A blood-soaked, deep space nightmare on rails makes for an uncontrollable and uncomfortable survival horror experience
Contains: Strong Bloody Violence, Horror and Menace
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Dead Space Extraction is an on-rails shooter that serves as a prequel to the terrifying survival horror game Dead Space.
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STORY - 5/5
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A story-driven rails shooter is rare, but even more so is when the courage to attempt such a task is executed perfectly, as is the case in Dead Space: Extraction. This prequel to the events of Dead Space fires off with a startling and engrossing prologue sequence which sets the stage for later events which all revolves around a group of space colonists from the Aegis VII colony fighting against the infection of Necromorphs created when the Red Marker is removed from the planet. It cleverly reveals some connections with Isaac's path in the future events that will occur in Dead Space and overall the story does very well at not detracting from the gameplay experience. It plays a prominent role throughout, never making you feel it's a shoot 'em up gorefest just for the sake of the necromorph-filled action, and there is something constantly important overlooking the scripted events, and is always engaging and occasionally chilling to unravel through spoken dialogue or written text logs made by crew members.
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CHARACTERS - 4/5
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Having the ability to execute an intriguing story with an engaging cast of completely different individuals is something to set the stage for something promising, and each character within this prequel carries their dialogue and personalities exceptionally well. Straight from the prologue you get to grips with how powerful each character is on proceedings thanks to the superb voice acting which conveys across all the heart-pounding emotions and mental conflicts you'd expect in such horrific circumstances. You switch characters throughout the game when the team get split up as they continually battle for survival and a way out of the nightmare, and each perspective of events running parallel with each other are good and satisfying. Despite some cheesy lines that come straight out of a typical horror movie script, there is a certain measure of seriousness throughout the plot that strongly conveys across the appropriate knowledge into the mystery behind this visceral horror, and the input of such lines is not overused to the extent where you get tired of the clichés, and overall is well mixed into the horror formula.
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GAMEPLAY - 3/5
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Dead Space's unique, compelling and groundbreaking dismemberment gameplay for gory violence is the main emphasis in combat yet again, and although this time you don't have freedom of movement on a non-stop rollercoaster of blood, horror and mayhem, with barely any choice in which direction you proceed, tension quickly rises because you are forced down a treacherous corridor that has a foreboding element to it, something which is undoubtedly familiar to many Dead Space fans. Well paced gameplay allows the story to remain a consistent priority throughout the duration of the chapters, and the duration of speech and plot development is only split up by the brutal dismemberment mechanic to rip apart the approaching necromorphs. A variety of repurposed mining tools and equipment that get used incorrectly but appropriately give you lots of choice of how to cut apart the necromorph race limb by limb, and while most are the same from Dead Space, there a couple of new additions that you collect and add to your arsenal which each wreak the benefits when used accurately, efficiently and against the right type of enemy. When combined with the much needed stasis ability which slows enemies down to a crawling pace you become formidable opposition for the large number of necromorphs that outnumber you. Improperly using the intentional idea behind the cool weapons is great, such as the fierce shredding ripper which hovers a remote controlled saw blade in front of you slicing anything that dares cross the proximity, and the force gun which users a short range kinetic booster to produce a powerful knock back force, which when upgraded, has enough force to blow limbs clean off. Upgrades, audio and text logs, ammo and health are within each area, but unfortunately acquiring these can prove more of a frustration effort than you initially suspect, since the aiming is overly awkward. If trying to gain these proves problematic, the gameplay will no doubt feel difficult aswell. Necromorphs attack in waves, and while the camera turns to face the closest threat quite well without presenting many complicated issues, aiming accurately is still annoying in the brief periods of time you get when an enemy (or more) is fast approaching to cut you apart and feast on your flesh, and many instances of frustration will develop when you miss out on an opportunity to read more into the plot or miss the chance to upgrade a weapon in your arsenal solely because of a challenging aiming system.
Just like the original survival horror game Dead Space, puzzles and boss fights are thrown into the bloodthirsty frenzy, and a great hacking mini game is welcome each time you are forced to complete it. Boss fights are good, but since the iconic yellow spots on an enemy are the weakness and the only way to damage them to the next stage of the battle, it is extremely difficult to be accurate enough with the amount of ammo you have for any of the four weapons you have equipped, and so what starts out as an exciting battle quickly turns to strenuous frustration as you must solely rely on an automatic pulse rifle to keep pace with the bosses quick movements.
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GRAPHICS - 3/5
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Dead Space: Extraction wasn't built for the PS3, and that is noticeable throughout the campaign, whether you speculate the textures on environment surfaces and lack of detail on the necromorphs, or when you judge the facials of the characters, you can tell that this was a port from a less graphical capable console, and only saved disappointment due to the HD transformation it made before the PS3 release. But some credibility can be restored for the fact that the environments remain consistent and familiar in their designs and a satisfying amount of disturbing imagery covers the surfaces of the confined vessel you're navigating around.
