| Extermination | |
|---|---|
 North American box art |
|
| Developer(s) | Deep Space |
| Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment |
| Aspect ratio | 480i (SDTV) |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2 |
| Release date(s) | JP
March 8, 2001 PAL June 8, 2001 NA July 23, 2001 |
| Genre(s) | Survival horror |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | ELSPA:
15+ ESRB: Mature |
| Input methods | DualShock 2 |
Extermination is a survival horror video game for PlayStation 2. Since the title was a first-party game and came out very early in the system's life cycle, it was used as a showcase for the system at trade shows before its release.[1] The game was considered the first survival horror release on the PlayStation 2 and generated some hype amongst critics, but Extermination only received lukewarm reviews.
Contents |
Extermination takes place on December 24, 2005. It focuses upon U.S. Marines Special Forces Recon Sergeant Dennis Riley. Part of "Team Red Light", his squad receives a distress call from Fort Stewart, a top secret American research facility in Antarctica. The distress call is a request for a prompt air strike on the base. In response, Team Red Light is sent in via airplane to investigate the facility. Two of the planes' engines blow and the entire team is scattered, but not before being told to regroup in Ground Facility Building B.
Dennis, along with teammate Roger Grigman, are outside the fort. The duo enter the fort through the ventilation shaft and after discovering that "this place looks like a battlefield," they try to get the drawbridge lowered so they can continue on their waypoint to Building B. The drawbridge is lowered, but Roger comes under attack by Hydras. He is infected multiple times and begins to mutate rapidly in front of Dennis's eyes. A mysterious woman in a contamination suit enters the situation and fires multiple rounds into Roger, killing him. She throws Dennis a SPR4 clip (an item that increases your maximum ammunition by 30 shots), an MTS vaccine ("Use it if you don't want to end up like your friend!"), and orders him to tell his team to escape the fort.
Dennis crosses the drawbridge and pursues the mysterious woman, who has initiated Lockdown, and preventing Dennis from opening the door to reach her. She tells Dennis the code to disable the lockdown. Dennis makes his way to the control room, bringing down the seemingly endless hydras, and quickly reflecting the loss of his partner as he sees Roger on the way. Dennis inserts the code, makes his way back to the door (and the enemies have conveniently respawned, a soon-to-be-learned lesson that the enemies will come back at certain times in the game) and is shocked to discover that the mysterious woman is his longtime acquaintance, Cindy Chen. Her boyfriend, Andrew, was Dennis's partner in Cambodia who was killed in action. Cindy, after being told the bad news, has not spoken to Dennis since.
Cindy tells Dennis that the Marines must leave the fort as soon as possible and "tell your government that their dirty little secret has become a nightmare." Dennis destroys a mutated human while on his way outside, and is stopped by journalist Travis Miller, who has been undercover for five years. After giving Dennis his card, the Marine comes across mutilated bodies of his fellow teammates. He comes across the Water Filtration Plant on his way to Building B and meets Carl Morris, an overseer of the project that's been causing problems. He tells Dennis that "there's something strange about the water, though you can't tell by looking at it." Carl dies from previous injuries, and Dennis meanders his way past puzzles and enemies to finally make it to Building B.
At Building B, Major Mike Madigan briefs Dennis on the situation thus far. He says that the Pentagon has decided to have the facility destroyed. There are three detonators that must be activated. Inconvenienly, the detonators cannot be detonated remotely, meaning that somebody has to activate them manually. Madigan proceeds with saying that he sent the rest of the team, and they are having problems. The remainder of the team goes to the helicopter outside, where a mutated human is drinking from a water tower. After taking it down, the water inside the tower moves around as if it is alive, and just when it attacks the team, it freezes in place. Madigan sends Dennis off to assist in activating the detonators.
