Extermination

Pros • Clever weapon system • Music improves eerie mood • Hanging from the roof and shooting	Cons • Control system not the greatest • Irrelevant story elements are boring • Pace too slow in the beginning
Bottom Line Extermination borrows heavily from several popular sci-fi game and movie themes, but fails to rise above the crowd in any one aspect. You are Dennis Riley, a U.S. Special Forces Marines RECON Team Red Light member. Your plane goes down over the Antarctic near a military base and you’re separated from your other team members. Will you be able to save your friends and eliminate the deadly infestation that has taken over the base? The problem is that you probably won’t really care. The main story thread is somewhat engaging, though it borrows heavily from the movie The Thing. There are, however, a number of sub-plots and conversations that have no bearing on the story and only serve to interfere with the pace. The music is moody and does well to increase the level of tension throughout the game, especially in parts where there’s nothing really happening. In the early stages of the game, much of the action revolves around performing tasks to open up other parts of the base, but once the creatures start appearing things heat up. Overall, the game is fun to play for short periods, but lacks that certain something that would make your friends wish they had a PS2.

Developed by Deepspace and published by Sony, Extermination is a 3rd person action adventure that mixes elements of Metal Gear Solid, Winback, and the movie The Thing. With A-list titles like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil Code: Veronica X coming out soon, it was wise of Sony to release Extermination when they did, before it is overshadowed by these better games. Playing as Dennis Riley, a member of Team Red Light, your plane goes down during operation “Cold Limit” near a military base in the Antarctic. You soon learn that a deadly virus is on the loose, and you’ve got to stop it. Cheesy dialog that is as badly dubbed as a Japanese monster movie helps the otherwise decent story line progress, though there are some pointless conversations you’ll probably want to skip.

The opening cut-scene is rendered using the in-game engine, which is odd because the rest use CG. The dialog throughout seems very amateurish, almost as if the developers thought they had borrowed enough plot lines from other sources that they didn’t need to hire decent writers. After playing the game you’ll think back and remember the story through the actions you performed, not as it was told by the characters. There’s very little in the way of character development, other than references to past experiences that really have no bearing on the story. In Max Payne, knowing that his wife and daughter were killed is necessary information. Knowing that Dennis Riley and his buddies made their own knives is not.

The screen displays the standard health meter, as well as an infection meter that indicates the level of virus contamination in your body. When a creature bites you, the virus starts to spread slowly, but can be affected by environmental elements that cause it to spread more rapidly. Located throughout the complex are medical labs that can remove the infection, but they are scarce. Why it is important to stop the virus when there’s a cure is never explained.

Controls are typical for a console-based 3rd person game, though not as responsive as you might hope. Looking around is performed using the sight on your gun, a-la Winback, but it’s a little slow and trying to locate a swarm of creatures that are at your feet is very frustrating. The camera also causes much grief, as it likes to hang around corners, hiding that fatal drop before it’s too late. Developers must think people like this sort of thing because the same problem appears in almost every game of this style. The character movement is fairly good, though Riley seems a little too eager to get off the top of a ladder. A long-stride jump similar to the rooftop jump in The Matrix is a nice touch and in most cases provides plenty of room on the other side.

The layout of the base is nice and tight, which adds to the claustrophobic feeling you’ll get when playing the game. Lots of ladders and boxes to climb on makes getting around much more interesting than Oni’s wide-open-empty-spaces approach. Weather effects are great too, especially during the snowstorms where Dennis puts his arm up to shield himself from the gale. The music and background noises are definitely the best part of the game and add a lot in terms of tension and mood, most notably in parts of the game where nothing is really happening. In some cases, these are the most frightening scenes because you’re not sure of what’s coming, and the eerie music preys on that.

There are only two weapons in the game; a knife, and an SPR4 assault rifle with single shot or burst capabilities. The gun has a neat feature that allows you to add items you’ll find in the game that increase its functionality, such as a grenade launcher and sniper scope. It may be a way for the developer to get out of having to render a bunch of different weapons, but it’s still a good idea and you get to fire more than just bullets.

Overall this review may sound negative, but Extermination is actually a decent game once you look past its shortcomings and get involved in the action. If you liked Winback, you’ll like Extermination. If you liked Metal Gear Solid, you’ll like Extermination. Unfortunately, I can’t think of any circumstances where you’d love Extermination, and that’s the biggest problem. There’s no compelling reason to pull you though the game, like Max Payne’s revenge theme or Solid Snake’s score to settle with his ex-teammates. If you’re itching for something to do until Code Veronica is out, go get Extermination. If you’re on a budget, wait for something better.

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