Lost Levels

Contrary to my previous post, I have actually been picking up the occasional new game here and there. My most recent acquisition was Dead Space: Extraction, which is a really brilliant little Wii title that got saddled with a ton of unnecessary Internet drama. (Not that any Internet drama has ever been necessary since Al Gore invented the World Wide Web.) As the third-party lightgun spinoff of a 360/PS3 horror action game, it served as ammunition for a host of fanboy shootouts, but like everything else embroiled in drama, it was a hot-button discussion topic but when it actually came out everyone stopped talking about it and moved on to a different upcoming release.

Which is a shame, because it’s really quite good. It does seem like a peculiar development decision, but when taken as a component of EA’s multimedia approach to its new franchises, it makes perfect sense. A series of animated comics released along with the original Dead Space, and shortly after launch an animated feature, Downfall, came out—and then Extraction. Four different pieces of a larger puzzle, each offering its own characters and narrative that take place in the same universe, some even happening simultaneously, and all meant to be taken in by the same audience. Extraction sank at retail, sadly; full sales figures are still TBA but it’s not looking promising.

As an extension of the franchise, though, it’s really illuminating. I loved the atmosphere and environment of the original Dead Space, and the chance to revisit the same experience in a new light, with new characters and a different kind of gameplay hit all the right buttons. It was designed entirely as a complementary experience, and in that light it struck me as really similar to the relationship between the watershed Final Fantasy VII and the PSP prequel FFVII Crisis Core. You could totally play Crisis Core without any real knowledge of FFVII, but the cameos, asides, inside jokes and revelations are paced and primed for the gamer who knew and loved the original. It targeted a slice of a slice—a person who liked A and also liked B—which isn’t necessarily the best sales equation, but it ends up making that AB person feeling completely satisfied. And as an AB person, that’s all I’m looking for.