Wanderer Seth – Metal Gear Survive

Agile, brutal and not like most wandering crystal zombies, Wanderer Seth seemed imposing at first. That is, until his poor AI and predictable patterns made it all too easy to topple him. Simply build some turrets, run away and repeat. It was both underwhelming and incredibly hilarious.

Extinction is a game in which humanity is faced with the threat of extinction due to invading ogres known as Ravenii. You play as Anvil, a soldier who is skilled enough and decides to go up against these giant ogres. The combat system is multi-layered with players first having to attack specific parts of an enemy ogre before they finally bring it down.

The combat in the game is fast-paced and will see you running across rooftops and other high places as you attempt to bring the enemies down. The environments in the game are also fully destructible and the Ravenii will smash everything in their way. While the developers set out to create a game with complex mechanics, they weren’t entirely successful. However, as we noted in our review. there’s fun to be had in the combat against the giant ogres. If you’re ever feeling stuck at any point in the game, then the following video walkthrough should help you out.

Update: This video is no longer available.

To learn more about the game’s development and the inspirations which led to the conception of this unique game, Gamingbolt spoke to Iron Galaxy Studios’ Tom Carbone who answered these questions for us.

"It’s no secret that we’re big fans of fighting games at Iron Galaxy, so we wanted to do something like Shadow of the Colossus meets Killer Instinct."

What inspired the central idea behind Extinction- of emphasizing skill-based gameplay to take down giant ogres?

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of fighting games at Iron Galaxy, so we wanted to do something like Shadow of the Colossus meets Killer Instinct. We set out to make a game with a deep campaign, but with plenty of skill-based combat along the way.

One of the immediately noticeable things about the game is its vibrant art style. What inspired the team to use such a distinctive style?

Extinction was created with a vibrant palette that was inspired by illustrative comic book art styles. The whimsical evil, but not dark evil, was conveyed through hand painted textures that exaggerated the illustrative style. Our forced camera perspective enhanced the ogre’s monstrosity while over the top animations allowed for dynamic characters that traverse through the environment seamlessly. Some of our UI choices also tried to convey a sort of dark, gritty style.

There are a lot of questions the game’s premise raises- why these ogres are attacking, where did they come from, and what are the goals and motivation of the main character. Will the game’s narrative shed more light on these questions?

Put simply, these 150-foot monsters, known as Ravenii, have one goal in mind: Extinction of the human race. This has been happening for hundreds of years, and the game’s narrative will definitely shed some more light on their backstory. As for the goals of Avil, the game’s main character, it’s pretty simple: Save humanity from being completely wiped out by the Ravenii.

Do players have to make important choices in the game which affects the story?

While the story is largely linear, we implemented several modes that make Extinction highly replayable. Modes like Skirmish Mode and Extinction Mode were designed with replayability in mind and allow players to switch things up and try their hand at defeating Ravenii again and again.

"The difficulty in this game is more about pushing yourself to get higher and higher scores, and to defeat the high scores of friends and foes online."

In a game like this about highly dangerous enemies, the game’s difficulty is bound to be an important aspect of the game’s design. How have you chosen to effectively use challenges and difficulty in this game?

The skill ceiling in Extinction is really high and really great players are capable of taking down tons of ogres at a time. The difficulty in this game is more about pushing yourself to get higher and higher scores, and to defeat the high scores of friends and foes online. The Ravenii also have extensive armor setups that will challenge players in each fight.

Some of the game modes like the Extinction mode sound perfect  for some multiplayer fun. Has online gameplay been a point of focus for this game?

We absolutely thought about multiplayer and would love to have an online mode in Extinction, but for now we’re focusing on the social aspects of multiplayer, such as our Skirmish Mode. If Extinction ends up resonating and we are fortunate enough to get to make a sequel, we will definitely consider adding online multiplayer into the mix.

 Usually, we get to fight giant enemies only for boss battles, but Extinction has made this the main gameplay component. What inspired this decision?

Going into this, we knew that Avil’s strategy wasn’t going to be to outright win the war against the Ravenii, but to save as many lives as possible. Given that, we decided that we needed a nearly impossible enemy, leaving Avil with the difficult task of saving as much of humanity as he can before the Ravenii take over.

Will players be able to upgrade their character with better equipment and abilities as the game goes on? What is the progression system like in this game?

Players will absolutely get to upgrade their character’s skills and abilities as the game goes on. We wanted to make sure that players were able to progress along different skill trees in order to develop a path that is most comfortable for them. The deep skill tree will allow you to upgrade combat and mobility options, as well as give you the opportunity to almost become a sort of super-powered human.

"With Extinction, we are doing a bunch of things for the first time, but that’s the fun of game development. Doing bigger, better and harder things is the only way to grow as a studio."

 Are there any particular challenges that the team faced while working on this game’s development?

Every game development is filled with challenges. With Extinction, we are doing a bunch of things for the first time, but that’s the fun of game development. Doing bigger, better and harder things is the only way to grow as a studio.

