Wisdom Incorporated’s scientific research is centered on genetic enhancement, one of them being biochemical experimentation. Josh Calloway, an employee, gives Wisdom permission to perform experiments on his body. Wisdom uses the research toward a secretive project, “Legacy.” The fusion of a rare metal and human soul, a weapon capable of unimaginable power is created. When Josh figures out Wisdom’s plan, he and a coworker, Eliel Evergrand, attempt to escape from the laboratory, but are caught. Eliel’s soul is fused into the core of the most powerful Legacy created so far, code named E.O.E.

SOTB had a strong emphasis on its plot – too strong, in fact. Cinematics in the title went on for well over 15 minutes. With Eve of Extinction, Yukes has decided to continue the tradition of a plot supporting the action, but has trimmed the cinematics down significantly. Sadly, Eve of Extinction’s story is not quite as interesting as SOTB, though it could be said that the excessive violence found in SOTB is what made it more entertaining than your average tale. From start to finish Eve of Extinction’s is predictable, but the rest of the game attempts to suffice.

The combat is the real star of Eve of Extinction. Yukes has designed the game so that the game eases the player into the complexities of combat. At the start, Josh has his fists and two pole sword weapons at his disposal. His combat experience is limited and combos are tough to accomplish. Once Josh starts to battle more, he’ll gain experience points that are applied to each of his weapons. When a weapon levels up, it usually becomes more powerful and adds a new move to its repertoire. Bosses will earn him brand new weapons and eventually Josh will have over 10 weapons. Having so many weapons is a nice distraction, but there are too many pole/sword-esque weapons. As it stands, at the game’s end, only three or four weapons were in regular rotation during my combat experience.

Even though weapons have similar attack functions, each has a separate “Legacy Attack.” Legacy Attacks come in varying flavors, whether it is a powerful offensive attacks, the ability to momentarily stop time and invulnerability to physical attacks. Yukes made sure that gamers have to use each of the abilities throughout Eve of Extinction’s adventure. For example, one puzzle might take place in a room with two of three stone dragons spewing fire. By using the weapon that has a fireball Legacy Attack, the third dragon can be ignited, allowing Josh to solve the puzzle and be on his merry way. The unfortunate downside to Legacy Attacks is that Yukes decided they shouldn’t be enabled with a button press, but rather, by using the right analog to perform a displayed motion on the screen. The frustration associated with performing these movements makes the Legacy Attacks not worth using in battle.

One problem that has cropped up in other 3D beat-‘em-ups (e.g. Rockstar Games’ Oni) is that the games forget what genre they are in and start overstepping their boundaries. Games like Eve of Extinction shouldn’t be including platforming elements unless the developer is ready to design the rest of the game around supporting that. Eve of Extinction includes several instances where Josh must use the special attacks of each weapon to propel himself around the environment. The camera and control are not equipped to make this work correctly and it only leaves the player wishing he could kick more ass instead of falling and losing half his or her health over and over.

Eve of Extinction does pretty well visually. There is nothing about the game’s style that particularly stands out; it has a decidedly generic feel. But technically, Eve of Extinction has few faults. The frame rate was consistent the whole way through, even though there were instances were nearly a dozen guys seemed to be on the screen at once. All of the game’s environments were notably detailed and the game never had too much of a repetitive feel, a big feat to overcome for a beat-‘em-up.

It might not revolutionize the beat-‘em-up genre, but Eve of Extinction is certainly a welcomed addition to a fledging area of gaming. Hopefully we will see future installments in the genre from Yukes in the future. We certainly would not mind a new Sword of the Berserk.