EOE: Eve of Extinction

"For the beginners..."

Many of the action games that you play on the Play Station 2 have very little that you can work with in terms of originality. You’ll find that there are plenty of different elements to work with in E.O.E, but in the end, you have Tomb Raider with a rather interesting battle interface. Sure, there are some huge environments and even some pretty impressive weapons that you can work with, but you still have a game that you’ve seen before, with just a little more action.

The story line that you find within this game is little more than a story of political tactics and a revenge story all rolled up into one. You have a character that has control of a rather wild weapon, which reacts to his every thought. Although this might seem like something out of Star Wars with a lightsabre, the weapon that you have is actually a living embodiment of energy that works at your command. With all of that in mind, you face off against a rather large corporation that wants this weapon back and off you go!

The Game Play –

What you have, is a single man who has control of a very impressive weapon that comes in several different forms. You’ll go through several different stages of action in which you have to solve puzzles and fight against sporadically placed enemies. The stages themselves are huge and expansive, with several different puzzles that you need to complete in order to move onto the next stage. While this might not be a big deal, some of the puzzles are actually harder to complete than originally thought when you first start the stages. Once you’ve gotten them down, the only thing that you need to learn is how to fight.

The fighting portion of the game is actually where it picks up a little bit, in which you need to learn how to use the weapons available to you and perform combinations. Regardless of what the instruction says throughout the game, you need to be quicker with the control pad and switch out between different weapons in order to make the combo’s possible. For every combination that you successfully complete, you’ll be able to earn experience points that will give you access to new combinations for future use.

Sounds simple right?

Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy as it seems because of the way that the PS2 control is set up. In most cases, you’ll switch between these weapons and have to continue the combination, but you’ll go in the wrong direction while trying to hit. Then there are special moves that you can perform, but only with the analog sticks, which takes plenty of getting used to! Throw a couple of different climbing puzzles into the mix, and you’ll find that using the control pad, the analog sticks and a camera that doesn’t help you out only keeps you frustrated instead of moving along through the game.

The Visuals –

The world of E.O.E is pretty extensive, but simplistic in the way that it is presented. There are some explosions and the enemies seem to have a life all of there own. However, you’ll be looking at buildings and streets that all seem to have little or nothing new to them, regardless of what stage you’re on. The scaling and the scrolling of the game are pretty impressive for the first hour, but it gets exceptionally old after that! One thing that the game does have going for it in the visual department is the way that your character fights with the different weapons and the different movement styles that he seems to portray.

The Audio –

The game seems to really fail in this department, with most of the audio coming through on the sound effects and the voice of your weapon. The music is pretty much contained to special events throughout the game and those come at very few and far between points. With that being said, the sound effects themselves are pretty cheesy, with the voice acting sounding something like an old Resident Evil game! If you can get past all of that, then you may find that less is actually better and you may find that the game is best played with something else going in the background.

The Verdict –

Eve of Extinction is a game that is best played with a grain of salt. If you like puzzles and slight action thrown in for good measure, are a fan of the Tomb Raider games and you don’t mind minimal showings of both visuals and audio, then you’re in the right spot. However, if you like games that have intense, non-stop action throughout the game, then you really need to spend you hard earned money on something better than this. Until there is another Tomb Raider game released {and they are saying there will be} Eve of Extinction is simply an alternative!

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/26/02, Updated 04/26/02