 Are there plans to bring this game over to the Nintendo Switch?

We love the Switch at Iron Galaxy and we definitely won’t rule out bringing the game over to the platform, but right now it is just going to be on PS4/Xbox/PC.

Is there anything more you’d like to tell our readers about Extinction?

Extinction is definitely the biggest game we’ve ever done, so we’re excited to see how fans receive it. Between the skill-based combat and a narrative that story enthusiasts will be happy to dive into, we think there’s something in Extinction for just about everyone out there.

"Not that the world design helps in that regard either. Extinction‘s main hook is the randomization of certain elements like terrain, enemy layout, buildings and so on."

Extinction starts off with Xandra, an orphan of the endless war in Dolorum who is subsequently thrown into a labour camp. She meets Avil there and when the Ravenii arrive to cause havoc, the two are whisked away and trained. Avil becomes a powerful Sentinel that relies on his mobility and combat expertise to destroy the massive Ravenii. Meanwhile, Xandra learns about magic and starts working on a plan that could decimate the ogres for good. You’ll also interact with King Yarrow as you defend numerous towns while learning more about the Sentinels that served to repel the Ravenii.

It all sounds very intriguing but there’s just not much reason to get invested. Avil has the demeanour of a brooding protagonist but plays the staunch hero in equal part, bragging about tearing ogres apart but hiding his own dark past. Xandra is mostly sassy and will often banter with Avil. I’m sorry but that’s all I got from this character who had a rough life, surviving on the streets after her family died. King Yarrow is just kind of there to provide some more dialogues and probably add some urgency. It doesn’t really work. I’m not against Extinction for its static dialogue boxes where entire conversations play out, the lack of story-telling and plot development during the missions or the typical characterization. However, this intriguing world comes across as little more than a backdrop to swing from these trees while slaying ogres rather than actually feeling alive.

Not that the world design helps in that regard either. Extinction‘s main hook is the randomization of certain elements like terrain, enemy layout, buildings and so on. The campaign has its share of story missions set in different locations with a main objective (usually defeating Ravenii or smaller foes) and several side objectives (rescuing civilians, not dying, etc.). At certain points, you can randomize the environment and bonus objective, leading to what’s supposedly a unique experience.

"If the colourful palette and fantasy design, which admittedly looks good despite frame drops (that too when the game runs at 30 FPS) and pop in issues, wasn’t there, I’d think this was just Dynasty Warriors with more flying."

Better examples of this exist in the other modes like Extinction and Skirmish. Extinction is your bog-standard horde mode where you must survive against waves of enemies and Ravenii – dying will end your “run” so to speak and the next playthrough will have a different arrangement of buildings and enemies. Skirmish is more of a challenge mode where you generate a “seed” mission of sorts and challenge others to beat it. Similarly, you can play someone else’s mission and try to beat it as quickly as possible.

The problem is that Extinction‘s environments are fairly typical, bordering on unoriginal. Despite an abundance of buildings that seem to encourage the game’s movement, the environments are little more than spaces for the Ravenii to rampage in. This isn’t like Sunset Overdrive where environments can either provide tactical advantages for assaulting enemies (with the movement itself increasing your speed unlike running on foot), challenging structures to scale or interesting ways to show off. You can scale buildings with the wonky wall climbing to rescue citizens which is done by holding Y near a crystal and maybe kill some enemies. Other than that, they exist to be destroyed.

Sure, there are watchtowers that need to be protected and if you let a Ravenii destroy too much of the city, then the mission fails. But that’s pretty much it and honestly, I’m still peeved that the cityscapes can be ignored completely for the sake of grappling and air-dashing. The movement in general feels nice and fast, implementing an air of fluidity that doesn’t require any real mechanical skill (except when trying to cancel that Rune Strike and dash away from an ogre’s attack). Most of the movement comes into play when fighting the Ravenii but I felt like there was a missed opportunity to have it mesh with the environmental design. If the colourful palette and fantasy design, which admittedly looks good despite frame drops (that too when the game runs at 30 FPS) and pop in issues, wasn’t there, I’d think this was just Dynasty Warriors with more flying.

"There is a certain appeal to avoiding a Ravenii’s monstrous strikes, since they’ll effectively one-shot you, and mounting its back for that final epic decapitation."

Then again, Dynasty Warriors had more compelling combat. Extinction‘s combat isn’t bad per say but there’s not a whole lot of variety to it. When fighting enemies on the ground, which have some neat varieties like projectile types, flying types and heavies that can’t be juggled, you’re really only mashing X to slash and B to dodge. Altering X button presses results in different moves like a circular slash for crowd control. Holding X will let you launch enemies into the air for combos. And…that’s more or less it. You can also dodge attacks and be forgiven for thinking there’s more to the combat than that. There is this satisfying degree to just hacking and slashing enemies but most encounters are just bouts of slashing, dodging and slashing again.

