Dead Space:Extraction

[357 Lobster]

Dead Space finally hits the Wii and it does NOT disappoint. Well, maybe a little. The first thing I'd like to touch on is the graphics. This is easily one of the best looking games on the system so far. The textures are good, the lighting is great, but the facial animation on the other survivors your character is with outstanding! Good thing too, because you'll be spending alot of time with these folks. Which brings me to the sound. The actual music itself is extremely well done. It goes from from moody, sorta doom and gloom to scathing industrial white noise. Imagine music from the Aliens films combined with music from Silent Hill(the games) and you'll have a good idea. The voice overs are also extremely impressive as is the sheer amount of dialogue in this game. Trust me, you will be surprised at how much the story takes the center stage. As far as the gameplay is concerned, what can I say? This is a rail shooter. You point, you shoot, you maim. The one thing that gameplay-wise sets this one apart is the fact that you must dismember your enemies to stop them. Shooting them in the head simply does not work. You have to blow off arms, legs, tails, etc to stop these guys. No House of the Dead is this. Also different from any other rail shooter out there is your "Stasis", a re-chargeable beam that will briefly freeze you enemies for a few seconds. This is important. Sometimes there's just too many monsters coming at you so you'll need to stop some of quicker ones. It also makes for some pretty cinematic kills due to the exceptional animation. You also have Kinesis. That's used to grab distant objects(health, ammo, audio logs, etc) and enemy projectiles that can be flung back at them. As far as unlockables and bonus content, it's pretty thin to be honest. There are challenge maps that put you in areas from the main game, and have you blowing away baddies to rack up the highscore, the only other things to be unlocked are digital comics that act as a prequel....to the prequel. Multiplayer is available and is fun, but with so much story and so little action at times, it may not hold your friend or significent other's attention for long. Over-all Dead Space Extraction is a short but very sweet experience that impresses on many levels, but falls short on replay value. Renting it is a must, buying it is suggested just because it really is that good and games of this calibur on the Wii deserve your support. My over-all score(not an average) is very solid 8.5.