In 2008, EA and Visceral Games left me cowering behind my sofa with Dead Space on the Xbox 360. With its third-person, over the shoulder game play, and terrifying story, it revitalised the survival horror genre. Extraction is an on-rails, FPS prequel to the events of the 360 game (and the original was later released on the PS3 as well), and takes place in tandem with the storyline of the anime style film Dead Space: Downfall.

The storylines of Dead Space focus on the discovery of a Marker (that looks like a giant, carved rock), on the colony of Aegis VII. Not long after the Marker's discovery members of the colony begin to exhibit strange behaviour. For Unitology, a religion that developed from the discovery of another, similar, artefact, dubbed a Marker, on Earth 200 hundred years previously, this is an important moment for their belief. Those in the echelons of Unitology back on Earth put in motion a plan to move the Marker from Aegis VII to Earth, so that it may be further studied, no matter what the cost.

Aim for the head. No, wait!

Several weeks later, as the Marker begins to be moved from the surface of Aegis VII, all hell breaks lose on the colony and soon transfers to the space ship Ishimura, which had been tasked with taking the Marker back to Earth. It becomes apparent that people who are within proximity of Aegis VII are suffering dangerous hallucinations and delusions, and that the dead are being reanimated and turned into Necromorphs.

You play through the game as one of several different characters that you switch between during appropriate moments in the storyline. Though for most of the game you will play as Detective Nathan McNeill as he tries to escape with Lexine, Weller and Eckhardt from Aegis VII and then the nightmare that the Ishimura becomes.

If looks could kill: Game Over.

During the course of the game you have the opportunity to equip numerous weapons, though only one has infinite ammo and will be the one that you rely on the most. Whilst playing through the chapters of the game, you face the option of whether to switch to other weapons that you find during the chapter, but this is the only time that you can change your selection. There are certain boss fights where a particular weapon will give you a distinct advantage. The weapons all have upgrade nodes available for pick up during each chapter.