Inside Building B, a woman named Sonja Leone tells him that the areas holding the detonators can be activated from Building B with the metal tags. Cindy arrives and tells Dennis to leave her alone. Dennis, knowing why she is so dismal, is irritated and tells Cindy "On that day Andrew sacrificed his life to save mine. Now I've sworn to protect yours, no matter what happens." Sonja gives Dennis a key to a quest item, synchronizes radio channels, and sends him on his way.
Dennis receives a distress call from Taylor, a RECON Marine, telling Dennis that he is with survivors and surrounded by enemies. Dennis picks up Taylor's trail, finds his dead body, acquires the Metal Tag, and heads to Lv. 2 detonator center, which is noted by Cindy to have little power and no lighting. He has another run-in with Travis Miller, who says that he has all the evidence and stories he needs to leave.
Dennis heads towards Lv. 1 detonator center and comes across a wounded RECON Marine, Gary. Gary gives Dennis a metal tag and tells him that he will head to the infirmary. Dennis radios Cindy, and Dennis recalls the battle he had with the mutated human on the water tower and how the water froze in place. Cindy notes that this might be a clue. Dennis goes to Lv. 1 detonator center and uncovers documents revealing that this plague is really caused by a bacterium called HO213, and grows faster on contact with water. He reads on about how full tests were conducted but when the DNA master strain is gone, the entire strain dies out. When the detonator is activated, he radios Cindy, who tells him that Sonja is missing.
Dennis goes back to Building B and finds Sonja dead, covered in a mass of putrid infestation. Dennis and Cindy work out that the bacteria are extremely weak against cold, and while the bacteria strain can never fully be destroyed, it would be put in a state of cryogenic preservation if exposed to the cold. However, killing the Master Strain (Origin) would wipe out the entire bacteria and present no threat in the future, when Antarctica would be subject to Global Warming. Cindy checks her computer and tells Dennis that the HO213 requires a certain temperature in order to be incubated, and the infested water heading towards the coolant is where Major Madigan and his team is supposed to be. Dennis heads off to save the team. Along the way, he is stopped by a mutated wall. Dennis picks up the grenade launcher and kills the creature, and heads towards Madigan.
On the way, Dennis comes across another RECON Marine, Filel (The game had the character's name spelled Filel at first, and then it was changed to Felil mid-game), who tells him that the Major shot him. Dennis climbs a small mountain and meets up with Madigan, who orders him to obtain an explosive Gary made, which is placed in the downed C-17. Dennis obtains the explosive and exits the plane. He gets a radio call from Madigan, telling him to meet up with him. Then, Dennis hears the sound of Madigan screaming over the radio as he is attacked by a creature.
Dennis uses the elevator to arrive at Madigan's position, and he is shocked to find Roger, hideously mutated into a superior fighting machine. Dennis tries to reason with Roger, but Roger is only able to say his name before submitting to HO213. Dennis engages Roger in a furious fight and emerges victorious. He comes across a seriously injured Madigan, who tells him that Felil was a CIA agent and the only person who was supposed come back alive. Madigan reveals that he knew about the bacteria the entire time, and was given a secret objective by the government to destroy it. Other factions in the government, such as the CIA, hired Felil to preserve the bacteria. Madigan promotes Dennis Riley to leader of Team Red Light, gives Dennis a disk containing valuable information over the bacteria, and sends himself with explosive in hand to the coolant reactor as a suicide bomber, leaving Dennis enough time to escape.
Meanwhile, back in Building B, Gary and Cindy have a conversation. Gary tells Cindy that he witnessed the death of Andrew. "The fighting was so fierce that Dennis couldn't even bring back his body." Cindy confesses that when Dennis had to give the bad news, she said things to Dennis she wished she could take back. However, each time she sees Dennis, she could not bring herself to apologize. Gary goes on to talk about how much Dennis cares for Cindy "He's willing to trade his life for yours anytime. He's hurt, but he's a brave man."
