Dead Space: Extraction

Visceral Games released Dead Space, received well by fans and critics in '08. Dead Space: Extraction came to the Wii a year later in the form of a prequel.

Dead Space: Extraction is an on-rails first person shooter. Extraction serves as a prequel to the popular game Dead Space, which released for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC in 2008. The story follows various characters on the surface colony of a planet called Aegis VII. The goal of the colony was to scan the planet for resources, so that a large ship called a Planet-Cracker (the USG Ishimura from Dead Space), could remove said resources from that planet, and return them to a now resource-depleted Earth.

However, shortly before the planet-crack is scheduled to begin, a strange artifact called a Marker is found, and events begin to unravel, as suicides and murders begin to climb to outrageous numbers.

The ominous Marker...

The game drops you into the story as a miner on the colony while the madness begins to break out. During the course of the game, which is laid out into a number of chapters, players take the role of multiple characters. This creates a unique storytelling mechanic, because as the events unfold on the Aegis VII colony, they also run parallel to the Ishimura's story. So, you get multiple perspectives of what exactly is going on.

Most of the main cast from Dead Space: Extraction

Dead Space: Extraction is on-rails. This means there are no controls related to movement. Your Wii remote controls the on-screen reticule, with the B button firing your weapon. A second person with a Wii remote can also jump in and aid in the fight. The A button controls your Kinesis which, as Dead Space players will remember, allows the player to pick up and throw objects. In Extraction, this is the primary way a player will collect items, such as ammo, weapon upgrades, and audio/text logs. These logs are a nice complement to the story, as they fill in many of the blanks the game intentionally leaves in its story.

Body shots won't help you much against these bad boys.

The main Story Mode is a series of chapters that will take about 6-8 hours to complete. Each chapter awards you a set amount of stars upon completion ranging from 1-5 stars. The game takes into account the amount of times you have died, number of dismemberment/kills, accuracy, and a few other factors. The stars you collect are responsible for upgrades.

These upgrades will improve your health and your stasis ability. If you played Dead Space, it takes the place of the stores that could be found around the Ishimura. Stars are also responsible for unlockables, such as levels for the alternate mode, Challenge Mode, and new chapters of a motion comic.

Challenge Mode is the other mode of Dead Space: Extraction. In this mode, the goal is to score the most points on the level. Each Challenge Mode level takes a particular scene from a level from Story Mode and throws ten waves of enemies at you. As you progress through the level, the goal is to kill the enemies while taking the least amount of damage and in the fastest time. Doing this will achieve the greatest score.  Who doesn't love points?

I'm so sad. There was an obvious attempt to give the character models in the game a sense of realism, and one of the ways this shows beautifully is the emotion that can be seen on the characters' faces.

Sharp voice acting. The characters are often very emotional, as most would be when they come face-to-face with their fate. The voice acting is very believable and contributes to the scary atmosphere.

A collector's mission. The main story can feel a little short. Visceral definitely made an attempt to add replay value to the game, however, and expand on the number of gameplay hours. Between the four difficulty settings, the unlockables, and all of the items to collect, Visceral makes it worthwhile to replay the game.

Strategic dismemberment. Perhaps one of coolest and most gruesome sounding phrases ever, it can't be better explained. Dead Space players already know, aiming at the body of your enemy is going to do nothing but get you killed. Aim for the limbs!

Thrilling. On-rails shooters have the potential to be very boring, however Visceral Games has created a very intense and gripping game.

Spooky soundtrack. The music does a fabulous job of building anticipation for the unknown.

Two firing modes, two times the fun. Each gun has an alternate firing mode, which can be accessed by holding the Wii remote sideways. While not all of the alternate modes are useful, some are, making this mechanics' inclusion worth it.

Dead Space, the motion comic. As you progress through the game, new chapters of a motion comic unlock. Its story runs parallel to the one you're playing, and is done quite well.

What are you, BioShock? In the game, there are computers your player will need to hack, and the game forces you to do tedious, difficult puzzles requiring precise Wii remote movement. They serve as a nuisance more than anything, as you sometimes have to do them while fighting enemies.

"I'll cover you... not." I can't tell you how many times the computer A.I. told me this as I tried to complete a puzzle or hold off a horde of enemies. I end up usually replying, "so much for that." There are animations of your computer friends firing their weapons, but it seems like they accidentally use blanks.

Time... who needs it? When entering a room it becomes a scramble to grab anything that even slightly resembles a flashing collectible item. The game affords the player little to no time to collect items and supplies, which seems like a somewhat cheap device to make players replay the campaign.

Cheap shots. As is typical of most survival/horror games, you will find your way walking/crawling/running through very dark sections. While you are occasionally provided with a light (that doesn't really do much), you still can't see quite as well as you should be able to. Enemies will then rush out of the darkness and hit you before you even have time to react, some launching projectiles from a distance.

Dead Space: Extraction is a fun experience. Based on the success Dead Space had, there were some pretty high expectations set for this game. Extraction meets these expectations. Visceral Games took the concept of a first-person on-rails shooter and made it quite enjoyable. Being a genre that has a lot of potential to feel boring and/or pointless, Visceral should be proud. While there are frustrating parts of the game, they do not harm the overall experience. This is a must have for Dead Space fans, and survival/horror enthusiasts should give this title a chance as well.