Great, but slow campaign and lack of replay-value, means this game has it's moments, but is not worth $50.
Story
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The story takes place before the original Dead Space. You play as Nate McNiell, a detective for P-Sec, who arrived at colony Aegis VII, investigating a recent incident in which a person went nuts and killed a bunch of his crew, after the colony recovered a mysterious object called "The Marker". Pretty soon, people start going crazy and Necromorphs starts appearing. Along with his partner Gabriel Weller and Surveyor called Lexine, they attempt to escape and survive.
The story actually starts out really good, bu the rest of the game, just can't live up to the first stage. The story is also pretty cliché and is filled with the usual cult conspiracy, and the ending is so abrupt and confusing. Dispite this, the characters are actually written well, so while the story is pretty cliché, the characters, at least, is likeable, that and it's told well.
There's also a digital comic included in the game, which adds more to the Dead Space universe, and while it does a good job of that, the story is nothing special to write home about.
5.5
Gameplay
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The gameplay is pretty similar to RE: Umbrella Chronicles, though it does a good job of bringing the Dead Space formula to the light gun genre. You still get your stasis, so you can still slow down enemies and objects. You still get Telekinesis, so you can grab items and drag objects around. And the enemies, still needs to be killed off, by getting their limbs cut off. It was original last year, and it's still original and offers a new way of killing enemies, though the early enemies in the game, only dies from a headshot.
Weapons are, more or less, the same arsenal as in Dead Space, so you still get plasma cutters, force guns and so on. All of these weapons can be upgraded as well, and their scattered throughout the levels, so it pays to blow stuff up. Like RE, there are lots of items in the environment. Unlike RE though, you don't get to look around, so you have to be fast at grabbing them, though there are times when the game stops up and let's you look around for a moment. The game also tries to include puzzles, but it only amounts to the same time of drag puzzle over, and over again, with only slight variations. There are also zero gravity sections. These sections are pretty good, though there's only a few of them in the game.
What the game does well, is telling a story. Characters talk with each during the levels, and it builds up a nice atmosphere in the game as well, and to it's credit, it works extremely well, despite the cliché story. Everything is happening from your character's perspective and despite that your characters are talking, it really feels like your there, and thanks to the atmosphere, the game feels chaotic and scary. While this is great though, it also means, that the campaign is slow one.
The game has 10 chapters, each are around 30-50 mins long, and while that's a good length, it can amount to only 10-15 mins of it actually having action, so you end up just sitting and watching, waiting for something to happen. Sure it builds up the atmosphere, but being that it's so slow, it kinda dampens your will to replay the game. In fact, that's the disappointing thing about Dead Space: Extraction. The campaign is 6-10 hours, but it's slow and it's likely you won't replay it after it's finished. After that, there's challenge mode, which has you competing for high-scores, but no leader boards, means that you won't be playing this for long. The levels has text and audio logs, but their not really enough to drive you back.
7.0
Graphics
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For a Wii game, Extraction looks pretty darn good. The environments look pretty good, with some even looking identical from the console versions, which is a job fantastically done. The characters all looks and animate really good as well. Sadly, its not perfect, frame rate bogs down in the later levels, white lines appear on the character's faces from time to time, and sometimes, enemies just pops in front of you, right out of nowhere, it's really weird. Despite this, the graphics are amazing for a Wii game. The art style for the digital comic isn't as good as some other digital comics, like Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel for example.
9.0
Sound
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The sound is mixed though. The voice acting is actually pretty good, and does a good job of showing what kind of people lived in the colony. Though the voice acting for the digital comic is kinda hit and miss, and they swear a lot. Actually, there's a lot of swearing in the game, and while it doesn't feel outta place, it does sometimes feels like EA just wants the characters to swear, because it's a mature game, though the voice acting is still good. The music on the other hand, just tries it's best to be as high blown as possible, going nuts over just the slightest thing. It gets repetitive near the end as well.
6.5
Overall
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In the end, Dead Space: Extraction is actually a good game, dispite having a few issues and flaws, and it does a good job of expanding the Dead Space universe, and it has a good campaign, dispite it's cliché story. If your a Dead Space fan, then Extraction is something you don't wanna miss, but the rest, is better off renting, as the lack of replay value means, that the asking price of $50, is too much.