Extinction Impressions - E3 2017

By Kevin Mitchell Posted on June 22, 2017

With plenty of fighting game experience under their belt (Killer Instinct, Divekick, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike), Iron Galaxy has partnered with Maximum Games on a new action game with a deep fighting mechanic. Extinction wasn’t revealed until right before the opening of E3 2017, and the trailer showed a single protagonist fighting against giant ogres in an abandoned city center.

Although Extinction is currently planned for a release sometime in Q1 2018, for PC, PS4, and Xbox One, the game is currently in a pre-alpha state. A single-player title, you play as Avil, the last Sentinel and the only one with the skills to save humanity from the endless waves of Ravenii. With your goal to defend all of the neighboring cities, the sprawling countryside, and to rescue any townsfolk trapped by the invading creatures, you must make use of your parkour like abilities.

From wall runs to dashing in mid-air, to using your whip as a grappling hook to swing and propel yourself over buildings, you must use all of your skills if you are to succeed. Minions are weak but appear in significant numbers. Thankfully, you are free to slice your way right through them using a wide arrange of different strikes, launchers, and magical powers. The massive 150-foot tall Ogres are the games true advisory, and with their power to destroy buildings with a single attack, you must be on your guard.

As you explore the cities, you’ll come across citizens that must be rescued by summoning a portal that will transport them to safety. At the same time, this serves as a homing beacon to those that wish to chow down upon their flesh. Extinction feels like a cross being Attack on Titan and a music-style experience. The giant creatures pose the greatest threat, and you can approach each one with various strategies. During the mission playthrough, we saw two different types of ogres. The first had easily broken wooden armor protecting their hands, feet, and head. After swiftly dodging his giant fist that came crashing down on a nearby building, Avil latched targeting a hand and with a powerful rune strike, cleaved right through it. Losing a hand is only a temporary setback, so Avil then went to disable the ogre by cutting off a foot. With the ogre immobilized, he vaulted on the roof of a nearby structure and latched himself to the neck of the monster. With a powerful strike, the ogre’s bloody head fell to the ground, killing the beast. In fact, if you don’t cut off the head promptly, limbs will regenerate. I saw this first hand, when the next ogre had gold-plated armor, requiring you to cut multiple latches first, before attempting to cut any limb.

As the demo came to an end, I was informed that the goal was to have a full campaign storyline with multiple locations, custom battles with varied objectives and even online leaderboards. Extinction will also feature an endless horde mode aptly named Extinction Mode. Extinction is set to release Q1 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.