EOE: Eve of Extinction

"A good adventure game... but not great."

There have been many action-adventure games for the Playstation 2, all ranging from The Bouncer to Shadowman: The 2econd Coming, they’ve all have had its ups and downs. Eve of Extinction certainly has both.

Basic Story: 10/10
You play as a man named Josh Calloway, who once worked for a company who produces weapons and different types of gadgets. They are known as the Wisdom Corporation. Without spoiling anything, Josh and his friend discover that the company they work for have some sort of plan for world domination. Your female friend then gets captured and has her soul taken away from her. The Wisdom Corporation then place her soul into a weapon that they developed from an ancient tradition. You save the girl. Then she becomes your guide and your weapon. After going after the Corporation, Josh finds out even more things than he wanted and ends up saving the world from the Corporation’s evil plans.

Gameplay: 7/10
The gameplay is somewhat like any adventure game. You run around and kill people using weapons or your fists. You search for ways to get from one rooftop to the other and learn to combine your weapons’ special abilities. Throughout the game, the main point is to collect Ley Seeds for the weapons you acquire from the bosses in the game. With certain weapons, you can jump higher, using them as a pole vault. With other weapons, you can shoot them or throw them at opponents to inflict damage.

Fun Factor: 8/10
The game is pretty fun the first time you play around. The second time around, it seems more like a chore because you already know what’s going to happen and nothing special happens after beating it twice. The main purpose of playing it twice is to power up all of your weapons.

Graphics: 8/10
The graphics are great. The Action Movies look sweet and so do the bosses. The weapons are distinct to each other and are color coded. The only thing that kept the score from being a 10, is the camera. It’s not that great to have to hold down the R2 button just so it can stay behind Josh.

Sound: 8/10
The sound effects, voices and in game songs fit the game perfectly. From rock type songs building up as you get closer to an enemy to the great voice acting, it’s all good. There could’ve been more effects added, specially to the abilities. Or at least Yukes could have given the Wisdom Agents rank specific voices, like having the upper ranked Agents order the lower rank agents.

Replayability: 6/10
This game can be played as many times as necessary to build up your weapons’ levels. After leveling out your weapons’ levels, there’s always the bonus games, like Boss Battles, 3 Min. Battles and Survival. After that, it gets boring.

Overall: 7/10
Although the graphics are good for an adventure game and the sound is the best it can possibly be, the game is missing something. The game needs more playable characters, more branching out of paths, and maybe more choices of modes. When I play this game, it feels like it needs a better camera system. I still enjoyed the game for at least 3 days, that’s more than I can say for some other games (Shadowman: The 2econd Coming, The Bouncer).
I would recommend that this game be a rental before buying it, especially if you’re not really into adventure type games. Only buy it if you're a hardcore fan of adventure type games. But be warned, it may only last you 2-3 days before you decide that you don’t like it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/21/02, Updated 03/21/02