Dead Space is a survival-horror game that was released last year. A little more than a year later, and we’re back with a brand new installment in the series, this time exclusively on the Nintendo Wii, Dead Space Extraction. It follows the story of some space colonists fighting through (another) infection of Necromorphs. This happens after a Marker is removed from the ground, where hallucinations and crazyness ensue. Extraction is a prequel to the original game.
Extraction is an on-rails shooter, which means that unlike a First Person Shooter, you’re not moving around. All the moving is done for you, and all you have to do is aim your Wii Remote (or Wii Zapper if you have one — way more fun with one), and shoot! There are small moments where you can move your “head” around to pick up health, ammo for your weapons, etc. You don’t control your character though.
For a Nintendo Wii, Visceral Games have really shown that they have what it takes to make good quality game with good graphics in a short amount of time. The graphics, while at times can look fairly simple and basic, and can have some FPS issues, can look almost as good as one of the other current generation consoles (almost).
Extraction features 10 missions, and each one can take from as short as fifteen minutes to as long as forty-five minutes. All in all I managed to complete the game on Hard difficulty in about 5-6 hours. At the beginning, you’ll be able to play through the game on Normal and Hard, and when you finish the game you’ll get two more, much harder, difficulty settings.
The weapons in Dead Space Extraction feel rather limited. How they work is simple, you move the Nunchuk’s analog stick up, down, left, or right to select a different weapon, and then aim and shoot. Each gun has an alternate-fire, which can be engaged by simply twisting the Wii Remote to the right and shoot while keeping it twisted. The one gripe I had with it is that while each gun, fun, isn’t really that effective. I found myself coming back to the default gun, the one with unlimited ammo. It worked fine the entire game through and I didn’t have to worry about picking up more ammo. There were some slight times where I needed to use other guns, though, and this forced me to use and toy with the other guns.
Your weapons upgrade too. If you see a purple upgrade node, simply pick it up and it’ll automatically attach to one of the guns you’ve got equipped. It makes the max ammo in one “magazine” go up, so you can shoot more before needing to reload. One of the only guns apart from the default one I enjoyed using was the Line Gun. Incidentally this was my favourite gun from the original Dead Space. Coincidence? I think not!
There were also some puzzle sequences where you move your Wiimote over a “circuit board” of sorts, dodging sensitive memory chips if you will. When you finish the puzzle off, the game continues. A door might open, or a lift (elevator) might start working, etc.
To finish up Dead Space Extraction is a fun rail shooter, which with good controls, especially with a Wii Zapper (which can really make your gameplay more fun), and while not that scary (I only experienced one “jumpy” moment) can provide a good amount of fun. Plus, with six issues of a Dead Space comic-style mini-series in the form of unlockable content, you’ll get an hour or so of Dead Space action.
FINAL SCORE: 7.0/10
FINAL WORD: Dead Space Extraction is a fun on-rails shooter that immerses you into the Dead Space “Ohmagod what the hell is going on?” world. The story can be quite confusing at times, especially at the ending. The re-use of the sound effects from the original of communications incoming into your RIG suit, or the opening of doors, can also make you remember Jason’s good ole’ adventure back in the original game. The challenge mode is fun for a short time, but you probably won’t bother with it. Generally you won’t bother with watching the extra content unless your a hardcore Dead Space fanatic.
BLG writes: "Dead Space. It’s a beloved horror series – one that yours truly can’t stop talking about on stream! Yet there are more Dead Space games than you may be aware of. So it’s my duty to introduce you to the best Dead Space games, and one very, very bad one. It’s time to grab a plasma cutter, cut off the limbs of terrifying necromorphs, and decide once and for all (on this website) which of the Dead Space games reigns supreme!"
I played all three. Didn't find them fun, just had nothing to play. I don't think I beat third game though. Combat was super clunky, graphics and art design were ugly imo, story in first game wasn't too bad, rest were meh.
Over hyped series imo, also it doesn't help horror games don't scare me, so I guess that's a big reason for me too.
Play Alien Isolation on Hard or Nightmare.
Start on the movie DLC so that you don’t have to play a bunch of campaign in order to find out if you’ll be scared.
I heard that was a good one. Honestly vr games scare me with jump scares because of how the threat feels real.
There isn’t an official VR mode, unfortunately.
The audio should pull you right in if you use headphones.
Just finished playing the first, enjoyed the fact Isaac was a silent alien crushing psycho doom-guy type. Just started the second yesterday and I'm annoyed he's a talker now and sounds like a regular guy who hasn't been through hell, but I suppose he couldn't remain silent.
Dead Space 2 is my favorite followed by 1 then 3. All are good to me though. Just beat all 3 on series X and they hold up.
This week the Link Cable Gaming crew gets all dressed up in their finest Halloween garb to discuss their favorite horror and even just spooky games in a special Halloween episode!
The decision to close the studio and shift the focus of the Star Wars game is not a statement about the future for single-player games, EA says.
"'This was just a single-player game [and it] needed to be a live service.'"
What kind of a stupid mindset is that? It didn't need to be a damn live service. Single player games can work and you have the damn Star Wars name attached to it so it will sell well regardless of it having MP or not.
How can you say this.
"We are seeing an evolution in the marketplace, and it became clear to us that to deliver an experience that players wanted to come back and enjoy for a long time, that we needed to pivot the design."
And then say this in the very next paragraph.
"It wasn't about, 'This was just a single-player game [and it] needed to be a live service."
I would say "do they really think people are this stupid?" But since people keep buying EA games after all the crap they have done over the years and decades that made gaming worse... I guess, yes, yes they are.
