Extermination

"Action meets Adventure meets Survival Horror= one hellava ride"

Well I played the game for about 6 hours and can say this game is pretty darn good. As much dissing this game has got I wasnt quite sure if it was going to be good or not. I picked it up since I knew I could return in to eb and im surprised to tell you that I wont be taking this game back. This game is by far one of the better titles on the ps2. I'll explain why.

The story starts off promising and gets you in the game fairly quick I wont talk much about it so as not to spoil anything. I havent beaten the game yet but I must say so far the story I have seen has kept my interest in the game. Wether it be a cinema to progress the story or notes you find on the ground revealing more of the sinister plot.

Now for graphics. They are pretty well done. Maybe not the best of graphics but pretty good detail and variety. Some people complain that the inside of the facility looks a little plain but I found that each area has its own unique look so no problems there. The character graphics are detailed as well with facial expressions and you can see detail in the uniforms they wear. The monsters are pretty grusome as well. They start off pretty simplistic but get more detailed and better looking as the game goes on. They also all contain a glowing orb somewhere on there body which is there weak point. When you enter rooms with the infestation the game looks really kewl with lots of dark purples and red colors and slime everywhere. Then when you go outside later in the game your treated to cool looking blizzard effects that totally rock. A even neater detail is how your main character holds his arm up in front of his face in order to sheild himself.

Now the gameplay is kinda like a mix between metal gear solid and resident evil. It got fast gameplay and lots of action. There is a occasional puzzle here and there but not to hard to figure out. Also thankfully this game isnt a hut for card b to open door b and then find card d to open door d. You do everything from crawling through vents to swing on bars to climbing ladders and hanging from edges and swinging across. Overall there is alot of diffrent things to do in the game. Also a kewl thing about this game is you only have one weapon..... but you can find all kinds of parts to upgrade it so you can have a shotgun and flamethrower and more. Great Stuff. Now also in the game your going to be constantly healing after damage has been dealt and luckily there quite abit of healing items. You basically have a booster item which gives you about half your life. Then you have another which heals u alot and brings down infection. Which brings me to another part of the game. Enemies can infect you with green liquid, once that happens if you infection meter reaches 100% a big glowing open soar opens on your back and suddenly your max health is lowered to 60 and if you touch water it hurts severely. Not to mention your vison blurs every couple of secounds. Luckily there is a item to be found that you can use at certain stations to give you back all your life and get rid of the infection totally. All I can say is when 100% infected this can lead to intense terror as you try and survive to get to a machine to heal you. They can usually be found in a room with a save point, magazine recharger, and battery restorer. Yes you use a battery pack to save, open certain doors and use certain equipment in the facility. Everytime you use this it drains the battery thus you have to recharge it. I found this feature intersting since I havent seen something like that in any other game because quite frankly Im about to scream if I see another ink ribbon type save in a game its getting old so the battery feature in Extermination was a welcomed change.

The control for the game is pretty simplistic. There is no Resident Evil Style control. Its more like push left go left and vice versa, you get the just. They also u the x button for pretty much everything, jumping, climbing, using items. Kinda like a hot button so to speak like in zelda. For the gun you can zoom in and out with your scope with L2 and L1. The controls are fairly easy to master.

The sounds is pretty good in the game. There is your creepy weird music moments that try and set a freaky mood and then there is the upbeat get the hheck outta here music which is fast and adrenaline pumping all pretty good stuff. The sounds effects are good as well nothing great but they do the game justice.

Now the bad stuff. The lip syncing is way off in the fmv and can get on some peoples nerves. To me it isnt such a bother I jsut kinda forget it happens and it by far not as bad as some games. Now in the ingame cinemas its seems to me most of the time the lips match the voice , like I said only on fmv have I noticed the bad lip sync.
Now the only other gripe I have is that the camera can get in the way sometimes. Not much but enough to bug you every once in a blue moon. Besides those two minor things thats all I really find wrong with this other wise great game. Also I never noticed any slow down like I have heard someone talk about but im not saying there inst any it just hasnt happeneded to me.

Overall I love this game and maybe thats because I had low hopes for Extermination and its turned out way better but to each his own. Extermination in my opinion ROCKS. Will your opinion be different? maybe because I feel this game will get mixed reviews from people but give it a try. Thats the least you can do.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 07/27/01, Updated 07/27/01