[quote name='ryamkajr']Does Dead Space 2 "redeem" through Steam? If you go to the page on Steam, it says you still have to have an EA account to activate.[/QUOTE]
No!!!
EA uses Origin for their games, NOT Steam.
If you want a EA game on Steam for ALL of the Steam perks [hour tracking, Steam back-up utility, Steam Friends list, Steam screen-shot taking, Steam auto-updates, etc etc], just buy it through Steam... as long as that EA game is actually being sold through Steam, of course.
The reason you read about EA account for Dead Space 2 is b/c you will have to have an EA Account to par-take in the Multiplayer portion of the game.
EDIT:
You can Add Any Non-Steam Version of any game through Steam, but you'll only get a FEW of the Steam benefits - namely, screenshot-taking and seeing your Steam Friends List.
You won't get the hour-tracking and your game auto-updates via Steam, so you'd have to get your patches for Non-Steam games from elsewhere.