Time for another review from Mr. Sm4sher! He's tackling a game that very much deserves all the love and attention it can get. In my opinion, this could very well be the most neglected title of the year. Top-notch quality with lacklusters sales. Let's hope thsi review changes at least one person's mind! See you all in a few, short hours, my friends.

Hey, there GN readers. Hope you all had a great Halloween and a wonderful weekend to start off November. I've got a review of Dead Space: Extraction for you today. Not sure exactly what you'll be seeing from me next week -- likely either A Boy and His Blob or Excitebike: World Rally, depending on what RMC wants me to tackle. As always, I love your feedback, whether constructive criticism or just plain encouragement. You've been a great community to write for so far and participate in, so thanks. Obviously, I have to thank RMC for giving me this opportunity, as well. I hope you guys continue to find my reviews informative and worthwhile.

Dead Space: Extraction

-Preparing for the Worst-

Obtained: Rented via GameFly
Time Played: About 9-10 Hours
Completion: Completed Story Mode, played a little Challenge Mode
Difficulty: Hard
Control Scheme: Wiimote and Nunchuk combo
Other Conditions: Have played the original Dead Space title on XBox 360

-House of the Dead Space?-

EA has seen fit to follow up on their promise of turning Dead Space into a full franchise by spreading some of the moody atmosphere to the Wii with a prequel in the form of Dead Space: Extraction. The title follows a group of characters trying to survive the initial onslaught of bizarre occurrences that begin to overtake their space colony when they try to move a mystical alien relic, known as "The Marker," to their facility for research. For reasons unknown, "The Marker" causes mutations in human beings which start off with bouts of hallucinations and eventually ramp up into fully-fledged physical manifestations of alien creatures taking over their bodies. Or something along those lines. Honestly, the game never fully explains what's going on, but then that is almost welcome in this case as it prevents the pacing from getting bogged down and lets players feel the same dread and curiosity that the characters they control experience.

You may have noticed that I'm talking about the story first and foremost without having mentioned its gameplay differences in comparison to the original title. That's because Extraction has a much heavier emphasis on plot and character interaction than the sequel its connected to. And I do say connected -- fans of Dead Space will see a handful of mysteries get explained here, while newcomers will be introduced to the universe in a very fitting manner. It really is tailored, as a story, to both fill in some spaces left in the original and serve as a good prologue to the events in the 360/PS3 title, so whether you've played Dead Space or not, don't feel like the story will be deterrent. It's actually very robust and envisioned for an on-rails shooter. There were even some moments where I genuinely felt some sense of despair or fear -- not for myself but for the characters I was either playing as or interacting with. The plot ultimately has a predictable climax if you're familiar with the original title, and there is one glaring if unexpected plot development that gets thrown in your face, then by and large ignored. That would be my main qualm with the storyline, but overall, it has fairly favorable voice acting and decent enough writing to hold it together, with a couple twists I admit I didn't see coming. It also does a great job of feeling generally sensible in its dialogue, especially when conversations literally get cut off by some crazy event, thrusting the player back into action.

So the storyline is worth experiencing, but "What of the scares?" you ask. Is it a frightening game? Well, yes and no. Frankly, zombies and demons and ghosts and all manner of monsters rarely ever set my goosebumps into fits, but I have to say, there were definitely some moody atmospheric elements that really were unsettling in my revisit to the Ishimura (the ship in which most of the game takes place). It's much less to do with necromorphic creatures lunging at you so much as the psychological games it plays with your head. You are, after all, being affected by the Marker, and thus end up experiencing some after effects. These were some of my favorite moments of the game, and some of them were "dogs jumping through windows," if you will, causing me to waste ammo shooting at something that turned out to...not be there at all. But the truly unnerving moments involved simply seeing or hearing things that were subtle, non-threatening, but disturbing. One particular example that has stuck in my mind involved my character crawling through a tight pipe of some sort -- no monsters in sight -- whilst a manic voice whispered out the song "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," seemingly from somewhere nearby, an oddly appropriate song given the setting when twisted out of context. It was just plain freaky. Don't expect to be crapping your pants, as most of the game isn't really too scary for those of us whose senses have been numbed by this sort of game, but definitely expect some pretty solid monster-movie atmosphere with a dose of psychological thriller. The visuals may look jarring compared to the original game's physics and detail, but they're still pretty solid for the hardware, practically identical in art design, and the facial expressions and motion capture received adequate amounts of attention to round things out. Extraction feels more cinematic than its original counterpart with its different style of presentation.

