I have to admit; when I heard EA was bringing Dead Space to the Wii I was skeptical. When I heard it would be an on-rails shooter I was doubly so. But, as they say, you should not judge a book by its cover, and those who do so with Dead Space: Extraction would be doing themselves a serious disservice. Recently publishers have been trying to avoid the term “on-rails shooter”, namely because of the negative connotations it has these days. Instead most developers have opted to call the genre a “guided experience”. Sure it sounds campy, but this phrase almost perfectly describes Extraction. It is an experience. This game is not so much about the individual parts as it is about the great experience it provides players with.
The basic premise is that (after a brief prologue chapter) you play the role of Nathan McNeill, a detective who is part of a mining colony, with the USG Ishimura in orbit. Anyone who has played Dead Space knows all about the Ishimura, and it’s not long before things start going very badly down on the colony. You and a group of survivors are tasked with escaping to safety. If you haven’t played the first Dead Space, you’ll still be fine as far as the story is concerned. Extraction is only tangentially tied to the original game. That said, playing one first will definitely affect your experience with the other.
The escape takes place from the first-person perspective. Everything that happens is seen through the eyes of Nathan, not once do you leave that viewpoint. Even the “cutscenes” are all done in real time, using the in-game engine. That decision helps you develop a feeling of continuity; it allows you to take over the character’s role and be completely pulled in to the story. While the story itself certainly won’t break break any survival horror conventions, and is almost completely predictable, it’s the characters that really make the story work. While they all initially appear as pretty blatant stereotypes, the game does a good job of building their character throughout the experience.
Just like the original Dead Space, this game is very focussed on delivering a deep atmosphere. At no point does it become flat-out scary, but it is almost constantly creepy and tense. There wasn’t anything that made me jump out of my chair, and I’m notorious for being easily scared. The music is ethereal, it’s almost as though you hear it without quite realizing that you’re hearing it at all. The game also makes excellent use of lighting, or rather lack of lighting. Enemies often spawn in areas of little-to-no light, becoming illuminated as they get closer to you. Knowing there are creatures hovering just outside your vision increases the intensity you experience. Developing a keen eye that can spot these enemies in the darkness is essential to success, especially at the higher difficulty levels. Of course, you could just as easily turn up the brightness setting, but that’s not fun, now is it?
The atmosphere is even creepier because of the graphical fidelity of the game. Visceral has shown that it’s possible to create impressive graphics on the Wii. The character models look great, and the environments are nicely detailed. This can, in part, be explained by the on-rails nature of the game, as well as the heavy shadowing that occurs. Even more impressive is that this fidelity is attained without much of a hit in performance. This is definitely one of the best looking games on the Wii.
Of course, the gameplay is limited. Apart from brief soldering and welding minigames you spend the whole game just shooting. So, when shooting is the only mechanic it had better be good. Luckily Extraction is superb in this area. The aiming feels fluid and accurate, and there’s a fairly diverse range of enemies. There is also a wide range of weapons, most of which will be instantly recognized by anyone who has played the original game. These weapons can be upgraded by picking up upgrade kits from the environment. Each weapon also has an “alt fire” mode that can be activated by twisting the Wii remote sideways, adding even more strategy to the battles. Speaking of strategy, this game has more than your average on-rails shooter. Each enemy has a certain weakness, as well as a spot on their body where they’re vulnerable. Exploiting these weaknesses is a key part of the experience.
If you’re not into playing scary games on your own, Extraction has a co-op multiplayer mode, which is essentially the same as the single player mode. Each person controls one on-screen reticle to give you double the creepy monster busting power. That said, when playing co-op it’s advisable to bump up the difficulty so you don’t just roll through the enemies.
In addition to the story mode there are also challenge levels that unlock as you progress through the main story. This challenges are much more difficult than the normal story, and also have more of an arcade feel than the narrative driven main quest. In fact, you visibly rack up points as you slay monsters, and are given a score at the end. The game keeps track of top scores on a leaderboard, as well. As an added bonus, this mode is playable in co-op as well. If that’s not enough Dead Space for you, there are also motion comics available to view at your leisure. These aren’t quite as good-looking or as captivating as the campaign, but are worth checking out for any fans who are interested in the lore of the Dead Space universe.
When it comes down to it, this is an on-rails shooter. It is a superb on-rails shooter, perhaps second only to Darkside Chronicles, but if you’re not digging the on-rails genre then this game isn’t going to change you mind. That said, it was a great experience while it lasted; which was about 7 hours for the main story. I could easily see myself getting hooked on the challenge mode, though. Having a tangible score at the end is a great incentive to go back and try to beat it. Other than its length and lack of frights, however, this is a superb game that should definitely be experienced by anyone who even moderately enjoys on-rails shooters.