Fighting the Ravenii is a different matter. First off, there’s no hacking and slashing here. Instead, you hold down Left Trigger for a special Rune Strike, where time appropriately slows down, and hack off an ogre’s limb. Go for its arms and it can’t smash you into next week. Cut its legs off and it’s stopped dead in its tracks. The end goal is to build up enough of your Rune Strike meter for a killing blow. You then climb on the monster’s back, hit LT and – you guessed it – slice its head off from the back of the neck to kill it.

Over time, Ravenii will start to wear armour to protect their limbs and depending on the material, you’ll either have to cut through them once or break a number of locks. Some armour could be made of Brightsteel which can’t be broken. Killing enemies, hacking off exposed Ravenii limbs, saving civilians and so on will help build up that meter and you can thus take down Brightsteel wearing enemies as well. There is a certain appeal to avoiding a Ravenii’s monstrous strikes, since they’ll effectively one-shot you, and mounting its back for that final epic decapitation.

"It’s just a shame that this system of randomly generated elements feels so limited and safe. Objectives never really boil down to more than “kill this, rescue that”."

The climbing mechanics aren’t always the most intuitive – there are cases where you’ll try to Rune Strike a limb or piece of armour and instead scamper up a beast’s leg. There will also be times when a Ravenii will suddenly catch sight of you and suddenly bring its fist down, killing you instantly. You respawn some distance from your last target, thus losing some precious time but that’s about it. Overall, when missions devolve into various Ravenii, scrappers and Brightsteel wearers alike, at your door as the city collapses around you, it is possible to ignore the entirely repetitious nature of the combat and tedious objectives to engage in an epic battle.

It’s just a shame that this system of randomly generated elements feels so limited and safe. Objectives never really boil down to more than “kill this, rescue that”. If combat against the Ravenii felt more dynamic and the random elements expanded upon this with more interesting side objectives, Extinction could have stood on its own even without a campaign. However, every bit of gameplay just feels so one-note and mind-numbing. Even the upgrades don’t really offer much aside from increasing the slow-mo of Rune Strike or increasing damage when the Rune Strike meter is full.

Extinction was never going to win awards for its concept but it could have appealed to many with a fully realized world that was fun to explore and fight in, recreating those David and Goliath moments across a larger fantasy battlefield. Instead, we get little more than movie sets that garner little sympathy when destroyed and characters that are filling roles as opposed to being real people. As Avil says at one point, it doesn’t matter which king he served since they were beheaded and replaced before their bodies were cold. It’s kind of fitting that the Ravenii, the biggest deal in Extinction, should garner the same level of apathy from the player. Keep in mind that Extinction isn’t an outright broken experience but the lacklustre core and repetitious gameplay effectively waste what could have an interesting concept.

This game was reviewed on Xbox One.

Extinction is the upcoming game being developed by Maximum Games and Iron Galaxy Studios. It has drawn many comparisons to both Shadow of the Colossus, as well as the popular anime series Attack on Titan. The game was first announced in June and had an epic cinematic trailer released along with the announcement. Later at E3, we got to see more of the game in the form a short gameplay session (albeit of a pre-Alpha build).

The game’s emphasis lies on fast-paced movement mixed with some elements of strategy as players scale walls and move along rooftops to fight the gigantic Ravenii (colloquially called Ogres). A new gameplay trailer for the game has just been released and it showcases the hero engaged in combat with various enemies.

As per the information given on the game’s website, there will be a deep story campaign, but as of now, what we know is that the hero (who is a sentinel) is the only one who can save mankind from the Ravenii.

Extinction, the newest game by Iron Galaxy, has received a brand new trailer for E3, and it’s basically just full of you taking on massive ogres. If Shadow of the Colossus is too slow for your frenetic giant beast slaying needs, then Extinction is just the game for you!

The combat looks fast, furious, dynamic, and a fair bit difficult- it’s actually going to be interesting to see just how many players end up ragequitting if the combat is anything near as intense as the trailer seems to imply that it may be. At any rate, if you get through it, at least you will be engaging in what I can only hope is the ogres’ eponymous extinction.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below. Make sure to let us know what you think in the comments section. Extinction launches in 2018 for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Call of Duty: Ghosts’ latest DLC Devastation is now available for Xbox One and Xbox 360 via Xbox Live. It features four new maps – Ruins, Collision, Behemoth and Unearthed – one of which allows you to take on the role of the Predator of sci-fi film lore, along with a brand new chapter for the Extinction campaign titled “Mayday”.

Vice President of Production for Activision Daniel Suarez stated that,“Devastation is another incredible offering for fans to sink their teeth into. With an array of new maps tuned for the fast-paced, run-and-gun action Call of Duty is best known for, new weapons in both multiplayer and Extinction mode, the next chilling entry in the game’s Extinction story, and now the Predator – Devastation continues the unparalleled season of Call of Duty: Ghosts post-launch content.”

Devastation will be releasing for Xbox Live first while other platforms such as PS3, PS4 and PC will receive it later.