Developer: Deep Space Publisher: Sony Released: July 24, 2001 Genre: Survival Horror
Heading in to the PlayStation 2 generation a lot of genres received a much needed shot in the arm. Survival horror rose to prominence with Resident Evil and Silent Hill but began to peter under too many subpar titles. Generic games like Countdown Vampires brought nothing new to the table and made the genre feel stale. But with increased hardware power the genre could frighten gamers in new ways. Extermination was one of the first survival horror games for the PS2 and showed a lot of promise. With its premise that echoes the Thing (which ironically received its own title) there is a lot to like. But its execution keeps it from being as good as it could have been.
Extermination takes place in a top secret research facility in Antarctica. You are US Marine Corps member Dennis Riley, part of Team Red Light sent on a mission to investigate a distress call from the base. The distress call requests an air strike to destroy the facility but Team Red Light is instead sent to investigate. Unfortunately your plane is shot down and the team is scattered, forcing you to explore alone and hopefully regroup before the strange happenings at the research base kill off everyone.
There are a lot of immediate similarities to both Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The game does not have tank controls thankfully, allowing you to navigate the environment like a normal human being. Like Code Veronica Extermination uses polygonal environments and allows you to manipulate the camera somewhat freely. Rather than ink ribbons you use batteries to save and power other machines around the facility. Luckily recharge stations are usually nearby, making it less of a factor. Ammunition is scarce but not to the extent of Capcom’s title. There are ammo depots around the base that you can use infinitely. However they are few in number, often forcing you to backtrack significantly or rely on the knife.
Combat in Extermination is where it goes in its own direction. Rather than carrying an assortment of weapons your rifle can be outfitted with a large variety of pieces for different situations. There are different scopes, secondary fire like a flamethrower and grenade launcher, and even magazines for different rates of fire. The game has a generous auto aiming feature yet still gives the option to shift to first person aiming or sniping when necessary. The various scopes also help make combat tolerable, especially when the larger mutants with their glowing weak points show up.
Possibly its most interesting feature (or worst depending on your view) is the infection meter. Most enemies will raise your infection percentage with each attack. As your infection gets higher it has different effects on gameplay. At 100% your maximum health is reduced to 60 and constantly depletes. The only way to cure a 100 % infection is with a MTS machine. But MTS vaccines are in short supply, as are the booster shots that can cure small infections. This system forces you to be even more cautious as you play as it is possible to reach a state where it is impossible to continue. Avoiding infection becomes harder in the game’s second half as virulent water becomes plentiful. The infection system is interesting but I don’t like its implementation, making it more of a nuisance than something that makes the game exciting.
To a certain that extends the entire game. The first two hours of Extermination are incredibly boring. You spend an inordinate amount of time exploring samey corridors and fighting infected insects. When infected humans show up more of the gameplay flaws rear their head. Most of these encounters take place in tight corridors where the auto aim and camera die a horrible death. On top of that even if you aim for their core they still take an absurd number of bullets to kill. It isn’t until later in the game that you can increase your maximum clip size, meaning you will frequently have to backtrack pretty far to ammo depots. Conservation of resources is a key feature in survival horror titles. But Extermination mostly focuses on combat, making its flaws that much more annoying.
It isn’t all bad. When everything comes together Extermination is enjoyable. Dealing with the tougher mutants in wide open environments is legitimately fun as there are almost always props like exploding barrels to make life easier. The many rifle attachments offer many ways to play without bogging down your inventory. Speaking of which, I love the fact that you don’t have to juggle items. Not that the game has an extensive item list or many puzzles but that “feature” is one that many survival horror games borrowed from Resident Evil when they honestly should not have.
The story is mildly interesting though you’ll have to search for the data pads to get the most out of it. For some reason Extermination has two localizations. The European version has different voice actors and even character designs. I said the story was interesting but not enough that it needed to be translated twice. That attention would have been better spend on the rest of the game. With some polish Extermination could have been a great game.
In Closing
Extermination has its rough spots but is still a likable game. Extermination treads familiar ground and although some of its features do not pan out the game is still fun in the end. But it had potential to be better.
