Whatever you do, don't call Dead Space: Extraction an on-rails shooter. Its development team would much rather you referred to it as a 'guided first-person experience', presumably because you're not actually physically bolted to pretend train tracks. If, like us, you do, you might get attacked by a
Whatever you do, don't call Dead Space: Extraction an on-rails shooter. Its development team would much rather you referred to it as a 'guided first-person experience', presumably because you're not actually physically bolted to pretend train tracks. If, like us, you do, you might get attacked by a glowstick wielding code monkey. That's what happened when the term slipped from our lips in a darkened show booth in London recently. It was like a happy hardcore massacre in there.
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In Extraction you can't use a glowstick to twonk flailing monster-man things, but you can use one to light your way. In the game they're called glow worms, and it's a delicate trade-off between doing that and firing. You must stop shooting to charge it by shaking the Remote, leaving yourself momentarily vulnerable to having your face bitten off. When you do make the switch to weaponry, you'll find turning the Remote to its side engages your weapon's alternative fire mode, mapping the motion you see on-screen (the shooting itself seems responsive and well-calibrated at this time).
Aegism Gone Mad You'll need to shed some light on the situation as well, because it's a bit dark in the mining facility you first find yourself. Aegis VII is the colony, the starting point for the game, and something's gone very wrong. In a flesh-ripping, brain-sucking sort of way. The action then shifts from the deserted ghost town to the cloying, claustrophobic metal corridors and mess halls of the mining ship USG Ishimura, the scene of the original Dead Space's horrors, but instead of going it alone as Isaac Clarke, as in the PS3 and Xbox 360 predecessor, you're part of a team. In the best haunted-house-in-space traditions, you can be sure some of them will meet particularly nasty ends.
Extraction is the prequel to Dead Space, but like last year's game your character is just an ordinary worker who finds herself in extraordinary circumstances. To that end you'll be armed with the same tools as Clarke, including the plasma cutter (which allows you to slice away at specific limbs to slow down your enemy) and the flamethrower. There's also a return for the Stasis ability, letting you place enemies in an imaginary pool of treacle so that you can hack away at them at your gory leisure, as well as the telekinesis function that enables you to pick items up. How you combine your tools and abilities is crucial to seeing off these shambolic monstrosities, though if they do get too close there's a melee attack which has you swiping away at their ugly mugs with the Remote.
Call The Co-ops You can also call on a friend's help thanks to an offline co-operative mode, designed to be readily accessible thanks to a drop-in anytime mechanic. It might be the better way to play as one of you can cover the other while attempting to crack puzzles. One such teaser had you carefully using your Remote as a soldering iron to mend the circuit in a door switch to escape, while a roomful of screaming menaces make your life difficult. A partner here would have the obvious benefit of letting you get on with it decidedly more quickly.
As well as these tests of nerve and steady hands, we're promised puzzles on a larger scale. It'll be interesting to see how these are constructed when you're essentially prevented from moving freely. There are certain points where you can choose which branching path to take, rather like steering left or right on a ghost train. It's not yet clear whether these differing routes will impact on the game's overall storyline or if they'll be temporary diversions, but they'll add replay value. There are also moments where you'll be granted time to look around your environment to spot useful items and ammo - but the question is will that be enough to plunge players into the story? EA certainly thinks so, and we got a glow worm tonking to prove it.
