Dead Space: Extraction (impressions)

Dead Space: Extraction marks the franchise’s debut for the Nintendo Wii. Fans of the first installment in the series will be accustomed to the freedom of movement, but Extraction takes us to a fixed format: the rail shooter. The action/horror title has proven to be a big hit for Visceral Games and publisher Electronic Arts, but is Extraction able to live up to what they have already shown us while standing on its own?

An extraction crew heads to Aegis VII with the intent of bringing a “marker,” or beacon of extraterrestrial lifeforms, back to the colonies where everyone resides. While obtaining the marker, it emits a bright flash of light, causing the crew to wonder what happened. One by one, they begin hallucinating, fearing one another, and having to protect themselves from the aliens (necromorphs) now running rampant across the site. Your character, Sam Caldwell, begins confusing crew members for necromorphs and shooting them dead. In order to prevent any additional casualties, members of your team do the same to you. Some time passes after the incident and as Nathan McNeill, a detective on the colony, you’re in charge of the investigation. You’re asked to check out the bodies at the morgue that arrived from the Aegis VII incident; however, the bodies are missing. The colony becomes taken over and your new mission is to escape alongside Gabriel Weller, a fellow security officer–Lexine Murdoch, Sam’s girlfriend who remains unaware of what happened to Sam and has come looking for answers of his ‘disappearance’–Warren Eckhardt, a high-ranking executive of the Concordance Extraction Corporation. Upon crash-landing on the hull of the mining ship USG Ishimura after being considered hostile by the crew, they find that the ship is quickly evolving into the same condition as that of the colony. Their new mission is to make it out alive.

The first Dead Space release was something that I loved, mostly due to the atmosphere it created and story progression. Therefore, I was initially concerned that this entry into the series was a rail shooter and I wondered if the format change would impact my enjoyment. Before playing, I asked “Will this game create the sense of urgency that I felt with the original?” As I was guided along a predetermined path and couldn’t freely move about the map, events didn’t feel as if they were as pressing of a situation. In fact, often times, I would wait for waves of necromorphs to move closer to the screen before shooting in the interest of saving ammunition. While the title lacked this sense of urgency due to the format, it really was able to use the mechanics effectively in creating a fear of the unknown. The idea of knowing something was going on behind your view, yet you were unable to see was enough to create the scare factor in Extraction.

Another advantage of the rail shooter format that I loved was that this game showed you exactly what the creators wanted to show you and they framed it as such. Watching a body crash through the ceiling in front of you and allowing the camera to smoothly pan up and follow the second falling body is presented much nicer than jerkily maneuvering the view to find and track the movement.

To elaborate on the story’s progression, Visceral Games went with an interesting concept (and with great execution) to vary the characters you played as for certain chapters. While you will mostly be in control of Nate McNeill, you will play as three other characters throughout the course of the game. Even better is that it doesn’t rehash events that had already happened from another character’s point-of-view and provides fresh content.

My major criticisms come from extra use of the Wiimote. While I was annoyed to twist the controller in order to use alternate fire, it’s something that I got over. One of the weapons’ control I was most critical of was the Ripper, a rotary saw that you control using kinesis in order to move the blade away or towards you. Of course, to move the blade, you must actually move the Wiimote forward, backwards, and side-to-side to tear apart necromorphs. While it was challenging to do this (especially since there is one part of the game where this is your only weapon), it was only made more difficult by not being able to gauge just how far the blade was away from you and if you were even close to one of the aliens. The last criticism comes from the soldering quick-time-events, where you follow a path on an electrical grid and try to avoid errant electric sparks and other parts that may shock you, all while being attacked. On the convenient and plus side, any electrical issue you came across in the game was fixed by doing this.

The change to a rail shooter had other advantages as well. As a title that heavily focused on the flow of the story, it constantly progressed the plot and forced you to move along, yet didn’t feel rushed. Each of the ten chapters of the game were paced very nicely, but overall left the game’s overall time on the short side (a little over six hours on my playthrough). Drawing out each chapter would have been noticed, but I would have liked to have seen a couple more chapters included. However, the overall story and experience presented equal one solid game and story. Therefore, I feel that the overall experience was well worth the short length.

Despite those criticisms, Dead Space: Extraction was an absolute joy to play. The story is well told and the title is a solid entry into the survival action genre, even if it is a rail shooter. The suspense was paced just well enough to always keep you on edge, but not enough to leave you in a constant state of panic. Fans of the original Dead Space release will love the familiarity and especially the nods Extraction gives to the original. If you own a Wii and love action/adventure games, this should be in your library.