Interview: Dead Space Extraction

Last year, Dead Space crawled under gamers’ skin with the moody, atmospheric environments of the Ishimura, killer sound design and no shortage of panic-driven, surprise necromorph encounters. Now, Visceral Games, formerly EA Redwood Shores, is hard at work trying to craft a uniquely scary experience for their Wii-exclusive follow-up, Dead Space: Extraction, an on-rails prequel in the vein of the Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.?? At first glance, you might think the folks at Visceral haven’t done much more than take a page out of Capcom’s book, but executive producer Steve Papoutsis disagrees. Papoutsis is looking to set Extraction apart by creating a "guided-first person experience," increasing tension with mechanics like a player-controlled camera and in-game group dynamics with survivor NPCs, design elements he hopes will create a game that’s every bit as terrifying as the original on the Wii’s underpowered hardware.