close ... but no cigar... (Extermination (PS2))

Member Name: realgoll

Product:	Extermination (PS2)
Date:	11/06/01 (46 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great fun, collecting add ons, kill Ugly Monsters

Disadvantages: too short, not enough action , no puzzles

This game marks the debut of the survival-horror genre on the PS2 - and a good effort it is too.
You play a typical Marine sent in to investigate a communications breakdown at a research center in the South Pole, unfortunately your plane crashes upon arrival and you get split from the rest of your team. Plot sound familiar? I was imediately thinking of the film 'Thing' but it also reminded me of the PSOne game 'Parasite Eve 2' (i'm not going to mention Resi Evil). So - break in, find your buddies, clean up the area, get the hell out- nothing new, but the game does prove to be pretty decent.
Its a third person affair and the graphics are pretty good, our hero is smooth and responsive looking like a tooled up Marine should, we have varied interiors looking convincing enough whilst outside is a snow swept landscape with great swirling snow effects.
Combat control is intuative and easy to pick up, and mainly comes in the form of Ugly Monsters which are well drawn but not varied enough for me and they don't prove too difficult. Weapons are your basic gun and knife which both have a primary and secondary attack- and thats it. The good news though is that you can find parts to upgrade your gun with, such as shotgun attachment or grenade launcher etc, this is pretty cool avoiding juggling weapons plus its great fun finding extra bits to add on. You can also discover other helpful equipment and health upgrades. An interesting addition to the gameplay is the fact that you can get infected with a virus if tagged by a creature which means you can eventually die, so you can find yourself having to hunt down vaccines to cure yourself - this does add a bit of a tactical element to the game. Add to this the agility of our hero who can jump from ladders, swing from bars and climb about then there is plenty to do, so the game is pretty cool overall.
Soundwise its pretty average although the voice acting is good there lip syncing is nowhe
re near close, maybe because this was developed in Japan?
So, a great game- but sadly it should have been much better, where was all the action - definitely not enough to kill, more survival than horror, no puzzles just locked doors and fixing stuff, all been seen before, and sadly, as everbody seems to be saying on PS2 games, its way too short with little replay value, it could have been a classic, but its just good instead.

Summary: