Dead Space: Extraction Review (WII)

Like Dead Space, but with 62% more peripheral vision!

One thing I love about horror games is the fact that I can separate myself from the usual cliché inducing masses and actually use my IQ to get out of an impending zombie apocalypse/banshee rampage/trip to Lidl. Sure, my way of doing things is usually gunning anything unholy down, but it’s a method that separates me from the blonde jail-bait and inbred jocks. Last year, Dead Space nourished the hermit in me, yet granted solace at a price. The price being the fact that I’d actually have to aim before I shoot, and despatch some ligaments if I was actually going to make my way through to the end. The unpredictable monstrosities, the relentless gore and psychological twists engraved the title into my brain and left the steel bladdered following it created hungry for more. Logically, this called for a prequel…on a completely different console.

The curiously named Dead Space: Extraction follows a group of four misfits who actually have a habit of running straight back into the hands of beastly Necromorphic dangers. After witnessing the extent of the original infection, the crew headed by McNeill find their way onto the USG Ishimura, where as we all know, is virtually a zoo of fierce cannibal-esque creatures.

From the get go, it’s clear that Dead Space: Extraction is sticking to its plasma cutters on the whole survival horror route, and really tries to distance itself from the typical prequel fodder drivel scooped from the side-mouth of executives trying to make a quick buck from a franchise. Tearing through layers of Necromorph flesh with highly volatile plasma particles won’t do much good against your enemies, and so comes the ever famous tactic of tearing your enemies limbs off one by one. The luxury of wildly tapping B at anything in sight will leave you practically defenceless with nothing but a crappy nail gun for your frenzied fire. The constant need to conserve ammo forces you to hold your nerves down in tense gunfights and manage to add sweat to your brow.

Most of the locations you traipse around in are taken straight from the original Dead Space. This could easily be seen as a lazy move, yet it manages to convey a sense of familiarity to proceedings, making an alien environment seem more human and lived in, despite the mutating murdering masses that have come to occupy it. Of course, it’s unfair to compare this to its brethren produced on more powerful consoles, but Extraction really does try to push the boat out when it comes to the hardware capabilities, with mutations, gore and ship details remaining present throughout.

Extraction manages to throw off the shackles of arcade shooter expectations so well, that it could have gone all the way and become a full blown first person shooter

Everything translates from the original to the prequel incredibly well, despite one key element; the fear. On top of having a group of monster attempting to chop your ligaments off, your crew will be constantly grating your ears with some of the worst voice-overs ever heard. The narrative isn’t particularly terrible, but the melodramatic force driving it proves to somewhat ruin any tension that tries to build up in cinematic sections. The company of a complete wet blanket, a macho wannabe and a man who sounds like Steve Irwin haunting purgatory with a severe stutter all drag the atmosphere down so pitifully low that you’ll be praying for the Necromorphs to cut your ears off.

Four difficulties and a 5 star ranking system attempt to encourage you to replay the game, yet one overwhelming factor that hinders this makes itself known on the back of the box as a selling point. ‘Cinematic’. Only the last few missions really offer full on, remote clinchingly tense action, whereas the others are weighed down by too few gunfights and too much speech, usually about the “Utter madness” of the situation. Replace the team with kids shouting “Are we there yet?” and you wouldn’t notice much difference, apart from more coherent speech.

One question that I kept coming back to throughout the whole game was ‘Why on earth is it on rails?’. DS:E manages to throw off the shackles of arcade shooter expectations so well, that it could have gone all the way and become a full blown first person shooter. I’d like to be able to peer my head around the corner in dire fear that I’ll only return with nothing but a bloody neck stump for my curiosity, rather than have the game dictate it for me. Being stuck to a path means the shocks constantly remain pretty timid. With some pretty mediocre scares in the form of gross aliens wiggling around screeching just a tad too close for comfort, the whole game feels like the interactive blueprints for a Dead Space themed Ghost Train.

Despite staying loyal in terms of gameplay, it feels like there’s no heart to this prequel, and prioritises more in simply adding unnecessary narrative to a plot that really needs to move forward instead of dwell in the past. It doesn’t delve deep enough to get fans truly interested in it and yet tries to entice said audience so much that those with no prior knowledge of the newly established series get a pretty mediocre story for their time. For an on-rails shooter which distinguishes itself from standard arcade titles, Dead Space: Extraction is worth a look, but combined with poor pacing, atmosphere tearing voice-overs and a plot which needed more texture, it fails to even latch onto the bar Dead Space left.