Dead Space Ignition Preview

If you don’t know already, Dead Space Ignition is a downloadable interactive comic that will be released soon on Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. The comic is in motion, that means that it will feature a full voice cast and include basic animation such as arm movement, head movement, facial expressions, you get the picture. The story follows several new characters in The Sprawl and recounts certain events leading up to Dead Space 2.

I said above that the comic is interactive and that doesn’t just mean choosing a path, it does but I will get back to that later, it also means actually playing one of three games offered. So far we have seen only two of the three games. The first game is called Trace Route in which the player is required to race a red electrical signal line against other signal lines to the end of a stage all the while avoiding obstacles and grabbing boost power ups. You can use abilities while playing such as a boost and a firewall designed to slow your blueish adversaries to a crawl. The game is simple, yet quite challenging as I soon discovered. As you progress through the game, expect the hacking to become more complicated. Trace Route, for example, will soon allow you to shift between layers to get past obstacles. Expect plenty of retries and head scratching.

The other hacking challenges are not being revealed just yet, but I was able to sneak a peak on the second one. This other hack is built much like a reverse tower defense. That is, instead of building defenses to keep enemies out, the player is now the enemy and they must use their resources in order to create hacks to successfully pass through. Unfortunately that is all that is currently known on the game. To get a better look at the two hacking games, check out the first and second screen shots below. The first is the anti-towers game while the second is Trace Route.

Dead Space Ignition sports four different endings. During the game players will be required to make choices on how to proceed through a section of the game. This decision will take the player along a path that leads up to a different outcome. I spoke to Rich Briggs, the Producer for Ignition and Dead Space 2, and I asked him how these four different endings will fit into Dead Space 2. “Oh, they will,” he tells me, “don’t worry.” Thanks, Rich. While he wasn’t able to delve into specifics, he assured me that the four endings will indeed fit into the Dead Space 2 story without causing any issues.

So, is that it you say? Just some simple minigames and drawings that move slightly? Posh, you must say, posh indeed. Why would you need that? Well now hang on there, chief, there’s more. As a reward for playing through Ignition, you will be awarded one of four different prizes, which, I’m sure, will be granted based on which of the four endings you get. Most of the prizes right now are a complete mystery. One however, is an exclusive suit to wear in Dead Space 2 that you can only receive if you buy and beat Ignition. We can only speculate what the other two prizes are but I’m betting one to be a special tool while another to be a shiny new weapon to kill hordes of Necromorphs with. Of course it’s all just speculation at this point.

Well, there you have it. Dead Space Ignition can be seen as a must for Dead Space fans who just can’t get enough of the story but it also appeals to all you greedy loot monkeys as well. The price and release date for the game are still up in the air, but your friends at GAMINGtruth will give you the details as soon as they are available, so stay tuned!

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