eXtinction: A Review
Background
The following storyline is taken directly from the games introduction…….
Quote:
eXtinction offers an action-packed arcade experience. Advance through 30 levels and defeat six savage bosses as special agent Nick Naster, a space pilot who has had top training in a multitude of modern weaponry. Naster loses his family to an alien virus known as Zeta 2, which mutates humans, and thus volunteers for the eXtinction mission. He must now wipe out all vestiges of the plague with the help of nine weapons including a chain gun, magma cannon, missile launcher and photon thrower
Introduction & Installation
Today’s giveaway is a whopping 331Mb zip file, which when installed expands to well over half a gigabyte, which is a little large considering when this game was made; though the music (17 MP3 tracks included) and video files do account for around 30% of the final install. It received 92% of 331 votes when it was given away back in July 07. I missed it the first time around because I was on vacation, so will be glad to be able to check this one out. I’ve seen someone describe it as similar to Duke Nukem, which is great, though I’m only familiar with the very early 2D platform version of the game as I never bothered with the later Duke Nuken 3D. It also has a very vague resemblance to Serious Sam, with its tongue in cheek character and the over the top weapons, though Serious Sam is a true third/first person shooter (there’s to be a Serious Sam 3 released at the end of 2008), whereas today’s game is really a glorified 2D arcade platform game. With excellent visuals and a violent theme running throughout, though for those who may be concerned there is a violence mode switch which can be password protected. There were 155 comments from the previous giveaway which can be seen by following the link below:
http://game.giveawayoftheday.com/extinction/#
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The Game
As mentioned in the introduction above this is a 2D platform game, (with a 3D look to it) that offers some excellent game play if you are into shooters with a futuristic twist to them. The game is over four years old now, so the graphics are a little dated, though still pretty good. If you’re not up to speed with the last few generations of games, such as Silent Hunter 4 (and 3), Armed Assault, Stalker, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, Unreal Tournament, and most of the Tom Clancy stuff to name just a few, then this will probably be really cool. I’ve posted both the minimum and recommended specifications you’ll need to run this game successfully. The minimum requirements should be fulfilled with most community member’s computers as they are almost pre millennium specifications. Most motherboards since then will have included an on board video chip though the 16Mb chips wouldn’t have been standard till about 2003, before then 8Mb was more common, though if you adjust the graphical quality of the game to exclude backgrounds, clouds and turn off Anti-aliasing (via the display properties in your computers control panel and via the options menu – details can be found in the performance tips section of the documentation accessible either via the documentation button in the main menu or can be found within the games installed folder) and V-Sync (in the options menu under video settings); as well as use the lower screen resolutions, those with older motherboards may get away with being able to run the game. There are only three screen resolutions available; all of which are quite dated even for 2003. (640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768) You can change the bit rate from 32 to 16 if necessary. The latter two are accessible from the main menu directly as well as a window toggle, which if you’re going to play in the lowest screen resolution would be an ideal choice.
By clicking on the documentation button in the main menu you will find a detailed description of the game as well as useful information about improving the performance of the game, and software requirements as well as details of the games controls which include both keyboard and mouse - this is where a gaming mouse would come in useful as you usually have up to four programmable buttons that can replace key bindings). And even a troubleshooting section that mentions amongst other things updating your video drivers. Check out Version Tracker a brilliant piece of software that tells you which drivers are out of date and links you to where you can download them as well as other stuff as well – though there’s a yearly subscription of around $30 for the service – still if you have the spare cash, it’s money well spent. You also get a weekly mailing of updated programs lots of which are freeware. You’ll see the latest list by following the link below. Downloading the demo enables you to find all the drivers that need updating, but unless you buy a subscription, you’ll have to search out the drivers yourself (though if you have the time it’s not that hard. The subscription just makes it much more efficient and automated. (They aren’t paying me, :lol: )
Version Tracker:
http://www.versiontracker.com/windows/
There’s also a button to check for updates in the information section of the documentation. Oddly enough instead of checking for updates the link takes you to one of my favorite platform puzzle games called Barrel Mania, which uses a really cool physics engine. :lol:
On starting the game you are taken to a second menu where you can either start a new game, or play a previously saved game. The options menu is subdivided into Game controls, Video and sound settings. I’ve already mentioned what you can change in the video control box; the sound settings are the usual music and special effects sliders. With respect to the controls; these can be remapped easily by clicking on the appropriate key and selecting a key binding that you find easier to use, for example if you are a left hander you may want to change the WSAD keys for the arrow keys. There are several other keys that you will need to know if you are going to play this game seriously. You can also remap the left and right mouse button and adjust the mouse speed from this menu.
In the video settings, if you decide to switch of the violence settings of, you have to set a password. This toggle gets rid of the blood and gore, which isn’t really that bad IMO. When starting a new game you can choose any of the five characters available and then set the enemy bots AI by using the slider provided. This adjusts the AI from 0% (very easy to 100% extreme, with any point in between. From what I could see when changing this slider from 0% to 100%, the enemy seemed to zoom in on your character quicker and scored shots easier. I only lasted a minute the first time I put it on 100% wheras playing it on very easy (0%, it was relatively easy to survive (though I was still killed, but not as often. :oops: Once you’ve set your preferences you then enter the first zone which is the Scrap yard. Each zone has five missions. The other zones are called Red City, Neon Zone, The Desert, Base 21 and the Ruins. Each of which also has 5 missions to complete.
