Extinction

We sit down and review Extinction. There are colossal size ogres killing the world and we need to stop them. Here is our review of Extinction

With a name like Extinction there is a lot to build up to and deliver on. It definitely floats an idea out there and sets some ideas for any games who may be looking at it on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC now that it has released. This would also happen to be the next title that Iron Galaxy is putting out there where we are the last bit of hope between humanity getting to live or getting eaten by colossal creatures. You are hopefully getting an idea of what Extinction is all about, but for those who want more, we sat down and gave it a solid play. Having done that, we are also ready to let you know if it is worth your time and money. Here is our review.

Story

We are back in the ye' old medieval times in a fantasy world that has been ravaged by all kinds of monsters and beast. The most notable being that of the Ravenii who are colossal sized ogres who are out there to smash and destroy all of humanity. Thankfully for humanity, Avil is still up and kicking and one of the last of the sentinels out there who have trained to kill these things when they did show up. Now he must take up arms again and head out to save humanity and all of the society they have built thus far. Can he do it? Will you be able to help him do it? Let us find out.

Hated

One of the larger issues I ran into here for Extinction had to be based around the controls or the camera depending on how it all worked out. This had to be the Rune Strike that Avil has in the game that allows him to hit things fairly hard and also destroy the armor and limbs of the Ravenii. When activating it, time slows down so you can better target where you want to go and strike, but more times than not, I would end up flying toward a random location or area between my desired location and getting crushed. I am not saying that this should not take some level of skill to do as it is one of the main mechanics in Extinction, but too many times I ended up in an armpit of the Ravenii, under its ass, or flying just past where I was aiming. It was a mechanic that is so very close to being perfected in the game, but falls a bit short even though it is required.

Linked to that a bit too, the hitboxes for the NPCs and characters in Extinction also seemed to be offset or had an issue registering properly. I get that the Ravenii are huge creatures that should be able to smash Avil in one or two hits. It makes sense. What does not make sense is the fact that I would see the game over screen when I was well out of range, or the NPCs I was saving were out of range but died because it shook its hands or feet in their general direction. For some missions, this required you to start all the way over with nothing saved. It was extremely frustrating time and time again that I took to screaming at my screen more than I usually do with any game.

Lastly, the way the story or in-mission information is passed along was more annoying than useful or intriguing when in motion. When one of these events fires off, everything freezes in place and the dialog runs its course. At the start of a mission it works. When it happens mid-mission and you are already navigating to the next location, it does not. On top of that, when something bad happens like a civilian dies or the like there is an on-screen indication so you can move towards it. To add to the annoying side I have spoken of, the NPCs yell at you and distract you from the mission at hand. When I have an indicator that someone has died, I do not need two other people screaming "What are you doing Avil?!?" while still trying to kill the Ravenii that did the killing. Once or twice would have been okay. For what seemed like every one of them was not at all.

Loved

First and foremost here in Extinction, the core gameplay and mechanics of the game were done very well. Outside of what I spoke of before. It was all very intuitive and made sense and flowed well from one place to another. It did not need any handholding at all to get you to understand it all and the parts that did make perfect sense to have it. Iron Galaxy set down some very good core gameplay in Extinction even if it devolved into a hack-n-slash for the most part while running around saving civilians and building up Rune Energy. If we did not need to rely on the Rune Strike as much as we did, it would have been completely solid on the mechanics and gameplay. In a game all about killing giants, I had a lot of fun killing the smaller minions or Jackals in the game.

Aesthetically, Extinction was solid as well. Given how the cut scenes, if you want to call them that, played out and that this was an over-the-top kind of slaying game, it was the right call to go with the more cartoonish style to the world and models out there. I am sure they could have gone a whole realistic route to do the same thing, but it fit and made more sense. It also lead to some cooler looking deaths that a realistic version of things would have missed out on. You cannot really have an anime style head cleaving happen with photorealism and the style selected here played up well to the gameplay and mechanics. It was fun just to run around at times and just take it all in.

Lastly, the "puzzles" for how to kill some of the Ravenii in Extinction were fun to try to figure out and pull off. Some of the Ravenii walk around with armor or mismatched armor that needs to be removed before taking any limbs. Some require just a solid hit from a Rune Strike whereas other required a little more precision and tactics to do so. The fact that they changed up often kept Extinction feeling fresh with each new mission and game mode out there. If this was not the case, one could fly right through the game in record times and negate some of the hidden fun in the game. The only hold up on it would have to be the actual mechanic, as mentioned above, that hindered some of the progression in armor removal and thus survival.

Overview

The best way to describe Extinction would be like if Shadow Of The Colossus and Attack On Titan had a baby set in a fantasy medieval world. You need to kill these hulking beasts as they rampage all while saving humanity. If that is something that interests you, then I would say to give Extinction a chance. Most of the issues I ran into and mentioned above are things that can, and most likely will, be patched and fixed. While annoying, none of it ever truly ruined my fun or time with the game. Sure, I yelled at my screen a bit more than I normally do, but that can be part of the fun. I would say to give it a shot but do be wary of the issues I mentioned above.

I give Extinction 5 Destroyed Pieces Armor on the Destroyed Pieces Armor scale.

Extinction was developed by Iron Galaxy and published by Maximum Games for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on April 10^th, 2018. A PS4 copy of the game was provided by the publisher for reviewing purposes.