Extermination

Review

by J.C. Barnes

The creators of the first Resident Evil for the PlayStation console have created their first survival horror game for the PlayStation 2 with Extermination. While it is doubtful that Extermination will be remembered in the same regard as Capcom's game, it is a solid title that fans of the genre will want to play.

Like so many others in the genre, Extermination relies on a clichéd storyline told through CGI movies to get things rolling. As a part of an elite military Special Forces team, you and your group of thick-skinned commandos are to fly into an installation where scientific experimentations have gone horrifically wrong and all contact has been lost with the base.

Extermination is best described as predictable. From the beginning introductions to the end of the game, it's almost comical how easily gamers will be able to tell which character is going to die, which will live, and which characters will have "secret" identities revealed. Thankfully, the bland story doesn't take too much away from the gameplay.

Instead of picking up new weapons throughout the base, you're given one extremely customizable Special Purpose Rifle, which can be upgraded with night vision and laser sights, grenade and flamethrower attachments, shotgun shells, and regular machine gun armaments. This cuts down on the limited carrying capacity of character inventory that is present in just about every other survival horror game, while at the same time offering some variety through customization.

Extermination also deviates from the norm in that its camera angle can be manipulated into a first-person perspective, allowing for precise aim at the oncoming mutations. This is actually important in the game, since there are specific weak spots on enemies that have to be targeted. The first-person camera is also extremely useful for surveying your surroundings in many situations, and you never have to worry about enemies attacking you from offscreen since you can see everything at all times.

Another interesting feature of Extermination is the infection meter. When enemies attack, you become infested with the virus that ravaged the entire installation, which is measured by a percentage. Repeated infections will eventually push the meter to 100 percent, causing a mutant growth to rip out of your back and begin to pulsate. Your max health is also reduced from 100 to 60, and doing things such as stepping in water will only aggravate the infection and decrease your health more rapidly.

Once your health drops to zero, the growth in your back spreads throughout your entire body and you'll become one of the zombie-like creatures you're trying to eliminate. At this point, the game is over. The only way to cure the infection once it has reached 100 percent is to get to a medical bed and administer special treatment capsules found throughout the base. The infection element causes you to think before running headfirst into a room full of enemies, and plan out strategic routes and perform room surveys before entry. Also the frantic pace of the music when you become infected adds to the tension and nicely complements the "survival horror" theme of the game.

It would be tough to believe that Extermination would be nothing short of fantastic, but there are a few drawbacks that keep this game from being the masterpiece it could have been. The graphics, while solid, are not that impressive for a PlayStation 2 game. The character models and environments are similar to Dino Crisis 2 for the original PlayStation, and while they get the job done, they are nowhere near the quality of Resident Evil -- CODE: Veronica for the Dreamcast, which was released more than a year before Extermination.

While the sound department fares much better (aside from the cheesy dialogue that seems to plague every survival horror game on the market), the main problem with Extermination is that you never really care about the characters or the story. Although there are some frightening moments and an eerie atmosphere, there aren't nearly enough horror elements as there should be.

Extermination is a solid entry in the genre, but it doesn't do much that hasn't been done before in games from Konami or Capcom. The gun upgrade ability and infection meter, for instance, can be looked at as souped-up versions of the weapon attachments and poison meters in the Resident Evil series. The game does warrant a look from fans of the genre, however, and should tide players over until the release of CODE Veronica or Silent Hill 2.