Second Extinction preview by John Pruitt and Matthew O’Toole
“You do have dinosaurs in your…uh…uh…dinosaur park…yes?” stated the great, and thankfully not late, Ian Malcolm, before disaster struck Isla Nublar in Jurassic Park. Rather than an island, however, Second Extinction, by developer and publisher Systemic Reaction, has you contend with an entire PLANET-full of blood-crazed, voracious dinosaurs and their seemingly numberless hordes.
The best way to describe Second Extinction, in John’s own words, is Left 4 Dead meets Jurassic Park with perhaps a bit of Far Cry thrown in for good measure in regards to how health kits work, the overall open world mission structure, etc. Additionally, you have access to four classes and their own character personalities. I personally also greatly enjoyed the fact that my quick comment wondering if there will be drop pods like in Warhammer 40,000 and Halo was quickly answered when, yes, you deploy each mission in a drop pod. Starship Troopers fans also should rejoice, as the only good dino is a dead dino!
The graphics and sound design do their job well for depicting a formally populated Earth overrun by the mutant dinos, and besides some classic early beta glitches, watching the limbs get blown off that velociraptor about to gnaw on your arm never gets old. The mission structure spreads out over a wide set of areas, each with their own threat level, although as John and I mentioned, anywhere with rabid dinosaurs roaming is always a high threat level! The mission we chose to play was a satellite re-uplink one which featured, among other things, an explosive finale with a T-Rex and Triceratops, as well as John getting killed by the rescue ship’s door falling on head – classic! This is a good time to mention that, even in solo play, you have access to respawns, allowing John to not have done all that work for none and granting him the ability to laugh and for us to laugh hysterically and finish the mission!
I would like to take a moment to quickly mention a significant factor for PC players – time is marching on, and Second Extinction will not properly work with Windows 7 as I found out the hard way, opting to watch John play a mission solo and discuss with him. The game is three player co-op, and like any game in its genre, is obviously ever the more fun with friends. To be honest, it looks like such a fun romp that I am rethinking hanging on to Windows 7 and may take the free upgrade to Windows 10 that Microsoft offered me over a year ago! If the game even tickles your fancy just a little bit – make sure you are running the current OS!
In any event, I think John and I walked away only wanting to play more of Second Extinction. Despite my technical difficulties, the game is exciting enough that I think I will be upgrading my OS later on this week to play! If you are a fan of the co-op FPS genre, as well as an avid fan of dinosaurs, do not wait 65 million years to give Second Extinction a test run!
Check Out our Second Extinction Gameplay Video:
Second Extinction is available for Windows PC via Steam Early Access for $24.99. The game is also in development for Xbox Series X and Xbox One.
For more information, visit www.SecondExtinctionGame.com, and follow @2nd_Extinction on Twitter.
Your local neighborhood nutjob, gamer, and teacher! I'm an avid fan of many genres such as platformers, shooters, horror, etc. I am also an avid tabletop gamer - hugely into the worlds of Warhammer and all of their spinoffs. I'm a big believer in being objective - even if something is not my cup of tea, I want to talk about it on the objective level - is it well made, crafted with love, and with care for the fans? If so, that's a good game in my book for someone and well worth their hard earned dollarydoos!
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