Each mission comprises of a set of objectives, for example, the first mission in the scrap yard zone consists of three objectives. You have to retrieve two ID Cards, activate 2 energy flow regulators and destroy 2 containers (model XM-245, oh yeah and stay alive. You’ll find loads of obstacles to stop you from accomplishing your missions from multi level platforms which you can only reach if you have sufficient energy in your
The following are the main features and the objectives of eXtinction:
Features:
• 30 game levels and six distinct zones
• Variety of music provided by 17 soundtracks (1h 13min of Music)
• Six intimidating bosses and numerous enemies
• Nine high power weapons for strategic combat: uzi, shotgun, chaingun, lasergun, plasma gun, bio gun, missile launcher, magma cannon and photon thrower.
• Spectacular Action
• Advanced particle and 3D lighting effects
• Hi-res animations
• 3D Models and objects
• 5 Different playable characters
• Afterburner installed in your backpack, powered by fusion generator.
Your mission:
• Find your way trough six Cities.
• Recover remaining data units and unfinished probes of antidote.
• Neutralize any opposing alien treat.
• Destroy six gigantic class-3 symbiotic organisms, half-human, half-machine, that are the carriers of plague and alien technology necessary for invasion completion.
• Prevent a global eXtinction of all known worlds.
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Images and Videos:
I’ve collected together a series of images; some I captured myself and some I copied from cgssoftware and Gamers Hell as well as from the games own information file. There’s also a video, which you can check out by following either of the links below, though it may take some time to get them working.
You will require the DivX 5.0 codec to play the video, which I found when following the link to see if there were any updates. You can download the codec from:
Video
http://www.cgssoftware.com/extinction.avi
or
http://www.gamershell.com/pc/extinction/movies.html
Images:
All on one page:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/eXtinction/
As a slideshow:
http://s109.photobucket.com/albums/n61/Whiterabbit_01/gaotd/eXtinction/?albumview=slideshow
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Minimum System Requirements
Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
CPU 500 MHz processor
Computer Memory, 64 MB RAM
Graphics Card 16MB RAM, OpenGL compatible
DirectX v8.0
DirectX 9.0 should already be installed on your computer via previous giveaways, though if you want to ensure you have the latest version (always recommended) go the Microsoft’s site and get the latest v9. This game does not support DX10, You can download the latest Open GL drivers from the second link below:
DX9.0c:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/xna/aa937788.aspx
OpenGL drivers:
http://www.driver-downloads.com/open-gl-driver.htm
Recommended System Requirements:
Windows 98/2000/ME/XP
1.2 GHz processor
128 MB RAM
ATI Radeon GeForce Graphics Card with 32MB RAM
DirectX 9.0
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The following are example of the weakest and the most powerful of the weapon load-outs with characteristics that you’ll find in this game: You can see all nine weapons by following the links to my photo bucket account. By the standards of some games today that’s a pretty small load-out, but it’s still enough to give you a feeling that you’re going to kick some ****. :lol:
UZI
Basic energy weapon
-Fire rate: High
-Damage rate: Poor
-Max capacity: 200 Cells
-Ammo: Energy Cell
-When out of ammo, backpack
power generator will be used
as a power source
PHOTON THROWER
Tactical weapon
-Fire rate: Poor
-Damage rate: Ultra high
-Max capacity: 25 Photon
Packs
-Ammo: Radioactive burst of
energy
Note: Ultra high damage.
Medium range radioactive
shockwave.
Casts damage through
platforms and obstacles.
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Conclusions:
Despite it’s large download size (for an arcade game), this is well worth the effort in my opinion. There’s a full 30 levels of challenging game play, which can be made relatively easy to very hard, though even on easy you still have to manage the maze of platforms to accomplish your missions. When the AI is set to maximum, you have a virtual non stop supply of enemies baying at your heels. There are loads of obstacles such as force fields and smart bombs that get in the way of your progress (as well as the myriads of baddies. Thankfully there are also plenty of weapons and upgrades such as energy cells, health packs, damage amplifiers (that increase the power of your weapons) as well as regeneration modules help you along the way.
If I didn’t have loads of games of this nature already, I’d certainly consider buying it (if it wasn’t being given away today), especially considering the price, which is what you’d expect for a four, going on five year old game to cost. Most off the shelf games of this age cost about the same or less to buy, for example I can buy Battlefield 1942 together with Road to Rome and Secret Weapons of World War II . (Effectively three games); all of which were made about the same time as today’s giveaway for about $20 or less, I know a friend in the US who bought Battlefield Vietnam for $10 from Wal-Mart’s bargain bins, and that’s newer than today’s game.
For it’s fun factor, playability and challenging game play as well as decent menus this is definitely worth 8 out of 10 in my books. I have most of the latest games in the strategy and shooter categories, but that doesn’t stop me from playing some of these older games in preference.
Thank you Merscom for offering this again; and thank you to the Game Giveaway project for being here. I love seeing what’s going to be on offer each day. Some you win and some you lose, but I’m sure every one of us has gained some excellent games over the year and a bit that this fantastic project has been running. :lol: What a fabulous idea this was.
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Notes
If you like today’s game you’ll also probably like some of the many space shooters (Shmup’s) that are available. You can find loads of freeware, abandonware, free browser games and free commercial games all with a futuristic and shooter theme running through them by following this link to the forums. It’s an ongoing list so for those of you who haven’t checked it out do it now because there are some fantastic free games to download:
