Dead Space Extraction

10 Jun 2009 at 15:21:24 by Tim McDonald

There's good reason to watch Dead Space Extraction, not least because it's actually being made by the original, proper, true Dead Space team. This Wii sequel isn't being farmed off to another developer: it's been crafted with care and attention by the same people who made the rather highly acclaimed original.

And it isn't half bad, you know.

Our hands-on was sadly quite brief, but it showed off the way the game works quite well. As expected, it's a rail-shooter with a bit more atmosphere, story, and dialogue than usual; the showcase opened with the team approaching the Ishimura. The hulking ship's weapons systems launched rockets, and my first bit of shooting involved using my pod's weapon systems to shoot the rockets down. Having landed, there was a bit of exposition – some fully-voiced chatting that was almost inaudible over the noise of E3 – during which I could freely look around the room and grab the weapons and ammo lying around. Weapons are bound to different directions on the D-pad, which means they're quickly accessible, albeit not the easiest things to reach in a crisis.

The shooting is high-quality, with plenty of Dead Space weapons on display, all functioning differently, and the need to dismember your targets rather than simply aiming for their heads distinguishes this from other rail-shooters quite well. Different weapons work better in different situations. The horror vibe of the original game is also well-maintained. The need to dismember enemies creates a sense of rising panic as they get closer and closer and still won't die, and in the dark rooms, the need to take careful aim is balanced with the need to shake the Wiimote to light a glowstick, giving some faint illumination. Naturally, you can't really aim while doing that, but even when lit it doesn't stay so for long, and it doesn't illuminate a great deal. It basically turns a pitch black room into a very, very poorly lit room, with dim silhouettes the only clue that you're about to have your face ripped off. Top marks for that, then; in the preview here, at least, it didn't rely on the cheap “shocks” so many rail-shooters use that rely on your lack of camera control, such as suddenly spinning around to find something right behind you.

Puzzles are factored in, too, usually relying on engineering. A locked door might need a circuit board to be resoldered, which requires careful movement of the Wiimote. A few of the puzzles occur while under attack, which, again, adds a huge amount of stress and tension.

The other key thing that ties the game into Dead Space (other than the plot and setting, obviously) is the lack of a HUD. A button press brings up a temporary HUD, displayed on your character's visor, but it fades before too long. The full first-person view is another nice touch in a game that really does appear to be full of them.

Problems? Not many, here. Some may be annoyed at the exposition – the preview certainly took its time to get going, and the narrative was largely wasted on me in the noisy E3 convention centre. The ability to pick different routes is a nice touch but it's hard to tell just how different they are and whether or not they'll offer any real replayability due to it. They're also surprisingly finicky to choose, being represented by a thin glowing line on the floor that has to be targeted rather precisely in order to select it.

Dead Space fans and Wii fans alike, rejoice. If what was on display is anything to go by, Dead Space Extraction could seriously revitalise and update the stagnant rail-shooter genre, while providing a healthy dose of horror.

Comment