eXtinction

Is Extinction the Attack on Titan game fans have been waiting for? It feels like the popular anime and manga franchise was specifically designed to inspire video games – it’s got action, tower defense, and massive bosses with implausibly specific weak spots – and yet we’ve yet to get that definitive AoT game. One or two decent ones, but nothing truly great.

Thanks to a nuanced combat system, Extinction is fun hack ‘n’ slash experience whose poorly executed story and repetitive mission design stops it from being memorable for all the right reasons.

Extinction is a sword-slinging, monster-decapitating action game that does a decent job of getting the blood pumping and reflexes twitching. The eye-catching, anime-inspired art will even give you some nice scenery to do it all in. It just never rises to be much more than that, and all the while it’s inviting comparisons to other games that do. Extinction lands in that awkward position where, yeah, it’s usually fun - but you’re not really missing anything incredible by giving it a pass.

Extinction is a good blueprint for a more interesting game. I came in excited to slice up some giants, but after the fifth rote exercise I was kind of over it. There are some flashes of brilliance every now and then but the over-reliance on the core energy meter idea keeps it imprisoned in the depths of repetitive arcade territory.

I enjoyed the combat and thought the concept of Extinction was really decent, it just wasn’t implemented correctly. Worth a play, but only if the price was a bit lower. If you’re looking for a game that lets you take down massive enemy creatures, stick with the original. Or pick this up for a fun rental night or wait for a price drop.

A sword in the hands of someone with an impressive vertical is all humanity needs to stave off annihilation from an army of 150-foot-tall giants. This ludicrous power fantasy is the driving force behind Iron Galaxy’s Extinction. Scrambling up a giant’s back to lop off its head delivers plenty of excitement at first, but the act loses appeal quickly, exposing an experience that clings too tightly to one note and fails to provide anything meaningful to engage with or explore.

A fine idea at its heart, Extinction ultimately falls flat on its arse thanks to a dearth of interesting objectives and gameplay sorely lacking in variety. Chucking in loads of content clearly isn't the answer when you're doing the same damn thing over and over again.

For a studio whose extensive portfolio comprises a mostly supporting role on big AAA projects, the opportunity to work on a project of its own volition must be an exciting one for Iron Galaxy – a chance to flex creative muscles and channel design experience into a single vision.

When you’re done with the campaign there are various game-modes to play around in if you want to keep hacking away at Ravenii. The first up is the daily challenge which as you can expect delivers a new challenge to the community every day. As a leaderboard sucker it’s been nice being near the top and look forward to comparing scores with my friends. Extinction is your typical “survive as long as possible” mode where the game will just continue to toss increasingly more difficult waves of enemies at you until you bite it. Finally there’s Skirmish where the game will randomize a seed code that w...