Dead Space: Ignition

As part of the release of Dead Space 2 last year, Visceral Games released this cheap, little mini-game collection as an interqual for download on Xbox 360 and PS3.  As someone who must play every game in a series to feel like I've accomplished something in my life, I downloaded it myself before playing Dead Space 2.  I'm only a year behind in game playing.  Woohoo!

Unlike the Dead Space game, there is almost no action to be found here, just some mini-games that, once figured out, are pretty darn easy.  The game follows a pair of space police, constantly on the run from the necromorph invasion (corpse monster-zombies to you), with only your ability to complete hacking puzzles standing between certain death and escape into the next comic-book style cutscene.  The games include a cute little hex-based real-time strategy game, a decent light-bending puzzle, and a freaking obnoxious and stupid "racing" game.

This hacking game sucks.

You can follow four pathways so, if you're a completionist like me, you can replay the game a few times with a couple of different puzzles scattered throughout.  I really like how the story utterly changed when following each pathway, basic choices to go one of two ways, casting you as a cold-blooded zealot in one and as a forlorn lover in the next, all dependent on the arbitrary decision of whether you go in the vents or take the long way around.  Kinda weird, but, it works fine if you're into Dead Space fiction.  The mini-games start a little confusing, get really fun when you master them, and then kind of boring when you've got to go through them yet again for achievement hunting which, if you don't do, leave you with a 40-minute game.  While Dead Space: Ignition really runs the gamut, I'll fall in the middle of my opinions and give it an OK.