Horror video games slay boredom

MCT Campus
Published On: 11/ 3/2009

This prequel to last year’s creepy monsters-in-outer-space horror game “Dead Space” keeps the shooting action intact but takes the exploration away.

This is one of the best-looking games on the Wii. It’s not as sharp as the original game, but the look of the “Dead Space” universe is fully intact. The sound design and voice acting are also excellent. But the game reduces the player’s role to that of a cursor on the screen; the viewpoint character always moves on his own, choosing routes to take and directions to face.

It’s the player’s job to shoot at the various monsters and objects that litter the playing field; there’s no going back for anything missed. Sometimes the player is free to look around an area for a limited time or to choose from multiple paths, but otherwise the game is on rails.

The lack of control is a little annoying, but “Dead Space: Extraction” makes a pretty fine shooting gallery. Players have to aim at the monsters’ limbs to take them down effectively, and each weapon has two modes of fire to make it happen. A second player can join in, as well.

SAW
Based on the long-running series of horror movies (the most recent of which opened last week), “Saw” puts the player in control of a character from the first film as he tries to make his way through a derelict asylum filled with traps laid by the Jigsaw Killer.

The game is gory and atmospheric, but the game play isn’t anything special. Combat is pretty basic, and the puzzles range from timed button presses to item hunts to more elaborate setups for major traps.

Jigsaw’s MO is to teach hard lessons, and the player, as Detective Tapp, is his latest pupil. Jigsaw has captured several people involved in Tapp’s investigation or otherwise close to him, and has installed them into elaborate and deadly contraptions. Tapp must rescue them if he can.

As Tapp searches for the clues and items he needs to progress, he must avoid and disarm numerous traps, such as shotgun-rigged doors, and avoid or defeat other prisoners of Jigsaw who have been told the key to their release is the one surgically embedded inside Tapp himself.