Extermination

"A Good, half-way original game!"

First things first, Extermination is overall a fairly good game. I rented the game, and at first, was not very impressed. I didn't expect too much, but the voice acting is terrible- especially in the beginning. Extermination is not survival-horror like some say, but rather a good blend of action and suspense with a story good enough to be called a story.

Gameplay- 8/10
The gameplay is very good. This game was surprisingly very challenging (enough to keep me entertained). The controls are great movement wise, and the buttons are laid out nicely. The game gives you the option of using your gun in third person or first person. Extermination has a fair auto-aim system and the weapon building is real cool. Instead of getting things like a rifle, shotgun, and rocket launcher, you get add-ons to one main rifle-like gun. You use the primary fire, which is the rifle, and your secondary fire is whatever add-on you have equipped. So you have a flamethrower/rifle if you want. The game isn't scary, but it does have a few ''freaky'' parts, like when it is dark and you use the light on your gun to navigate around.

Story- 5/10
The story isn't that great because it is a rehash of many things. It has the same disease-type innuendo in the Resident Evil series. It has the ''our group is stranded on a base'' thing that is apparent in Winback. It also has the infiltration part of Metal Gear Solid. The story is decent, but not ''compelling.''

Audio/Video- 8/10
The graphics in Extermination are up to par with today's ''Next-Generation'' games and are quite respectable, but what sucks is the voice acting, which is very bad. The mouth movement is not aligned with the words that they say. The mouths will continue to move even after they finish their sentences sometimes. My guess is that they did not align the mouth with the English version of the game, but left the original mouth movements from the Japanese version where they were, of course, speaking Japanese. The music to this game is outstanding. VERY good action/suspense music. You will be just walking along and the music gets real loud and you know some action is coming your way.

Replay Value- 3/10
[For what type of game it is- 7/10]
After you beat the game- it is pretty much done. Just like most games of the genre.

Buy or Rent?
Definitely rent the game. You can beat it in two rentals. With no replay value, that is the best course of action.

Overall, I found Extermination to be a fairly entertaining game with its strong and weak points. I am very glad that I played it, and I think it should be a more popular game than it is.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/06/01, Updated 08/06/01