Dead Space was one of EA's finest efforts in many years, but that quality didn't result in retail success. They're not giving up on Dead Space yet, bringing in Eurocom to put together an on-rails shooter prequel for the Wii. That might disappoint those who wanted a Resident Evil 4-style adaptation of the original, but don’t fret – Dead Space Extraction is a mighty fine piece of work.

Extraction takes place hours before the original game, basically running in parallel to the animated movie Dead Space Downfall. It's almost like the original game running in reverse, with players starting out on the planet and working their way towards the Ishimura after the proverbial hits the fan. You don't control a single character for the whole game, rather the game switches you between characters within a group of survivors. This provides a different perspective on the action, especially since the characters are not mute like Isaac was in the first game. The first character change is really well executed – it's a dramatic transition given what your character is going through at the time. The events of the story also help to give greater meaning to what you accomplished in the original Dead Space.



You get access to all of the same stuff Isaac had in the first game – weapons, kinesis and stasis. It's a bit of a downer that there are no significantly new weapons, enemies or abilities in the game, but what’s here does an excellent job of adding to the usual on-rails shooter experience. The basic combat is a bit different to your average light gun shooter, with the aim being to strategically eliminate an enemy's limbs, rather than mindlessly blasting away. There's something really satisfying about ripping the legs off a beast using a circular saw gun. It's not always just blasting action all the time; Extraction throws in a few puzzles for good measure. These bits generally require reworking circuits, and wear out their welcome quite quickly. It can also go a bit overboard on the shakey-cam at times, but fortunately you can reduce this, or even turn it off

While the action driving Extraction is great, it's the presentation that really stands out. The game looks really damn good for a Wii game; it's certainly not as pretty as the original, but it's still very impressive given the hardware it's on. Production values are great, with a good cast, strong script, great soundtrack and little extras like fully voiced digital comics. Extraction is committed to attempting to deliver the same level of immersion as Dead Space by rarely ever taking you out of the game to show off a cutscene, but the atmosphere isn’t quite up to the same standard. This is largely due to the on-rails nature of the game, and the fact that the player is rarely alone. Extraction doesn’t really try to pull off any scares either.



While Extraction is a tad longer than the average rail shooter (about five hours on the normal difficulty), it doesn't promote replay value in the same way as other Wii conversions like Ghost Squad. There's a few branching paths, and performances are rated at the end of each level, but you're not really compelled to go back through. There are a few challenge modes available, and harder difficulties are unlocked for beating the game. You don’t want to take those on alone – thankfully, Extraction supports drop-in, drop-out cooperative play.

Dead Space Extraction has everything you need in a good light gun game. It's not quite as replay friendly as we'd hoped, but the fantastic visuals and excellent story more than make up for that.