Dead Space: Extraction
Steve Papoutsis on the Wii-exclusive sequel.
Dead Space's gutsy debut on Xbox 360 and PS3 last year divided opinion like an arc welder through necrotic flesh, with a vocal surge of support pushing it up to a healthy 10th in the Eurogamer Readers' Top 50. Atmospheric, gory, and very nearly genuinely frightening, Dead Space is a title which probably deserved greater success than it saw, despite EA's belief that it will get there. A continuation of the IP was almost inevitable, but the choice to turn it into an on-rails shooter for the Wii was a little surprising. I spoke to Steve Papoutsis, executive producer, to find out what challenges the team faced, and whether there's been any squeamishness about bringing 'strategic dismemberment' to the 'family' console.
Doing a Dead Space game for the Nintendo Wii was a no-brainer. It's a great system that has helped evolve video games. The motion controls the system offers provide developers with an all new tool box to leverage in the games we make.
Another big reason why we wanted to do Dead Space: Extraction on the Wii is that we had a lot of untold story and wanted to give Wii players a chance to experience a Dead Space game.
Her name is Lexine, and when we started working on the story we wanted players to really like her. It's important to us that she comes across in a way that makes gamers enjoy being around her. The actress we have selected for Lexine is a bit of a secret for now and I hope to talk more about our entire cast in the near future.
Extraction takes places about three week before Dead Space. Fans of the animated feature and comic may recognise a few names and locations as they are playing but Dead Space: Extraction does feature an all new story and new locations.
Co-op will let players enjoy the entire story with a friend. One of our big goals with this feature was to make sure friends could join in on a session at any time without making the current player back out to a menu screen. Player two will be able to press a button and join in mid-session and start blasting apart Necromorphs.
Personally I really like the strategy our mechanics allow for in co-op. When I've been playing I like to focus on slowing the enemies down with Stasis and using Telekinesis to knock them back and damage them while the other player focuses in on strategically dismembering the s*** out of the Necromorphs.
No tone-downs here! Dead Space was about delivering on a terrifying experience complete with gore filled moments. Extraction will remain true to that goal as well.