Dismember some genocidal aliens in this rare Wii translation
Format: Wii Dev: Visceral Games / Eurocom Pub: EA Out: 25/09/09 Players: 1-2
Dead Space: Extraction serves as a prequel to the original Dead Space for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. Despite missing the original, my ignorance to the franchise did not hinder my gaming experience in the slightest. No prior knowledge is required when tackling Extraction. The gist of the story: a group of space colonists fight against an alien infection with a view to escape alive – roger that.
You are guided through levels via an on rails system – similar to traditional rail shooters, like Time Crisis and House of the Dead – that dictates the speed and direction of your character’s movement. I enjoyed this system. Using the Wii Remote is tricky enough in Extraction without having to walk the character around. The on rails system also adds to the challenge by giving you only brief glimpses of items and collectables that you are required to vigilantly acquire using telekinesis. Other than that you can also use ‘stasis’ on enemies and objects within your surroundings to temporarily freeze them – very useful for those enemies that pop up right in front of you unannounced, allowing you to take your time with the ensuing dismemberment.
Dismemberment is the aim of the game when taking down enemies, as with the previous Dead Space. These things don’t go down until all their limbs are shot off – nice. I made use of the Wii Zapper when playing Extraction. I would very much advise doing so as it obviously resembles holding a real gun to some extent, and everybody likes using a trigger on a shooter. The option of drop in/drop out co-op gameplay is a nice feature as it does not entail split-screen. The second player simply becomes another cursor on-screen and makes use of their own ammunition.
What I found interesting about Dead Space: Extraction was that the character you begin as dies once you reach the end of the first stage. This reoccurs several times throughout the game and you find yourself in the role of several different personalities as you progress through the story – quite a cool feature I had not seen in a game before.
As was zero gravity (an aspect in the first Dead Space too), which is a nice touch. Entering zero gravity, you use the Wii Remote to pinpoint the allocated spot to which your character must make the leap to. At certain points in the game you are given a choice of which path to take, highlighted blue lines heading in different directions appear at your feet and you choose which one to take. I am unsure whether or not I chose the correct path each time, but failed to see any kind of repercussions or consequences resulting from my choices.
I found myself enjoying this game more and more as it progressed. In fact, I played through the whole campaign in the space of one day. So, yes, it is relatively short, but if you find it so, why not make use of challenge mode to see if you can out-do your previous performance? While the graphics may resemble that of a PlayStation 2 title – hardly as scary as current next-gen titles, Dead Space: Extraction is a fun game to play with the lights off.
Andy King
Tags: action, dead space, ea, horror
