Hack, slash, yawn. Hack, slash, yawn. Watch cinema sequence. Hack, slash, yawn.
Attempt frustratingly difficult platform jumping section. Hack, slash, yawn. This just
about covers the gameplay in Eve of Extinction. Lots of beating people up and annoying
platform jumping. Eve of Extinction could have been a great game, but the final product is
annoying instead of fun.The story is of the all too
common evil- corporation- who- wants- to- take- over- the- world variety. Gone are the
days of mad scientists or evil super villains as the antagonists in video games. Now we
have to face giant, power hungry corporations in a virtual display of capitalism gone
horribly wrong. In Eve of Extinction, the Wisdom Corporation has been developing weapons
of massive destructive power -- Legacy weapons, a fusion of special metal found only in
the lost city of Atlantis and human souls. Wisdom employee Josh Calloway and his
girlfriend Eliel discover the secret behind the Legacy weapons and try to escape, but they
fail. They are captured and Eliels nervous system is wired into the newest Legacy
weapon, code named EOE. Josh escapes along with the EOE and sets out to disrupt
Wisdoms nefarious plan for world domination.
The gameplay in Eve of Extinction is repetitive and rather
boring. Using Legacy weapons that you find along the way, you beat your way through
hundreds of guys in suits. The guys in suits do not react to your presence at all and
merely sit back and let you beat the crap out of them until they disappear in a puff of
smoke. Even if there are four or five enemies around you, they wait patiently for you to
defeat them one by one. Some enemies have guns, and they will take a couple pot shots at
you, but it is as if the A.I. isnt even trying in this game. Even more annoying than
the hideous A.I. are the jumping sections spread throughout the game -- platform jumping
sections where you are required to jump from building to building across seemingly
enormous gaps, and the much more annoying tiny box to tiny box jumping which has plagued
many 3-D adventure games in the past.
The gameplay is made even more annoying due to the horrible camera. You
constantly have to keep track of it and press R2 to keep it behind your character. It
wouldnt be so bad if you had more control over the camera, but all you can do is
center the camera behind your character. This makes the jumping sections much more
difficult than they should be because you can never get the camera in the right place.
Combat is also made more difficult due to the camera because it becomes a chore to
actually locate the enemy, especially inside of buildings where blind corners and other
obstructions abound. Luckily, the enemy wont attack you very often so you have the
luxury of a few seconds to orient yourself.
The Legacy weapons themselves are mildly interesting, but I
dont see how they can be so powerful as to allow the Wisdom Corporation to take over
the world. The EOE is basically a lightsaber; it even hums like it came straight out of
Star Wars. Of course, it takes 25 strikes to take down an enemy, so the similarity to Star
Wars ends there. It makes you wonder how a sword made out of concentrated light can make a
sound like a baseball bat when it hits an enemy, but Eve of Extinction tries to get away
with that, too. Other weapons include a staff that shoots lightning and a weapon called a
Snake Sword that is exactly like Ivys weapon in Soul Calibur. There are ten weapons
in all, some better than others, but all equipped with super attacks called Legacy Drive.
In order to perform a Legacy Drive, you have to collect two Ley Seeds to power the weapon
up. Collecting these is usually where the annoying platform jumping comes in. Once you are
powered up and ready to unleash the fury, you push down R3 and a pattern appears on the
screen. You have to trace this pattern with the right analog stick, and more times than
not youll mess it up and have to try again. It seemed like an almost random
occurrence when I got the patterns right. Annoyances aside, one interesting thing you can
do with the Legacy weapons is to switch weapons mid attack to make some impressive looking
combos.
Graphically, Eve of Extinction is great in some areas and not so great in
others. The characters are all superbly detailed and very clear. There are also some nice
looking textures scattered around on billboards and posters and things of that nature.
Also, the lighting is very well done. Each of your Legacy weapons emits a bright neon glow
that can light up an entire room. However, the enemy characters are rather bland looking
and there is very little variety in the enemies you fight. They are all just guys in
suits. The levels themselves are bland, too. When you are out in the streets, I admit that
the game looks pretty good. But when you go inside, you are either fighting in small gray
hallways or big gray rooms. A little variety would have been nice here. The sound is
barely noticeable. The music is boring and forgettable and the sound effects are pretty
much limited to the hum from your Legacy weapon and the grunts, groans, and thuds of
combat.
Eve of Extinction is one of the few games that I have ever found to be annoying
enough that I dont want to play it anymore. The controls are fine, other than when
performing the Legacy Drive actions, but the camera makes doing just about anything in
this game a chore. I really dont enjoy this game, but I will say that there is one
thing that I like. The box art is awesome looking. Too bad the product inside of the box
isnt as impressive as the picture on the cover.