EOE: Eve of Extinction

"This game would do well to fade into extinction."

EOE: Eve of Extinction is the epitome of average. Playing this game was more of a chore than a joy. I'm glad to say I finished it, not to say it wasn't extremely easy anyway. Luckily I borrowed this from a friend, because I would never ask anyone to purchase this game when there are much better ones like it out there.

Gameplay

The game play centers around using the main character to combat with his many Legacy weapons. Starting off with two, he earns many more through the course of the game. Each weapon can be leveled up to a max of five levels which also includes his basic hand to hand combat (which is terrible). Mastering the combat relies solely on your ability to utilize the weapons in a combo. Starting with one weapon and switching to another to create a chain reaction that can either be quick or powerful based on the weapons. The weapons themselves are very simplistic, by that I mean they can string together no more than 4 attacks together which adds to short boring repetitive game play. The best part though happens to be the variety of weapons you can get such as katars, boomerang, tonfas, etc. Also the weapons have the ability to do a Legacy Drive. A Legacy Drive is a weapon specific special that needs two orbs called ley seeds to activate. Once you have these seeds, you can use a legacy drive any time you want as long as your special meter bar has enough energy in it. Some of these drives may be needed to progress the game. The weapons themselves also have special techniques that add to the plat forming portion of the game. Such as high jumping, grappling, etc. The enemies in the game are terribly easy, even the bosses are simple. The only boss I was defeated by was the first one, because I was still new to the game, and the last one because I had low health. Swimming also comes into play in this game. It's terrible. Swimming has never been such a hassle. When I think back to bad moments swimming in video games I have played, MGS2's Emma mission immediately comes to mind. But while this was challenging and deserving of ridicule only for it's difficulty, this game's swimming portion is horrible as soon as you touch the water. The character is slow, and it's also difficult to navigate. These are pretty much the basics.

6/10

Story

The story centers around a young man named Josh and his girlfriend Eliel. Both were former members of an evil empire named Wisdom, Inc. This empire performed unforgivable experiments on several people including Josh's own girlfriend. Turning his girlfriend into a weapon of destruction known as the Legacy, Josh must go through the game using his morphed girlfriend to fight his way through and try and find a cure for her. This is all made clear in the first two minutes of the game and so you must fight through several levels meeting a boss at the end of each. You slowly progress the story further, however the story is very dull. The redeeming factor likely comes from the data discs you can pick up from fallen enemies. They carry character bios, as well as numerous information about Wisdom Inc and it's other members and plans. Very average in presentation.

5/10

Graphics and Sound

This game was released around 4 years ago if my memory serves me correctly, and for the time the graphics were nothing but average so imagine them now. Hell, I'd almost swear I was playing a Nintendo 64 game. The sound in this game is one of the better attributes. Aside from some of the voice actors, notably the main character (who has a terrible script too), the game has decent sound effects and character voices. Nothing new here just average.

6/10

Playtime/Re-Playability

This is one of the shortest games I've ever played in my life. Now, I was able to beat the game in 4 hours 59 minutes 0 seconds. That's less than 5 hours and that was without using a game guide, or needing help at all. The game itself is just too easy and too short. And with it being as boringly average as it is, I would not recommend a replay. I would recommend disposing of this game as soon as possible though, unless you're into cheesy beat-em ups. But there are much better candidates out there.

Final Verdict

I wouldn't bother picking this title up at all. There are better games in this field of game play like The Bouncer or Fighting Force. I say just keep your money. But if you really must have it then you can get it for around 5 dollars to rent I imagine. It was like 2.50 when my friend bought it.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/18/06