The gameplay is pure shooting action that puts the Wii Remote'spointer to great use, with the nunchuk playing supporting role for additional control elements. Players point and shoot using the Wii Remote: there are many weapons to pick up and use in the game, each with a primary and secondary function. To fire off the alternate function of a selected weapon, you twist the remote 90 degrees; the on-screen reticule will show that the weapon has been switched with a bar that moves from horizontal orientation to vertical. For example, if you're using the flamethrower (a weapon that has one of the best fire effects I've seen on Wii) you can switch to a burst "fireball" shot on the fly by rotating your wrist and firing. Every weapon has its own secondary shot, and in many cases you'll want to switch back and forth to take out the enemies with a bit more strategy than mindlessly lighting them up.
Though the final product will feature a huge assortment of enemies, the demo only showed "leaper" enemies attacking. Just like in the original Dead Space you'll be able to target specific parts of the enemy's body, shooting off limbs to inhibit their movement. The designers are clearly not scaling back the violence for Wii audiences, as shots would send out buckets of gore in satisfying attacks. If a leaper gets a little too close, you have the ability to pull off a melee attack with a quick motion of the nunchuk, pulling out your rocksaw weapon to get rid of the threat.
In the demo there were opportunities to go different routes at specific points in the action a glowing line on the ground would branch off into two directions. To choose a path, you simply aim at the glowing line and click on it. According to the developers, there will be plenty of forks in the pathing to change direction and experience different parts of the level. There are also several puzzle elements that will stop your progress in the demo, the player needed to complete a circuit board connection by dragging the on-screen reticule along an electronic path in a quick motion, without touching the red surface.
During some parts of the game you'll wander into areas that aren't well lit, and that's where the game's newest addition comes into play. The "Glow Worm" is an accessory that's essentially a tube of phosphorescent chemical that will illuminate the area in a shade of green. The effect is temporary, so you'll have to keep shaking the tube by how else shaking the Wii remote to keep everything lit up. Keep in mind that while you're shaking the remote, you can't shoot your gun, so there's a bit of strategy involved: is it worth putting yourself at risk by lighting up the area?
Telekinesis will also come into play in Dead Space Extraction: you'll have the ability to pick up and throw objects with real world physics during the demo the developer showed off a very "Elebits" like motion of aiming at a crate, picking it up with the power of telekinesis, and giving it a throw with a hearty lob on the Wii remote and having it bounce around with realtime physics. And even though the demo didn't feature any sort of "Zero G" effects, the developer assured us to expect it. It is a Dead Space game, after all.
