Dead Space: Extraction Review
Dead Space: Extraction appears on the Nintendo Wii following the critical acclaim of its predecessor, Dead Space, which was released in 2008. However, unlike its predecessor, it has ditched the third-person action tag and instead moved towards the rail shooter genre. It's still very much about survival horror though, and it looks to expand further upon the already rich story of the Dead Space world.
Dead Space: Extraction is a prequel to the original title, and takes place around the same time as Dead Space: Downfall, the animated series. Initially it focuses on events at Aeris VII, and later moves to the USG Ishimura as the plot develops and it really helps to explain more about the Red Marker, Unitologist and indeed, the nature of the Necromorphs. To aid in the progression of the story, there is a main cast of four characters that create a good dynamic. However, there are many other characters that are encountered throughout the game, some of which are playable. This means that there is no set protagonist, and the perspective of play often switches depending on the situation.
It might sound a bit disjointed, but it actually works really well and enables for more specified dialogue that wouldn't have been possible otherwise. The story overall is solid, and has a good pacing. It also ends on the expected cliff-hanger, and it leaves some unanswered questions that will more than likely be explained in future titles. It really gives the sense that Dead Space truly is a franchise, but it definitely doesn't make this specific title seem light in any way. One specific reason for this is the return of audio files, video logs and text logs. Development of the story was taken seriously in this title, and it shows.
The gameplay in Dead Space: Extraction is pretty standard fare for the rail shooter genre. It's played out from a first-person perspective, and players just point at what they want to fire at, then pull the trigger. The controls are pretty simple though, and it's nice to actually find a game that doesn't try to overly-complicate things. On top of the generic firing, to perform the alternative fire, the Wii Remote must be tilted on its side. It feels a bit awkward at first, but after a while it feels quite intuitive, especially after the forced examples with the Rivet Gun.
Changing weapons is handled by the Nunchuck analogue stick, while reloading is performed using the Z button. It's also possible to do perfect reloads if the player has good enough timing. The C-Button controls the player's Statis move, which enables them to slow down enemies for a short period of time; perfect for dismembering them. Aside from that, the only other button is A, which controls the telekinesis-esque ability, used to grab pick-ups and more objects when required. All of the controls feel perfectly natural and refined, to make playing the game as easy as possible. It means that players can actually focus on the action, instead of worrying about what they have to be doing.
On the subject of action, this game is pretty intense. While it may seem relatively straightforward at the beginning of the game, things are vastly different towards the end. The game uses absolute aiming on weapons like the Rivet Gun, so there is no error adjustment for realism. This makes it perfect for dismembering the Necromorphs, which is the only way to truly defeat them. Unfortunately there isn't that much deviation in the enemies that appear in the game and killing them will start to feel quite routine. The bosses are quite unique though, but some of them do get a bit repetitive in their cycles. To beat one specific boss, the same set of pre-determined actions had to be carried out around 5-6 times and it did start to get a bit tedious.