All of this said, the gameplay is all right. It's not amazing, which becomes clear when you play the arcade-like Challenge Mode, which strips everything down to straight-up shooting. You point at things and shoot at them, most of the time. Only being able to carry four weapons at once does add some strategy to the proceedings, forcing you to choose when you find a new weapon whether you want to ditch something you already have. There are weapon upgrades as well, but nowhere near the level of satisfaction and simple but effective customization found in Dead Space. What makes the gameplay here stand out from most in the genre, however, is that shooting enemies in the head or torso will hardly get you anywhere -- you have to aim for the limbs. With the functionality of the Wii pointer, it's pretty satisfying to pick limbs off of creatures as they come at you. The weapon variety is pretty decent, as well, not to mention that every weapon has an alternate ire function if you twist the remote on its side, which feels pretty natural. The Wiimote's speaker is used for the occasional audio log -- they're scratchy and tinny, of course, but for once this actually is interesting in that it helps build atmosphere on the few times it's used. My favorite use of the Wiimote, however, comes into play when you use the Ripper, a weapon that shoots out buzz-saw blades. This weapon enables you to push, pull, and twist a spinning saw-blade in 3d space to best dismember limbs. I found it to be the best use of the controls in the game. That said, all of these elements do get stale by the end, as the enemy variety is paltry at best, with only a couple of bosses in the game. Extraction was just long enough to feel like a complete experience without dragging on past its welcome.

Even while playing on Hard, I only ever died once -- on the final boss -- and was even then immediately regenerated and picked right off where I left. This sounds like it could break the game but is actually to its benefit. Getting hit and "dying" takes away from the your ranking at the end, which can disable you from receiving from upgrades or extras. Furthermore, each level is 20-40 minutes long or so, and you don't want to have to start from the beginning or even a halfway point when the whole purpose of the game is to push you forward through a fast-paced story. One aspect that really did become an issue for me, however, throughout the whole game, was how little control you had over the viewpoint of your character. I felt like I had to be scouring the background at all times, even during story sequences, to grab ammo or other items. It got very distracting and the game was very strict in most instances as far as letting me see and collect powerups in the background. Likewise, the Kinesis ability hardly has any use aside from this. The Wiimote would've been a great fit for lifting objects and shifting them around or whipping them across the room, but the use is minimal. Stasis sees more use and benefits from a recharging meter, easing players to use it more than in the original game. While I had fun playing through the game, if the presentation and story-driven pacing weren't present, I'd have found little reason to progress to the end given the combination of enemy repetition and other minor issues above adding up. Fortunately, Extraction is built more around an experience than a straight-up game, so these issues got overlooked most of the time.

Aside from the Challenge Mode, players can of course play co-op, check out the occasional branches in each level's paths, or watch the animated comics, which play out some background plot events that help flesh out the mythos a little further. They're clearly just extra content, as much of the art is sketched out, but the voice acting and subtle motions help carry it as a part of the experience worth looking into for some extra plot.

-A Bizarre Ride-

Dead Space: Extraction is definitely worth experiencing, and it does try out some fun things with the Wiimote for the genre, along with some pretty cool presentation choices that take advantage of the perspective, like changing characters at certain points in the game, giving you a first-person take on the hallucinations and enemy attacks, and the like. As a story-driven, on-rails shooter for the Wii, it's well-produced, cinematic, and tries to change things up from time to time. It has a lot more attention put into it than most any other games in the genre I've ever seen, save for Capcom's Resident Evil: Chronicles titles. If there were some more types of enemies and bosses, a bit more clarification in the story, and overall some more satisfying feedback when you hit enemies, it'd be a standout on the platform. Dead Space: Extraction is very much worth looking into for how it both introduces players to Dead Space's world and fleshes out the mythos for already-established fans, all with a pretty fair amount of content and smartly designed pacing and presentation. Despite the drastic differences in gameplay and perspective, Extraction feels wholly organic as an extension of the Dead Space universe.

-High Score-
8/10