Extinction trailer shows off its swish combat
Jolly green giants
Extinction is what happens when you take the thrilling, lightly traumatising anime Attack on Titan and remove the unsettling weirdness of its giant naked men, in favour of genero-ogres wearing tasteful loincloths. That's a bit of a shame, but the game they're starring in has me a mite more interested than the Dynasty Warriors re-skin that was the official tie-in Titan game. It's mostly down to the combat, which looks acrobatic yet pleasingly arcadey, your character clambering all over giants in a manner resembling a Shadow of the Colossus sequel directed by Shinji Mikami. A new trailer goes into a bit more detail on that fast-paced ogre-slicing, while explaining why you're carving up these poor misunderstood brutes in the first place.
As with previous trailers, around 50% of the following video is taken up with talking heads, while the first few seconds are keen to inform you, in very big text, that Extinction does not include microtransactions. It's worth persisting, as it offers a nice overview of Iron Galaxy's monstrous action game.
As the video explains, you're the last of the Sentinels, an ancient order dedicated to dealing with giant ogres, along with other, far tinchier monster threats. A magical portal has begun to spew the behemoths into our world, so it's up to muggins here to track them down and chop their big old heads right off. To do this, however, you'll need to build up a special energy by dispatching creatures out in the wilderness, or by doing side-quests. But while you're out running errands you'll need to worry about those giant monsters picking off the populace.
What I like most about the above footage is the combat, which looks fast, fairly complex, and decidedly unrealistic in a Devil May Cry sort of way. There's a focus on aerial movement (really a necessity with enemies this big), meaning you'll have a handy grappling hook you can use to bring yourself closer to foes - or foes closer to you. There's lots of talk about animation cancelling too, so the developers seem keen for this to appeal to fans of high-level fighting and action games.
There's a little while yet before we can murder some jolly green giants ourselves, as Extinction isn't out until April 10th.