Game 45: In Extremis

Name:In Extremis
Number:45
Year:1993
Publisher:US Gold
Developer:Blue Sphere
Genre:FPS
Difficulty:5/5
Time:4.5 Hours

In Extremis is one bizarre game. Seemingly made as a cheap cash-in for the Wolfenstein craze, yet it has actual cutscenes, by what appears to be a legitimate artist. An engine with many unusual things for the era, advanced beyond Wolfenstein and even Doom in some cases. So this had some actual effort put into it. And yet...I can't believe that anyone spent any real amount of time on this game. It doesn't feel tested.

Perhaps its for the best, its hard to look at In Extremis and not think of Alien. The game's most notable feature is that it rips off Alien more blatantly than any other game I've ever seen. Every single element of the first two movies is here, and I dare say it gets close to some of the stuff in Alien 3 as well. The similarities end visually, as once you fight them you're not in danger from their blood and the face huggers don't turn you into a ticking time bomb. Granted, no one ever does that aspect of the Alien films, even the official titles, but its an interesting thing to note.

With that in mind, the whole style of the game feels like a bizarre relic of pre-Doom times. With its inspirations exactly the same as Doom's, we sort of get that game through an entirely different set of eyes. Instead of a fast, action game, we get one that's plodding, slow, and without much tactical consideration. You move very slowly, and without the ability to as much select a different weapon, instead using whatever you last picked up. All you can do is walk backwards and shoot, and you don't know if you've been flanked until you've killed the enemy in front of you.

There are several new and interesting aspects that haven't been seen before, and some that haven't been seen since. There are doors that open in proximity, lights that turn the screen a certain color when you get close. These are interesting, but don't have much effect on the game. The new aspects are terminals, places where you can get various items or passcodes. This isn't like Marathon or the myriad of other games that use such things for displaying text to the player, no this is the only part of the game where you can get items. From guns, to oxygen tanks (because oxygen slowly runs out, why do the French love this so?), to bombs. You don't even get ammo, just another gun from another terminal. Saving works in this system too, although you get save codes automatically at pre-set levels, with pre-set equipment.

Unfortunately, once you've gotten over the unusual nature of In Extremis, you've pretty much seen all there is worth seeing. Instead of the key and door games, its passcode and terminal, key and door. The usual pre-placed monsters are replaced with respawning ones that come out of certain locations. You need to find a bomb in order to stop this from occurring. It was precisely because of this situation that I never finished the game. The game's not very interesting in terms of combat, at least I never found anything that offered something beyond slowly walking backwards. At a certain point, I was on a level, one I had a code for, where it seemed like I didn't have enough ammo to reach the bomb and the location I had to use it in.

Fortunately, multiple people on the internet have beaten this game, so there were working save codes for the final level. Where the player has to fight a Xenomorph Queen. The final boss has a lot of health, too much. The game is expecting you to run out of ammo on one weapon, then go to any of the dozen terminals here in order to get another weapon, and repeat this possibly that many times. I didn't have the patience to deal with that, but some Russian let's player did, and winning isn't impressive, just another cutscene.

I haven't mentioned the cutscenes for a reason...they're very French and non-verbal. There's an intro cutscene, which explains you're on a derelict ship, and an outro cutscene, where you get out of a mine onto a planet's surface. Presumably I missed a cutscene where we enter that mine. There are a lot of little cutscenes for doing things that other games would gloss over. Getting an item out of a terminal starts a cutscene, dying, I think using key cards, and using an elevator. They're the best part by far, feeling truly alien and cold. Like you're all alone in space.

Weapons:
There are two weapons I remember using, there may be more. The first were varieties of a laser gun. Some were a flamethrower, I think. None of them were any good. Then, there was the good weapon, the plasma...something or another. It slowed enemies down, it didn't take a dozen shots to kill things. Its actually a pretty good weapon. Which is why I'm giving this a single point. 1/10

Enemies:
Alien. Xenomorph. Facehugger. Xenomorph. Xenomorph Queen. The amount of variety is bizarre considering how little it matters. I didn't notice any real practical difference between enemies, except the queen, who is so boring I didn't bother killing her. The problem is with the regular enemies, the strategy is effectively, shoot, walk backward, hope it dies. This happens in a lot of games, but here this is pronounced because you move like a normal person in power armor, which is slow. You have no way of actually running away, so every fight is exactly the same. 0/10

