Extinction Preview
Iron Galaxy’s upcoming action adventure title, Extinction was revealed only a few short weeks ago with a splashy trailer showing a badass warrior taking out a massive ogre-like monster in a high flying and fast paced style. It was gory, it was violent and it had me immediately interested. Having a chance to sit down with two members of the development team here at E3 2017, I got an early look at a title that likely won’t release for some time.
Bearing the inevitable comparison to Attack on Titan the devs were quick to point out that while they were certainly flattered by the comparison that they also felt their game would be able to stand on its own in the long run. Perhaps more on point would be a comparison to the time old tale of David vs. Goliath but that Attacks on Titan feel is hard to escape. As the demo booted up, they also told us that this was pre-alpha gameplay and asked for our patience of any glitches we saw along the way. With that in mind, I’m willing to be much more forgiving than I usually would be when seeing a game in this particular state.
You play as a Sentinel, the last Sentinel, in fact, a long line of warriors protecting your world from the Ravenni, 150-foot murderous ogres. Now, taking out a beast of that particular stature can’t be easy so everything you saw in the reveal trailer is fully possible in Extinction. The swift moving parkour, the wall running and the whip grappling to traverse your virtual playground are all there alongside the fluid combat and limb severing brutality. This all sounds great on paper but in practice, the game certainly has a way to go before I’d expect it to be in consumers hands.
The demo showcased two battles with our Sentinel, Avil taking on the Ravenni and despite this seeming like a monumental task victory came far too easy to come across as a proper ‘boss-style’ battle. Avil quickly removed armor from the monster’s feet and wrists then followed with removing said limbs from the beast’s body. Climbing up the ogre’s body it was a swift 1-2 punch and the Ravenni was beheaded, doomed to death. Some slippery camera work and a less than intense than expected battle just left me wanting for a little bit more.
Here’s the upside, however; pre-alpha gameplay means that there is still an absolute ton of development time ahead for Iron Galaxy. This is an experienced studio who has high expectations for themselves and I’m fairly certain they’ll be refining Extinction for some time to come. Promising a compelling narrative campaign with a plethora of sidequests, as well as daily challenges, Extinction (Horde) mode and custom battles it seems like they’re planning for a robust amount of content when the game finally releases.
I liked what I saw from Extinction with respect to their vision for the game and also the insanely fast traversal mechanics, that was on the plus side. The negative takeaway is that this may have been just a little bit too early to display it, especially at one of the biggest showcases in the gaming world. I’m going to give Iron Galaxy the benefit of the doubt that they are hard at work to develop a game much better than what I saw this year. I’ll hold out hope that the next time I see the game it will be in a much more polished state than it is now. If you’re interested in Extinction in any way I’d say to look at it with cautious optimism for now and look forward to seeing some cleaned up gameplay later on down the road.
