Second Extinction
For anyone who thought Muldoon was the hero of Jurassic Park
I WONDER WHY I NEVER HEARD ABOUT RAPTORS WITH INVISIBILITY POWERS BEFORE
The Ankylosaurus roamed the plains of what is now North America in the late Cretaceous period. It weighed as much as a pair of rhinos, and put their thick skin and horns to shame with an armored shell and bony club at the end of its tail that could sweep predators’ legs from under them.
Seventy million years later, it was discovered by a Victorian palaeontologist named after—of all people—PT Barnum, the circus barker from that Hugh Jackman musical. And a century after that, I’ve just managed to get one tipped onto its back, and am hastily emptying my minigun’s entire belt feed into the glowing weak spot on its exposed belly. (Oddly enough, this tactic is kind of historically accurate, minigun aside—flipping an Ankylosaur tortoise-style was the only way predators could get past that armor plating.)
Playing SecondExtinction results in a lot of moments like this, where I find my mind reaching back over a childhood of dinosaur books like a tongue over a cavity. Trying to remember whether the venom-spitting was a real thing or an invention of Jurassic Park’s, while failing to sidestep the latest glob of acid catapulted through the air. And I’m left wondering why I never heard about these raptors with the invisibility powers and naturallyoccurring flashbang grenades.
OK, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that these last two are rather less faithful to scientific fact. There’s a flimsy justification for their existence—all mutations and a fallen Earth—but honestly, it doesn’t really matter. What does matters is that SecondExtinction crams the screen tight with uber-dinos, and hands you the means to put them back on the endangered species list: Guns, grenades, and the odd orbital laser.
You and couple of friends pick characters, each with a smidge of personality and an expandable selection of perks and gadgets, then drop into the enormous map for a self-guided dinosaur safari. I mean that ‘drop’ bit literally, by the way—you enter the level in a metal pod, burning through the ozone and clouds.
JURAS-SICK MOVES
This is a game untroubled by subtlety, the same way my dancing is after three gin and tonics. It’s all explosions and strafing and body parts sent wheeling through the air (and so is the game, wocka wocka). Occasionally, you shoot a velociraptor so hard its tail falls off. Occasionally, they drop nuggets of glowing loot I’d normally describe as tickling my lizard brain, but this is a slightly thorny term given that’s what I’m currently busy splashing all over the shop.
This is about the most Second Extinction ever attempts to engage your brain. It makes for a perfect hangout game, with plenty of space for you to shoot the shit while you shoot shit, but also means that, without friends, your mind might start to wander to halfremembered dino-facts. It’s clearly not meant to be played this way—alone, you’ll get absolutely murdered, something that developer Systemic Reaction is trying to rebalance a little.
The game is currently in the Cambrian stages of Early Access—meaning you can expect to find some really weird-shaped bugs and the occasional explosion—so it may be wise to hold off a little before taking the plunge. But if you’re looking for a conversational backdrop more stimulating than that fake beach you use to mask the state of your living room on Zoom calls, or have an inner child who won’t mind seeing their favorite creature endlessly massacred, then Second Extinction delivers exactly the thrills you’d expect at first glance.