Dead Space was a freaky game, there’s no doubt about it. There’s something about pitch black corridors and multi-limbed creatures crawling across the ceiling and dropping down on you that will always freak me out. Call me a pussy, I don’t care, but ever since those zombie dogs jumped through the windows on the first Resident Evil game I’ve had a grudging respect for horror games in their ability to make me scream like a little kid. So, will an on-rails (think House of the Dead) Wii horror prequel to last year’s Dead Space carry on scaring me? Or will it be little more than a shooting gallery?

As noted Dead Space Extraction takes place before Dead Space and drops Isaac Clarke for a new female protagonist. You’re a member of a group of colonists that are fighting to escape the same infection that blighted the dark corridors of the original Dead Space. That’s about all we know of the story so far, but the video logs from Dead Space will return to add more substance to the game’s world.

The game is not a complete guided experience, as you will be able to choose what direction you wish to go in from time to time.  The new control scheme also doesn’t mean that various ways of dispatching the games horrific creatures have changed. The “strategic dismemberment” system still very much remains, along with weapons such as the plasma cutter, ripper and flame thrower.  However, one new weapon is the Arc Welder, that shoots out bolts of electricity and spreads it between enemies standing too close together.

It wouldn’t be a proper Wii game without some novel way of using the Wii remote, so EA have come up with a way of using the remote to tackle the darkness of the game. Waggling the remote will activate the faint glow of a glow stick, making sure that you won’t be caught off guard by any approaching enemy. I can see myself frantically waggling the Wii remote as the lights go out.

Finally the game will include co-op play, which is always a plus. However, it is still hard to hide the fact that Dead Space Extraction sounds like little more than the lightgun games of old. I’m not saying that it isn’t fun, but it just won’t compare to the fully-fledged game that graced other consoles. Then again, the Wii’s hardware limitations mean that the game wouldn’t stand up to its bigger brothers without a new way of looking at it; so while Wii owners won’t be sharing the exact same experiences as other gamers they still may get a pretty good on-rails shooter that seem to be climbing in popularity again lately. I guess we’ll find out near the end of this year.

More here.

If you’re looking for some on-rails shooting action for the Wii then Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, based around the events of the original Resident Evil game, may be to your tastes.