Review by: Brian Rowe

After workers of the Aegis VII mining colony discovered an ominous spire buried in the soil, dementia spread like a plague. Friends and coworkers slaughtered one another without remorse as religious zealots worshipped the artifact. Not even suicide could spare the colonists, as the bones and flesh of their corpses snapped and flayed into alien contortions. In time, the infection spread to the orbiting Ishimura starship.

Fans of the original Dead Space know the story well, but Isaac’s journey won’t begin until later. This is the story of four unlikely companions battling for survival during the height of the outbreak. Treading old ground is inevitable, but the switch from third-person adventure to rail-shooting thrusts the series into new territory of paranoia. When face to face with the mangled maw of a necromorph, retreat is not an option.

The incredible accuracy of the Wii remote is a perfect addition to the series, because blasting the necromorphs with reckless abandon will get you nowhere. You have to deftly dismember their joints and tendril until their mutilated torsos lay helpless on the steel floor. Accidentally pop the belly of a pregnant necromorph and you’ll have a swarm of fleshy spiders to deal with as a headless slab of twisted bones and pulsing organs claws at you with its one good arm.

Extraction very well might take the title for having the most weapons in a rail-shooter, even if most of them are technically mining and engineering tools. I don’t know how safe a device that makes saw blades hover in mid-air would be for the workplace, but it makes delightfully gruesome blood-spatters on your visor. The P-SEC pistol and rivet gun join the eight weapons from the original that can be loaded into four slots, with alternate firing modes available for all. Tilt the remote sideways and the plasma cutter switches from a horizontal angle to a vertical one for optimal amputation.