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Platform Filters:   All Platforms  Xbox   GameCube   PlayStation 2   PC   Game Boy Advance   Site Sections:   Updates  News   Games   Publishers   Developers   Reviews   Previews   Release Dates   Editorials   Glossary   Contact Us		Review:       18th June 2001: Extermination  Survival horror meets pest control in this new adventure for the PS2.. Posted by John Grothier - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe Extermination is the first of what will surely be many ‘Survival Horror’ titles to appear on the PS2 over the next year or two. The fantastic Resident Evil: Code Veronica is due for release very soon, but even if you have not experienced Code Veronica on the dustier-by-the-minute Dreamcast, you should give Extermination a try. Set in the Antarctic, you play a ‘Special Forces Recon Marine’, with the ridiculous name of Dennis. Flying over the frozen wasteland on Christmas Eve 2005, one of the engines on your aircraft explodes causing it to crash – luckily right by the very base you were sent to investigate. So starts your mission: ‘Code Limit’. You start outside the base with a blizzard gusting around you. Everything is quiet – too quiet. After powering up a lift, you descend into the station and use huge ventilation pipes to slide down even further, into the heart of the base. Dennis Riley and partner notice the odd mutilated body strewn around and an odd scratching sound can be heard from the darkness. You flip on the flashlight and – oh my god – a pink cockroach! Alright they are a bit more scary than that, and the biological experiments get bigger and nastier as you progress. Their AI is also very impressive; the roaches slither away and hide once you start firing. You will also discover that a very nasty virus is on the loose... Extermination owes a lot to the Resident Evil series and Dino Crisis, but it has some excellent features of its own, which should be implemented in every game of this genre. Firstly the control issue; fantastically responsive analogue control, a simple intelligent action button that when pressed will allow you to leap over a chasm, use a computer terminal or cling to piping overhead. There are also ammo dispensers littered around the base, so now you don’t have to count every bullet fired from your gun. The weapon is the most impressive feature in the game, gone are the days of wondering whether to take the shotgun or the rocket launcher – now you can have both! Your SPR 4 rifle allows different add-on units to be fitted, if you can find them. There are different sights and scopes, a shotgun unit, a rocket launcher, and my personal favourite; the flamethrower. Puzzle solving is a big part of the game; fortunately most are logical and make perfect sense. A lot of the problems involve finding key cards and pushing switches to open doors. Cut scenes are shown regularly with information of how the story is progressing, but unfortunately there are some lip-sync problems which spoil the overall effect. With these sort of games cheesy dialogue seems a must, and Extermination is no exception. You half expect Jean Van Clam Dam, (whatever), to pop up and start kicking something or other. Just once it would be nice to have a game of this type with some well-written scenes and some original direction. The graphics in Extermination are suitably dark and macabre – think John Carpenters ‘The Thing’. All the environments are in true 3D, which is especially noticeable in first person mode. The moving biological experiments vary greatly and importantly make you jump. Sound is used well, with realistic effects for weapons, and scary noises are made by the man-made monsters. The only weak points are the aforementioned dialogue and lip-sync problems. The PAL conversion has unfortunately no 60htz mode, which maybe the cause of the sound issues. A screen adjust option is included. Although Extermination borrows heavily from the Resident Evil style of gameplay, it has enough original features to be a very playable and creepy experience of its own. John Grothier             Latest Images:		Review Scores:    Graphics:   Sound:   Gameplay:   Length:   Overall: Click here for our Review Score Guidelines.  Review Summary:  Survival horror with some impressive new features. Run, jump or climb into a frighteningly real environment created by amazing 3D textures. Realistic real-time lighting, fire, water and blizzard effects electrify the surroundings. Your orders are to: Eliminate any hostile forces, rescue any survivors, and lastly, exterminate the virus at all costs.  Related Games:  Extermination for PlayStation 2  19  Screenshots  1  Review Click here for All Game Information.
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