Extinction

In a world where humanity is on it's last legs, you play as Avil, one of two warriors remaining in the world capable of defeating the Ravenii (giant orcs). Avil must prevent the extinction of the human race by saving as many civilians from the last remaining kingdom of human kind from being wiped out by the Ravenii.Extinction starts off with an animated cutscene where the secondary protagonist, Xandra talks about her childhood as an orphan, having to resort to stealing in order to survive got her sent into a labor camp where she meets Avil, the main protagonist who is also there doing the forced work. She also talks about how humanity has been at war with itself since time immemorial and how on that particular day all of that changed when a giant Ravenii, a member of a giant ogre race descended on their location.

There’s a real sense of thought put into Extinction‘s story, which tells the tried-and-true formula of ancient warriors with superhuman abilities defending a collapsing civilization. There are a few plot twists and revelations later on in the campaign, which consists of twenty-eight short missions, but all the lore and the world-building of the opening scenes is thrown to the side, and there’s a certain reluctance from the main character to divulge any interesting information about his past for a large portion of the game.

I love stylized visuals and when a developer decides to go for a cell shaded type of graphics I'm immediately interested. Such was the case with Extinction as well and rightfully so as the game is beautiful to look at. Even better, it's light on your PC specs and runs smooth as a whistle. Characters are very detailed, and even simple effects, from Avil jumping to swipes of your sword, is rendered in beautiful stylized, almost cartoony graphics that are a joy to look at

The campaign is split into seven chapters, each with up to 10 missions and each one takes you to increasingly larger maps which are still relatively small and are fenced by invisible walls. Some missions feature pre-made maps, while others are procedurally generated with a randomized set of objectives. There is usually one objective that you are required to do in order to finish the mission and other optional ones that award you bonus medals that you use to level up Avil.As you move around the multiple locations in Extinction, you will have to save civilians by teleporting them to safety using magic rune stones while facing off against Jackals and Vultures. The bulk of Extinction and what the entire game’s advertisement is built on is taking on giant Ravenii, Attack on Titan-style. There are moments of platforming ecstasy when you string together two grappling maneuvers like something out of Attack on Titan or Freedom Wars, but that happens once every other mission. The game never explains the logic behind of what you can and cannot grapple onto, and it seems like you can only use the ability on tree branches and buildings that have a piece of wood sticking out of them.

Most combos are also pointless to pull off, because either the enemies will die before you finish the combo or you’ll get attacked in the middle of a combo as the enemy won’t always react to your attacks.All the attacks are linked to the Y button, but a double tap followed by a brief pause and another hit results in a different move than a simple triple tap. It started to feel a little repetitive by the midway point of the game, but that’s when I purchased the advanced combat maneuvers that turn Extinction into Devil May Cry.There is an entire upgrade system, but again most of these are simply additions to things you could already do like jumping higher and traversing environments faster

There are lots of very enjoyable aspects to the game, which makes it all the more upsetting that it is let down by the repetitive nature of each mission and the broken flow that comes when you aren't fully charged for those kill strikes. It took me around 8 hours to beat the game and honestly, I probably enjoyed it more than I should due to the excellent traversal skill, the sheer epicness of combating the Ravenii and the stylized visuals. I only wish that there was more to it as this ultimately feels like it serves as a solid foundation should there ever be a sequel.