Fight The Extinction!
Modern David & Goliath
There are few things that are more enchanting than taking the role of a small ant, charging themselves against giant übermonsters and ultimately defeating them, like a fiery war god or the world's bravest warrior. I loved it in the Shadow of the Colossus and cultivate most of the battles in God of War, which makes us love the idea of fiddling with more of this in the forthcoming Iron Galaxy Studios Production Extinction. Extinction is an action rpg game where you will take on 60 meter high giant-orcs one after the other head first, and from what I got to see from the title under the E3 2017, the whole setup promises something that can become quite an epic experience if executed right.
Calling Extinction for a side-project for the developers in Iron Galaxy, could be seen as a proper understatement. The studio is best known for developing Killer Instinct (season two and three) as well as Divekick. But maybe this is what this genre needs more of, new thinking and wild ideas that really originate from a completely different type of game? However, it is clear that Iron Galaxy has very high ambitions for Extinction and that they are really excited to share the project as they worked hard over the past year.
Action, Pace & Destruction
The game is based on a few key important pillars. The action revolves around a Monday all week-long scenario where the player is constantly facing the same violent threat image where a bunch of wild-wailing giant monster-orcs attack the village intended for you to defend. Another very important aspect of the game is the amount of destruction that is included and honestly, it feels super exciting even this far in advance. The third pillar of Extinction is the game pace. The character of the player is really, really, quick on his feet and with the help of various accessories and weapons (such as a magic whip) it is relatively easy to leap and navigate between different buildings like a mix of Tarzan and Spidey. The combination of these elements as well as the aesthetics that the game was drowned in, makes Iron Galaxy's latest title feel unique, and interesting in advance.
Game producer Derek Neal talking about the concept in a interview:
"One of the big things is the traversal. The way that you move around the environment and the way that you can chain all of those things together. Avil has a lot of options for moving around. He can run horizontally, vertically along walls. He can pull himself around the environment with his whip. He can air dash through the sky. He can go floating on things. He can bounce off of awnings, tree branches and things like that. Run off of ramps and launch himself into the sky. And all these things can be recombined. Any one of those things is kind of intuitive and fairly easy to do if you just pick it up. But the hard part is recombining them all together into one big fluid motion."
What we know about the story & combat
The player assumes the role of Avil, one of the last remaining "Sentinel Warriors", and part of a bastard order that worked persistently to best defend humanity from gods, trolls and demons for hundreds of years. The giant enemies attacking the city as Avil intend to defeat are called Ravenii's and they come in waves, they attack from all four corners - and of course it will be up to you to try to welcome them all to the death kingdom.
When I first see the game in motion, it feels like there is a bad gap between how skilled a beginner is versus someone who has been trained to juggle around Avil for a couple of hours. There are some deep layers in this game, and mechanics that require training, time and patience without hesitation. I need to work hard to fill a special gauge that activates Avil's most lethal super-acrobatic attacks.
The fact that Avil is the main character of the game is of course in no doubt at all, but to call the 60-meter-high monsters for something other than the stars of Extinction, would be directly lying. Because it's the giants who steal the whole show here. They vomit a gross liquid all over the place, they carry different types of weapons, have different body types and attack in different ways. In the demo version I got to see them testing the game during the E3, we measured two giants, of which one was equipped with an armor made of wood, while the other was wearing gold armor and equipped with a gold-plated shield. Attacking them and climbing on their respective torsos in search of body veins, hearts and spines were a very special gaming experience that required us to use different types of tactics. Running on the different parts of the woodwork was easy, while the gold-plated well-polished protection panels made it difficult to use the same effective strategy.
Concluding
It's all about cutting off the heads of the monsters and there are apparently lots of different ways to do this. However, Avil often has a number of smaller tasks that must be solved before either attacking or while the giants ravage into the city and it can be anything from putting civilians in security to protecting specific buildings (at all costs), something that builds a wonderful & stressful game experience.
Extinction looked unique and above all entertaining during the E3 2017. After leaving the demo i felt quite impressed and excited to see what in store for this possible epic fantasy saga.
