Do you own a Wii?

Were you excited at the announcement that a Dead Space game would be made for Wii?

Probably (given the people on this site, my guess is not so much)

But...

Were you expecting the game to be an on rails shooter?

Don't lie, I'm sure you weren't. I wasn't, and boy, did it cause a riot on the web.

--

Alright, I will get this out of the way. I'm not even a fan of survivor horror games to begin with. Always hate moments that make my heart skip a beat. However, if there's one thing I am a fan of, its on-rails shooters. Given my love for arcade styled games and genres, I'm not as outragede as the average internet fanboy, but I still wasn't expecting this game to be what it is.

I like on-rails shooters. I find there are certain advantages to it over FPS games or other shooter genres.

One thing I can immediately say about on-rails shooters is that they eleminate just about any need to back track. If I need to go back to get something that I couldn't get to before, than it had better be fun doing it in the process. Going forward is the least I want in the progression of a game, but if there's gonna be backtracking, don't make it feel like a chore or feel tedious. That's what I like about on-rails genre, you're always going forward and you can just go on with the plot.

Also with on-rails shooters, I find they can provide much faster action to the player than a regular FPS. Normally on consoles, you can't really expect to make the camera do a quick 180 turn or look up at the ceiling at a very fast pace (note I said CONSOLES, as in dual analog). Yes, you don't get control of the camera in a rail shooter (though HOTD Overkill allows this to an extent), but it still provides a sort of cinematic angle to the action.

And of course, we do know that when there are arcade style games, they are usually short. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and say that Dead Space Extraction will be a short game. But short games shouldn't be bad. NES games are short when you figure them out, but we still love them anyway. With shorter games, you are given more time to go back and perfect on your skills. You can try and remember what enemy does what at a certain spot or where a health pick up is located, and with the game provding action at a fast pace, it makes it all the more fun to go back and perfect your runs.

Still, I'm sure there are many here that won't give so much of a crap about my reasons, and will ignore it just so they can continue they're whining, but I wanna say one last thing about the game.

IT'S STILL DEAD SPACE

We weren't expecting the game to be an on-rail shooter, no doubt, but we aren't even thinking about what the quality of the final game could be. It is being worked on by the core Dead Space team along with Eurocom (so I think it's safe to say we don't have some third string dev team), and from what we've been told, they're working to get in the same elements of the original dead space into this one. That means strategic dismemberment, weapons, locations, and (i'm pretty sure) the holographic menu system. It could be a good game, and with recent third party efforts on Wii proving to be better than ones before, the chances of Extraction being a good game seem decent.

It's still Dead Space. Don't be thrown off by the genre switch.

Do you own a Wii?

Were you excited at the announcement that a Dead Space game would be made for Wii?

Probably (given the people on this site, my guess is not so much)

But...

Were you expecting the game to be an on rails shooter?

Don't lie, I'm sure you weren't. I wasn't, and boy, did it cause a riot on the web.

--

Alright, I will get this out of the way. I'm not even a fan of survivor horror games to begin with. Always hate moments that make my heart skip a beat. However, if there's one thing I am a fan of, its on-rails shooters. Given my love for arcade styled games and genres, I'm not as outragede as the average internet fanboy, but I still wasn't expecting this game to be what it is.

I like on-rails shooters. I find there are certain advantages to it over FPS games or other shooter genres.

One thing I can immediately say about on-rails shooters is that they eleminate just about any need to back track. If I need to go back to get something that I couldn't get to before, than it had better be fun doing it in the process. Going forward is the least I want in the progression of a game, but if there's gonna be backtracking, don't make it feel like a chore or feel tedious. That's what I like about on-rails genre, you're always going forward and you can just go on with the plot.

Also with on-rails shooters, I find they can provide much faster action to the player than a regular FPS. Normally on consoles, you can't really expect to make the camera do a quick 180 turn or look up at the ceiling at a very fast pace (note I said CONSOLES, as in dual analog). Yes, you don't get control of the camera in a rail shooter (though HOTD Overkill allows this to an extent), but it still provides a sort of cinematic angle to the action.

And of course, we do know that when there are arcade style games, they are usually short. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and say that Dead Space Extraction will be a short game. But short games shouldn't be bad. NES games are short when you figure them out, but we still love them anyway. With shorter games, you are given more time to go back and perfect on your skills. You can try and remember what enemy does what at a certain spot or where a health pick up is located, and with the game provding action at a fast pace, it makes it all the more fun to go back and perfect your runs.

Still, I'm sure there are many here that won't give so much of a crap about my reasons, and will ignore it just so they can continue they're whining, but I wanna say one last thing about the game.

IT'S STILL DEAD SPACE

We weren't expecting the game to be an on-rail shooter, no doubt, but we aren't even thinking about what the quality of the final game could be. It is being worked on by the core Dead Space team along with Eurocom (so I think it's safe to say we don't have some third string dev team), and from what we've been told, they're working to get in the same elements of the original dead space into this one. That means strategic dismemberment, weapons, locations, and (i'm pretty sure) the holographic menu system. It could be a good game, and with recent third party efforts on Wii proving to be better than ones before, the chances of Extraction being a good game seem decent.

It's still Dead Space. Don't be thrown off by the genre switch.

I really like arcade (aka on-rails) shooters and I'm very much looking forward to my copy of Overkill (with 2 handcannons) to arrive, but I still would've liked to see a port instead of a Dead-Space-themed arcade game, because that's what it is. And it's like that not because the developers wanted to create such-andsuch experience, but because they're too afraid of trying something that might not work.
 On-Rails shooting is fun. Every other year.

"It will be a gimp version just like dead rising on the wii will be.
"

I hope it's good also, AG, and for the very same reasons you state, but even if it was, I really don't expect it to get fair criticism on this site, not when I see the teams opinions on a great Wii game with many merits.

Example A

HoTD: Overkill - A Quick Trash

Wait...Wait...wait...."I'm not even a fan of survivor horror games to begin with. Always hate moments that make my heart skip a beat."  Wtf are you doing even looking at this game?  Hoping the Wii will water it down for ya?On-rails eliminate the horror/scary/shock value...and they are applying this to...a horror/shock game? I'm sorry but all of your points seem to only empahsize how shitty Wii ports are.  "yeah, ok, so I KNOW that it isn't the greatest but LOOK!!!! You can turn faster!  Well....not really you, but....the computer turns you faster!"  The wii is a craptastic system that only has two categories; CASUAL MINI GAMES, and ON RAIL SHOOTERS.  Oh, I guess you could maaaybe add a third "good games. updates once every 2-3 years"

And to address the whole reason you made this post, it won't be dead space.  That is impossible, half of the "oh shit" moments were when you were suddenly zerged by 5+ necromorphs in a small hall and you turned around and ran for your life, in order for this to work they would have only two options. 1) eliminate those moments from the game complely. Or 2) make necromorphs so weak that they aren't a threat unless you blindly mash your head against your T.V hoping to win.  They will have to scrap certain spawn locations of enemies that came from behind unless they want to cheese up the sudden turn around! On-Rails fun action that is used so much.

I'm glad it's on rails. I haven't played that game type in a very long time.....probably in arcades. I think they are playing to the strength of the Wii. I agree whole-heartedly with this post.

Wii rail shooter games have been selling a lot, I'm sure that marketing had at least a little to do with it.

Not a big fan of rail shooters myself.  Even the deeper ones are shallower than most other genres.  I have a hard time accepting that lower value when buying a retail game.

Sorry, but no, there aren't any advantages to rail shooters. They're terrible and obsolete.

You enjoy rail shooters, you find them fun. That's great.
 
Some people also find QTEs fun.