Dead Space Extraction
Platform: Wii
Developed by: Visceral Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release date: September 28, 2009
Official website: deadspace.ea.com

Game summary from Electronic Arts:
"Telling the story of four space colonists trying to escape a mysterious infection, Dead Space Extraction explores the origins of the necromorph invasion that threatens humanity and the universe. At the center of this group is Lexine, an important new heroine being introduced for the first time to the Dead Space storyline. As the crew continues to fight for their lives, it becomes clear that protecting her is their only hope for survival. Luckily, players are armed with an arsenal of weaponry, an easy-to-use control system built from the ground up for the Wii, and can even recruit a friend to play co-operatively, a first for the Dead Space franchise."

Review Summary:
Dead Space Extraction is a great looking and fun to play sci-fi horror shooter on the Wii. Although the campaign is fairly short in length, there are more difficulty levels, gameplay stats to master, and Challenge Modes to keep your Wii Remote blazing. Seasoned Dead Space players will appreciate environments that are familiar and new. Take heed to the Motion Sickness warning for this game, especially in the earlier levels. I haven't felt a level of this queasiness in a videogame since Prey. Whether you played the original Dead Space game (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC) or not, this is one of those few, must play games on the Wii that caters to the older audience of Wii gamers.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Read the full review below.

Dead Space Extraction

Dead Space Extraction puts you into the story of uncovering an alien artifact on a distant planet. In the beginning of the game, you're an engineer tasked with assisting the extraction of the artifact. Throughout the game, you'll hop into different perspectives from various characters. Through this, you'll learn more about the artifact's haunting presence, what Unitology is and fight off countless Necromorphs. For at least part of the time, you're defending Lexine, a colonist who seems to lose everyone around her. You never play from her perspective, something that may be a little confusing from the game's cover and other promotional material. Switching between the other characters keeps the game fresh, however.

Dead Space Extraction's gameplay, known as "on rails," works like one of those rides through a carnival or theme park. You're taken along a set path where you have no control over where to move, except on occasion through path selections, so your focus is on the immediate environment. This works great for Dead Space Extraction. It helps set the pacing for some scares and tense moments. The camera cautiously paces you through corridors, just dimly lit by your Glow Worm. Expect quite a few scares and some gory events. There are a few of humorously gross moments, most of the time involving severed body parts. It is so over the top, you just have to laugh. The one thing that may make you feel downright nauseated is the camera shake. There is an option to turn it down from the default medium setting. I had to turn it all the way down, and still it didn't take away the motion sickness I felt at times. It happens a lot more in some places than others (especially towards the beginning of the game). I wouldn't recommend playing too long in one sitting. The camera shake, topped with the some extreme levels of gore, may make you want to heave your last meal.

The Wii may have limitations in comparison to the graphics of other current generation consoles, but it has the advantage on immersive controls. You use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk in Dead Space: Extraction, or the Wii Zapper if you have one. Like in the original Dead Space, weapons have an alternate mode of fire. To switch to the alternate fire mode, just turn the Wii Remote 90 degrees. Like in Gears of War, there's an active-reload system. Meaning, when you reload your ammo, if you hit the button at the right time, it will load in quicker. Miss on the timing and it'll take you longer to reload, which gives the Necromorphs more time to get you. The targeting reticule serves as an indicator for what kind of weapon you have and switches in appearance when in alternate fire mode. Some of the differences of the alternate fire mode reticule look subtle. Maybe a color change or brief animation would have helped to make the alternate fire mode look more distinct. When things get heated and you're moving your reticule all over the screen, it's hard to tell if you're in alternate fire mode.

There are other unique ways that the Wii allows you to get sucked into Dead Space: Extraction more than the original Dead Space. The Ripper weapon, which shoots a saw blade, can easily be manipulated through depth by pushing the Wii Remote towards the screen. When you find an audio log, you hear it on the Wii Remote speaker (although it would have been nice to have a playback mode, since sometimes you find an audio log during a loud firefight). When things get dark, you'll have to activate one of those green glow sticks, known as a "Glow Worm" in the game. Shaking the Wii Remote activates the glowing green light, which you may have used during your days of Halloween Trick or Treating.

Some unique gameplay elements of Dead Space Extraction are there, but are not so frequently used. A few times, you can select alternate paths. A glowing blue directional line, which original Dead Space players may be familiar with as a waypoint indicator, sometimes gives you two path choices. Another unique play element comes in with the Rivet Gun. You'll have to quickly create barricades to block Necromorphs using your Rivet Gun. There is a puzzle mode, basically where you have to connect some circuits. I was hoping the puzzle mode would be more varied, but it isn't. The only variation to connecting the dots are some trickier movement angles, alternating flippers that try to block your path, and some electric bursts that try to get in your way as well. Some more puzzles would have made it more interesting. These are some of the unique gameplay elements are in Dead Space Extraction, but you won't come across them too often.

The single player campaign is made up of 10 chapters, lasting about 5-6 hours, with each having four difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Expert, and Impossible. Since this is a game that moves along at its own pace, you can expect to spend about the same amount of time going through the game as you first did at first, but you'll likely have to do a few more retries as the difficulty increases.

For those of you that played the original Dead Space, you'll get to see some familiar levels, maybe not so decimated, from the Ishimura. You'll also learn a bit more about the Necromorphs. One thing I did miss was the ability to fling a dismembered Necromorph arm back at it, for the added insult to injury. There are also 6 digital issues of the Dead Space comics to unlock. The comic is presented like an animatic. There is some simple animation and it's all narrated. It adds another layer of richness to the Dead Space story.

For those of you who didn't play the original Dead Space, you can fully enjoy Dead Space Extraction without knowing anything about it. You may also feel the urge to pick up and play the original after playing Dead Space: Extraction. You can find the original for around $30 new, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 or PC. There's also the Dead Space: Downfall animated DVD or Blu-ray movie, which correlates to Dead Space Extraction's events. Visceral Games has given birth to a sci-fi horror masterpiece that spans plenty of media. Each of the mediums only make you appreciate it more.

There is replay value in Dead Space Extraction. A first for the series, you can play with another player in a drop-in Co-op mode. For perfectionists, each level has a star rating, based on many different skill factors. Some of the skills that are tracked include how much damage you took, what your accuracy rating was, how many dismemberments you did, how you performed on the active reloads and more. Increasing your star rating gives you upgrades. Tip: Play "Normal" difficulty the first time through. That will help you in advancing through harder gameplay settings as well as helping you out in the Challenge Modes, another mode of play aside from the story. There are various Challenge Mode stages, where you have to survive waves of Necromorph attacks. It has more of an arcade-like experience.

So to sum it up, do I think Dead Space Extraction is a worthy addition or introduction to the series and worth the play through on the Wii? Yes and yes. At the end of the game, I was itching for more, feeling it was all over too quick. Looking back at my star ratings, I saw I only got one 5-star rating out of the ten levels, so I'm definitely going back for more. Maybe a little less trigger happy, more cautious on the active reloads and more of Kinesis grabbing this time around. Wii gamers, expand your gameplay horizon and dive into Dead Space Extraction in a way no other game system can. Visceral Games has delivered again.