Dead Space: Extraction Gets an Arch Welder

When Dead Space was initially released last fall, it was not exactly what publisher Electronic Arts had wanted it to be. The combination of shooter action and horror flick felt stitched together at times, but the combat was solid, the scares interesting in the first few hours and the zero gravity sections were a fun innovation. So, Electronic Arts decided to double down on its Dead Space bet and to develop and release a Nintendo Wii version of the title, named Extraction.

Electronic Arts is now showing the arsenal that the player will have at his/her disposal to tackle the inevitable hordes Necromorphs. Other than the arsenal from the original game, Extraction is set to add the Arch Welder, which is kinda like the chain lighting spell from most fantasy settings, meaning that it can chain attacks targeting multiple foes, if they stay close enough to one another. It also has an alternate attack that can create a huge ball of energy. To activate it, players need only to turn the Wiimote to the side while firing, which is a good use of the motion tracking.

We already know that Extraction is set to be an on rails experience, offering little freedom to move around and explore the environment, but a lot of occasions on which to dismember enemies (yes, taking out limbs is as crucial as in the first Dead Space).

Electronic Arts is also saying that it is abandoning the concept of the silent main character, which wasn't one of the game's strong points, in order to allow a talking protagonist to offer more information about the story to the player, alongside the audio logs that can be picked up in the game.

Another interesting addition is the glow stick, which can often be the only source of light that the player has. Of course, a gamer needs to agitate the Wiimote to shed some light on the situation. We'll see how that works when Dead Space: Extraction arrives later in 2009.