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Here,
you are the endangered species...
By James
Anthony
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Look
at your entrails spill - you are no match for me!
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Don't know about you guys,
but maggots give me the creeps. It's not a personal thing, they
may be nice creatures, but finding them feeding on something dead
in the garden usually requires gloves, dark glasses and a few chunks
of nitroglycerine.
Imagine the horror then, when a rescue mission to the maggot-free
Antarctic brings me face to face with not itsy bitsy slimy maggots,
but metre-long beasts that scuttle about and spew green excreta
on you.
It's only a bit of mess, you say. Well, not really.
The green stuff infects you with a mutation bug and you end up
looking like a possum that's been hit by a truck and run over a
couple of dozen times.
How do we know this? Well, we've discovered the wet and weeping
remains of a couple of security guards and researchers within a
secret Antarctic base that is the centre of a distress call.
The buildings look as they have been the scenes of major battles
and there are fires burning all over. In fact, they look strangely
similar to scenes from John Carpenter's cult classic, The Thing.
Anyway, back to the maggots. Actually, we've found out the scientific
name for them is "Hydra" and they are deadly. They have
also infested the icy military outpost and are damned hard to kill.
It takes at least five rounds of ammo to blow the little mothers
away and, if you get too close - urrrppp! - you're infected.
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Think
you can hide up there? Burn!
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Fortunately, you can find detoxification packs, health kits and
other items on your exploration and they can help you survive, for
a while longer, anyway.
How did I end up in such a maggot-filled hell hole? Well, I plonked
Extermination into the PS2 and then began a journey into fear.
And fear it is, despite the 'feel good' weaponry, as the developers
have designed a game that will have you looking over your shoulder
into some very dark areas.
Your rifle has a torch attached, so that helps a bit, but I've
been exceedingly jumpy for hours now - and I haven't played the
game since yesterday. Your M-16 look-a-like gun is actually modular
and is very upgradable.
This means you can add new scopes for better range, new barrels
for a higher rate of fire and so on.
There are about six interchangable sections of the weapon and this
modular 'Lego' take on the protagonist's weapon is very cool and
adds plenty of excitement.
Extermination is graphically excellent. The characters move well,
look good and - when you are examining the place from the self-deluding
safety of being behind a gun - the third-person view of the laser
sight and torch are terrific.
Both the luminous torch beam and red line of the laser follow objects
in 3D, giving an increased depth to the environment.
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The sniper-rifle
is very useful in tricky situations
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The areas you explore are made all the more memorable by smaller
details, like splashing water, translucent fires, nicely detailed
pieces of military equipment, computer terminals and realistically
dented fuel barrels.
The game moves at a good clip, about 30fps, and while there is
sometimes a bit of interlace flicker here and a few jaggies there,
the game is extremely cool to watch. The illusion of being stranded
in one of the most desolate environs on Earth is very convincing
- Kudos to Deep Space for doing a great job with the eye candy.
The sound is an audiophile's heaven, with snow crunching underfoot,
water sploshing, weapons giving a nicely metallic echo within the
sections you move through and the monsters - I'll never forget that
elephantine wailing...
The scripting is a bit cheesy and the cut scenes are, at times,
far too long. Sure, they look nice and cut-in fairly seamlessly,
but when the lead characters rabbit on about clichéd metaphors
and lost loves it interrupts the flow of play and there is no cut-off
control for them. Give me action, not drama!
Extermination does contain a minor glitch or two, but there does
seem to be a big one in reloading your blessed weapon. Don't know
where I went wrong, but in one saved game I could not reload my
M-16.
And, usually this translates to a major health hazard, as the maggots
(sorry, Hydra) have grown in size and have become considerably nastier
by this stage. Some resemble inside-out dogs, while others look
like purple and green poached eggs that take some getting past.
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The Beastie
Boys are back in da house!
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The controls are very good, are nicely registered and make things
like changing from a walk to a creep very easy.
The perspective is usually spot on, but you can get into a bit
of difficulty every now and then when situated near corners as the
view sometimes becomes blocked.
Despite these minor hassles it's hard not to be enthusiastic about
this game and it is very easy to lose a lot of time playing it.
Many of the developers from Deep Space who worked on Extermination
are ex-Capcom programmers, so if you liked the Resident Evil series,
you should have a monster of time playing this title.
The plot is pretty good, but the pacing of the action will be the
aspect that hooks most serious players. The modular weapon setup
is very cool, the puzzles aren't too hard and graphics rock the
house.
In all, Sony Europe and Deep Space have rekindled my love affair
with survival horror games by providing a solid base, and building
on it, for what is one of the best Resident Evil clones ever.
If you liked the movie The Thing, the game System Shock
2, or survival horror games in general, then this PS2 action thriller
could be just what the doctor ordered.
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