Ever since the announcement of Dead Space Extraction, Wii players have been anxiously awaiting their chance to play this horror epic. The first Dead Space showed a new level of fear and horror in video games, and the Wii prequel attempts to take that even further by immersing the player in a first-person, cinematic horror experience that’s sure to impress. Check out the rest of the review below to find out our verdict on EA/Visceral Games’ Wii thriller!

The basic story line follows the lives of a few survivors of the necromorph invasion on the Aegis VII colony and takes place 3 weeks before the events in the first Dead Space game. You’re first character introductions are to Lexine Murdoch and Sam Caldwell, Lexine’s boyfriend. Sam Caldwell is the playable character in the first Chapter of the game, which deals with the discovery and ‘extraction’ of an artifact called a ‘Marker’ (The mystery surrounding the Marker, which is connected to a religious group called the ‘Unitologists’, unravels throughout the game). Your first job in the game is to begin the extraction process, which has you using your rivet gun for, yep, you guessed it, riveting :) You’re also use a Kinesis device, TK for short, to grab onto certain objects and pull them closer. As the extraction is taking place, something strange happens and it’s your job to go underground and find out what’s happening. You’re accompanied by two friends to fix some of the underground mining systems. That’s when all hell breaks loose. You’ll see people killing each other, people killing themselves and you, like you’re character, will be going ‘what the f*??’ I won’t spoil the rest of the first chapter, but suffice it say, this game will have many more WTF/freaky moments!

After the first chapter, you’re main character throughout the rest of the game is a security officer from the ship, Ishimura, named Nathan McNeil. Although there are a couple missions where you’ll play as other characters as well.

The gameplay in Dead Space Extraction, is unlike any other ‘on-rails shooter’ and as such, doesn’t even fall much into that category. The game is from a first-person perspective and is a guided experience, but there are plenty of nuances that set DSE apart from the rest. First off, the game features a free look mode that engages in areas that are clear from enemies or in spaces just before a boss. Basically this mode allows the player to freely look with the Wii remote and pick up items using the TK to prepare for a boss fight or pick up weapon upgrades. This mode isn’t controlled by a button and is timed, but it’s still a welcome pause from the normal pace of the game.

Another element, is the use of a tool called stasis. Using stasis, the player can slow down time on the enemy that is fired upon. This is a very, very useful tool, especially in the later chapters. You can stun some of the faster moving enemies to buy time, while dispatching the rest of the enemies. Sometimes you’ll have 7-9 enemies coming at you at once and it’s a must have! Probably the coolest gameplay feature though, is a mode called zero-gravity. These are certain areas throughout the game where your character will be in space or zero-g environment. In these cases, you’ll actually get to choose where to go in the area based on ‘jump pads’. Once a pad is selected with the Wii remote, your player will fly through the air—it’s very cool! You’ll also get to use your TK to push debris out of the way as well. Dead Space Extraction also features 9 unique weapons each with a primary and secondary fire, as well as a Melee attack.

Since the game has many enemies on screen at once, it is in your best interest to shoot for the legs and limbs on the necromorphs to slow them down. This greatly increases your survival chances and is the best way to dispatch them. As you progress, you’ll develop various strategies that will work for you. The boss battles in DSE are still guided, but give you more freedom than the normal gameplay. For instance, there is a large, tentacle boss that requires you to duck inside air vents to avoid its attack. These air vents also have large fan blades. So the goal is to get inside unharmed and get the tentacle trapped in the blades. It’s sound like a simple concept, but as I found out, it’s much tougher to execute in-game (mostly because the game keeps you quite tense while playing). In fact, this boss fight was the first time I died in the game, and it took 3 more lives to finally figure it out. The boss battles take a lot of thinking and it really is satisfying after a long battle to come out on top.  From start to finish, the game took me about 7 hours.  But don’t let that number fool you—that was 7 hours on Normal difficulty.  Once you beat the game, you unlock ‘Expert’ and ‘Impossible’.  With the new difficulty modes and all the weapon unlocks, you’ll be playing DSE for a good 20 hours before achieving everything.  The game also features a ‘Challenge’ mode where you can attempt to set high scores on all the levels.

Dead Space Extraction will impress you not only with its fun and intense gameplay, but also visually. While not the most impressive game graphically on the Wii, it sure comes close and definitely gets props for the atmosphere and mood that’s created. You’ll find yourself in completely pitch black areas with nothing but a glow worm and a rivet gun. There are also more claustrophobic areas where you can feel the fear of hearing your enemies but not seeing them until they’re right in front of you. The visuals have a lot of variety and you’ll find yourself replaying chapters over and over just to check out the visual effects! You’ll also note that the game runs very well on large screens as well as progressive scan.

Multiplayer

The game also features a 2-player co-op mode that allows a friend to join at any time throughout the game just by pressing a button and joining in on the action. I didn’t have anyone around to test it out, but myself, so I found that it was equally fun to hold two Wii remotes and shoot away as if I had duel-wield weapons :D With plenty of weapon unlockables, log files to find and collect, and various paths to take, Dead Space Extraction’s co-op is the best co-op experience currently available for the Wii! You won’t find as much fun and fear packed into any other game.

I could keep going on and on about Dead Space Extraction, but you really need to check the game out for yourself. It’s one of the few mature titles on the Wii right now, but I dare say the best. The game has tremendous depth and with four difficulty modes throughout 10 chapters, you’ll find yourself blasting away necro’s for many an hour! If you’ve got the chance and the cash, do yourself a favor and buy Dead Space Extraction.

Dead Space Extraction gets an 8.6/10