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SOUND - 5/5
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Top quality voice acting enforces the impact that the story makes on you, giving so much believability when the characters actions and opinions come into conflict with each other, and the disturbing necromorph noises that are strained out through deformed vocal chords give a terrifying emphasis on escaping these horrifying aliens. A constant presence during the tense action is the nerve-wracking audio, and although similar to Dead Space, the eerie and chilling music keeps you on your toes and is effective at getting deep under your skin during every threatening scenario, while disgusting gore effects when shredding limbs increases the impact on your senses of what the weapons are truly capable of when misused on flesh and bone.
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CONTROLS - 2/5
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This section is described based on opinion and experience when utilising the regular Dualshock controller. The default controls aren't likeable, especially the aiming which is seemingly set at the wrong sensitivity, something which will be crucial to be adjusted to your preference as soon as possible into your experience. But even when adjusted to suit your aiming skill, you'll find shooting accurately unnecessarily difficult. An awkward camera that is too jerky and too quick to give you much of a chance of aiming accurately and snatching up hidden items of interest within the claustrophobic environments is another unneeded problem to deal with, and while ammo, health and other items are well highlighted, it is near impossible to pick up everything you see due to the sudden movements and limited time of freedom to control the camera yourself. You get some degree of control over the camera at rare intervals, but never longer than a few seconds, which doesn't help in the slightest unless you recognise something at the corner of your eye just before being allowed the brief time of manual control, and overall the aiming is challenging, frustrating and leaves you in a state of dealing with missed opportunities most of the game.
The controls configuration is acceptable once you get familiar with it, the hacking mini game makes great use of forcing careful movement with the analog stick and the motion controls are used occasionally with a neat effect when you must shake the controller to generate a light source or relieve yourself from the almighty claws or jaws from a hostile enemy. So fortunately not everything in terms of controls is poor, but the most important aspect is sadly the most effected and most frustrating of the lot and can quickly drain some of the fun energy out of the gameplay.
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ATMOSPHERE - 4/5
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Progressing down a disturbing corridor at your own pace is involuntary as you stick to the rails made up for your character, and this dramatically enhances the tension and nerves as you face the horror head on without a choice of how fast you approach the horror around the next corner. Dead Space: Extraction borrows scares and psychological tension from the original Dead Space and harvests these ideas neatly to recreate it's own source of mental punishment that inevitably gets bestowed upon you as you ride the horrifying rails to the final conclusion. And while some of these jumpy scares will feel clichéd, the fact that you are witnessing it from a First-person perspective changes how you perceive what you see perilously.
The spine-tingling sound design contributes greatly to the atmospheric environments and with every step you take the audio never fails to impress with how it amps up the tension when the action is occurring or when it's just concluded.
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ENEMY AI - 3/5
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Necromorphs are the reanimated and horribly mutated corpses that serve as the major antagonists of the game and intrude on your progress in many different, disfigured and bloodthirsty types. They primarily use the ventilation systems to get around the ship and to increased advantage and effect as you become overwhelmed suddenly and violently by the hostile alien forces. Many familiar types appear, and even some new types entrance for the first time onto the screen, but the results are always the same when a plasma cutter is equipped in a shaky but confident trigger finger. Attacking in waves is the way the action is staged for limb cutting, and while the enemies all prove exceptional for adapting to dismembered limbs and changing stance and approach accordingly to the dismemberment, they all perform typical movements you soon come to expect that simply gets annoying and leaves you wasting ammo if you shoot solely on instinct. Most necromorphs when aimed at will dodge to either side of the reticule, and this manoeuvre not only wastes ammo aggravatingly, but it also just simply delays the inevitable and soon becomes very predictable the further you progress.
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LENGTH - 2/5
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Dead Space: Extraction is relatively short, and you can complete all of the 10 engrossing levels in roughly 6 hours or less.
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REPLAY VALUE - 3/5
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To add replayability to the short single player story you can replay each level to increase your mission score. Each level ranks your skill at the end and you receive up to 5 stars depending on how skilful you were throughout the chapter. You get rated on your accuracy, damage taken, items collected and weapons found, and missing an opportunity to acquire an item due to a brief glimpse and harsh aiming system can be the difference between earning all stars, and narrowly missing out. But the replay mission option does encourage replay value for gamers who strive for 100% completion.
Overall this prequel is a worthy release, and especially a worthy port to the PS3 which comes free with the limited edition copy of the recently released Dead Space 2. The deeply satisfying story that never loses momentum and sheds some background to the Dead Space universe is what is worth playing in Extraction, and not the dismemberment gameplay and horrific set pieces that the horror series is so well known. You have no control of how you progress, so it seems if you find yourself contemplating moving forward for the fact that the nervous tension is growing inside you to a frightening degree, you are just forced right into the nightmarish blender, since Dead Space: Extraction is on rails and the ride will rarely stop.
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OVERALL SUMMARY - 8/10
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Good Points: Spine-tingling audio and gruesome sound effects, Highly engrossing narrative and characters, Some intense action sequences, Disturbing imagery and horrifying enemies, Great hacking mini-game.
Bad Points: Awkward aiming and a jerky camera makes picking up items difficult in the brief time you get, Melee attack is pointless for offensive use.