Dennis arrives in Building B and hands Cindy the disk given to him by Mike Madigan, Cindy decodes it, finding out that the project, Extermination, is a test of the bacteria's potential, basically labeling everybody in the facility, including the Marines, as "guinea pigs" in a bacteria experiment. Dennis heads towards the last detonator, and is stopped by Dr. Yan Falken, the scientist who is obsessed with the bacteria, calling it his son. Fortunately, the room shakes as things fall from the ceiling, hitting and killing Falken. He activates the last detonator and heads to the escape point with Gary and Cindy.
The facility explodes, and Origin, the master DNA strain, takes the form of a fish and chases the LCAC holding the three. Dennis mans the machine guns on the LCAC and takes down Origin in fish form. It then takes form of a gigantic beast and a showdown ensues over the small LCAC. Dennis again emerges victorious. The Origin then takes one last stand and recreates a look-alike of Dennis. After an extremely fierce battle, Dennis is victorious once more and ensures the destruction of the master DNA strand, silencing the threat of the HO213. Cindy apologizes to Dennis about the things she said to him, and Dennis accepts the apology, telling her that if she ever needed his help, all she has to do is call.
Extermination is a survival horror game, and as such players are encouraged to run whenever they can. This idea is reinforced by the fact that ammunition is limited for the main character's weapons (unlimited ammo refills are located in very few places), and enemies typically take a lot of damage before being defeated. Another element of survival horror that stays true is that special ammo for special weapons (such as the shotgun, flamethrower, grenade launcher, and the rocket launcher) is limited from the get-go. The game only has so much ammo. Once the player finds them all and uses them all up, they are gone for good.
The game also features an Infection System. Along with a conventional health bar, there is also an "Infection Rate". Enemies in the game have the potential to both deal damage to Dennis' health and raise his Infection Rate. When the rate reaches 100%, Dennis becomes completely infected by the virus, and his maximum health is not only reduced to 60%, but also constantly depletes. Additionally, things that would usually not harm Dennis (i.e. infected puddles) or would only infect him now take damage. This can be fought back using a special machine called the MTS Bed located in certain areas of the game which cures the infection and restores his health to full, but this also requires an MTS vaccine, a limited item. If Dennis' health reaches zero when infected, he will mutate into a creature and die, resulting in a game over.
In the beginning, Dennis is equipped with a Special Purpose Rifle, or "SPR-4" assault rifle, a weapon traditionally given to the armed forces in the game's setting. This weapon is highly customizable and can be fitted with gadgets such as a zoom scope, flashlight grip, radar, and parts which convert it to different types of weapons such as a flame thrower, shotgun, or rocket launcher. Dennis also has a Combat Knife and can do either a single strong slash or multiple weak slashes. Another unique factor in Extermination's gameplay is the "Battery Pack". Found near the beginning of the game, Dennis uses this rechargeable battery to activate various machinery, and execute functions common to most video games such as saving the game. The battery pack can be upgraded to hold more power by collecting cells found in various locations around the Fort.
Extermination received generally lukewarm reception from critics. Reviewers from both GameSpot and IGN praised the game for offering some originality to the genre, making some minor improvements over similar gameplay found in Resident Evil, the soundtrack and suitable graphics. However, they criticized the sometimes awkward, straightforward gameplay and voice acting, and how the game didn't really offer anything that could top other survival horror releases. Both publications rated the game 7.1 and 6.9 out of 10 respectively.[2][3]
The ratings accumulated by Game Rankings and GameStats averaged to 73% and 6.7 out of 10.[4][5]
Reviewers noted that the storyline and setting were reminiscent of John Carpenter's 1982 sci-fi horror film The Thing,[3] while some noted resemblances between Ennio Morricone's soundtrack for the film and the music present in Extermination. Other comparisons included Carrier, Resident Evil, and the water effects similar to those from the film The Abyss.[3]
  | GameStats: Extermination. Retrieved December 21, 2007. - GameStats: Extermination Cheats, Reviews, News |
| | Game Rankings: Extermination - Average Ratio. Retrieved December 21, 2007. - Extermination for PlayStation 2 - GameRankings |
|
|
Wikis
Quiz
Search
