonist Isaac Clarke, absent from this year’s Wii exclusive Dead Space: Extraction, will return to centre stage. Further, he will again be pitted against the hellish reanimated corpses know as necromorphs.

The original Dead Space didn’t make a great first impression. Given its storyline, art design and soundtrack were all nicked from Aliens, I was left wondering why EA didn’t just pony up for the license.

I kept playing for two reasons. First, the shooting aspect of the game, which required you to target and sever individual limbs, was both novel and remarkably robust. Second, the head’s up display was beautifully integrated into the gameplay, ensuring that you didn’t need to bring up a separate menu screen to check your map, juggle inventory or even watch a video. This was enough to carry me through a story that became quite intriguing by the time the credits rolled.

A release window for Dead Space 2 is yet to be announced.