Stasis, which lets you briefly freeze an opponent, and telekinesis are back as well, with telekinesis playing a particularly vital role. It is the only way to pick up extra ammo and weapon upgrades from storage rooms and fallen enemies as you pass by. I’m still grappling with the addition of the glow-worm – a glowstick activated by waggling the remote. In the future, we can freeze time and levitate objects, but no one packed a flashlight?

When you put all of these features together, Extraction morphs into a test of tactical dexterity that almost makes Time Crisis 4 look like Duck Hunt. On numerous occasions, I used stasis to freeze one necromorph, kept another at bay with melee strikes, reloaded all of my weapons, and used telekinesis to replenish my supplies, at the same time. Now, imagine doing all that while using the remote to rewire the control panel of an elevator. The melee strikes I mentioned are performed with quick flicks of the nunchuck. Melee strikes do minimal damage, but create a defensive wall for close combat. Unfortunately, they also suck most of the danger out of battle. I died once throughout the entire game, and that was from a random glitch.

As much as I welcome another jaunt through the Ishimura, the series is in danger of becoming gaming’s equivalent to Saw. I beat the original, read the comics, and watched Downfall. There’s a nostalgic thrill to preceding Isaac’s path – locking down the medical lab, building the barricade, and experiencing a hull-breach that I referenced in my previous review. Except for one interesting development, which may be wasted after a terribly uninspired ending, Extraction only has a different perspective of familiar events to offer.

It’s difficult to separate myself from prior knowledge, so I can’t say exactly how clear the events of Extraction will be to newcomers, but numerous logs scattered about the ship seem to fill in the details nicely. If one major problem sticks out regarding the storytelling, it’s that there is too much of it. 5-10 minute stretches with few, if any enemy encounters are common. It worked in the original, where desolation could be chalked up to atmosphere. In Extraction, it makes your arm tired from holding out the remote in anticipation.

Dead Space: Extraction is rarely frightening – just a little disturbing – but it manages to invigorate a genre sustained on life-support. Fans won’t find much of anything substantially new to digest, so think of Extraction as a fast, psychedelic trip down memory lane with a lot more firepower. Then, pray to Altman that we can leave Aegis VII and the Ishimura behind us once and for all.