Non-Enemies:
None. 0/10

Levels:
You walk around a bunch of areas until things happen. 0/10

Player Agency:
You have move, you have crouch, you have shoot, which is also the use key, and you run. You always run because this guy is slow. There's no real point in crouching. Having two vitally important actions bound to the same key screwed me over more than one time. Its just so slow and unwieldy, like a prototype tank that nobody should have actually made. At least the doors open automatically. People taut that like some kind of accomplishment.
The inventory is okay. You can pick up various kinds of items. Batteries, which power a radar and night vision goggles, the latter is completely useless. Oxygen, syringes, which are vital to surviving the game. Cards, which tell you what the level codes are and give you access to the elevators. Finally, there are bombs, which blow up enemy spawning points. 1/10

Interactivity:
Shoot and use are bound to the same key. The only thing I can use are terminals which are also item lockers. Neither of these are postitives. 0/10

Atmosphere:
There's something bizarre here. Not a feeling of "what's going on?", but a feeling of "why did they do it like this?". There are little cutscenes that play after some important actions. They feel weird and out-of-place. The whole thing feels familiar and yet, completely alien. It is not an all together good feeling, but it is the fondest I ever felt of the game. 3/10

Graphics:
On the surface, the game is very nice-looking. The monsters in particular are gorgeously grotesque. The problem is they have three frames of animation, and no side sprites. They're always facing the player. This isn't a problem in some games, because enemies always walk towards the player, but here, they walk in other directions. Frankly, the graphical artist would have been better off working on a RPG than a shooter or anything requiring animation.
The walls, within a level, are basically all the same. Everything looks the same. There's variety across levels and a few distinct interlevel graphics, but that doesn't change the bland profile the game builds itself. The floors have textures, which I think it beat Blake Stone to the punch on. I didn't notice much.
There are a few gimmicks here. In some places there are green and red lights. You approach them, the screen turns that color. It means nothing. Then, whenever you're next to a monster (which is always) killing it covers the screen in alien blood briefly. Finally, 45-degree angles. None of these improved the experience. 2/10

Story:
The player goes to a planet, aliens took over the planet, and the player gets rescued. I think. This has the double whammy of being confusing for an already pointless plot. 0/10

Sound/Music:
I think I was supposed to have music in this game, but I'll be honest, I'm not crying over that. I think there's some static background sound which is a weird combination. Regardless, the sounds in-game are all bad. First, there's the walking sound, which sounds like my ears popping, which unnerves the hell out of me. Not in a good way.

The problem is the sound effect dude, because he doesn't deserve a title, left in a bunch of popping sounds. Its noticeable in a lot of places, but its the walking sounds that are the most annoying. Running is only slightly better. The rest, is bland. The shooting sounds like generic sci-fi blaster, although the plasma weapons have a decent punch to them. Generic alien screams.
Supposedly, the game's sounds are ripped from Alien. As in actually stolen. Considering how very blatant the game is otherwise about stealing it, I can believe it, it explains the game's awful popping sounds. However, throughout the game there's a Star Trek-style red alert sound effect. I don't remember that from Alien, but I haven't seen it in years and I don't care to see it anytime soon. 1/10

Totaling it up gives me 8. I'm going to take a further 2 points off, because of the passcode system and because some of the savecodes are literally impossible to start from. That's 6. That is the lowest score any game has had that wasn't from the early '80s. The nearest in-decade games are 10 points higher. From a practical standpoint, this game is probably the worst one I've played yet. 90% of the time, except for nostalgia, games from the early '80s aren't that good.

As there's some shoot 'em up sharing the game's title, I'm going to go over modern reviews extremely briefly. Judging by most of these statements, but they don't really say why. They all really boil down to it having neat ideas, but its not as horrible as I think. The Alien wiki has this game, although the writer forgot to mention why its an Alien game, which is amusing, all things considered.
There are no period reviews in English, and all the foreign language ones are surprisingly nice, albeit in the 3/5 70% range of reviews.

So, Am I right or am I wrong? Well, considering the best reviews lean towards better than average, and nobody really played it, oh, and someone made a shoot 'em up sharing the game's title. The next FPS is going to be Freaks, the original, not the remake. Not before a detour into another Sid Meier flight sim.

In Extremis: Xenomancer

While playing a Coktel Vision game one day, I had a realization about French media. Its nuts, like Japan if not more so. Why? The most normal piece of French media I've ever seen was Alphaville, and that's because it was technically adapted from a British work. Although I'm sure there's some French film that's relatively normal. Is this because every French import ends up being a little bit weird at the very least? Italy was known for making arthouse and low-budget schlock for a while, now they just make bad comedy films, at least from what reviews I've seen of them.
Think about it, comics, usually weird. Films, usually weird. Games, I played a puzzle game that involved moving around triangles to advance through the ages.

I start this entry a little further back than I expected. Fine, I'll just get back there. It doesn't work like I planned. The level layouts in this game are...I'd call them fine in the sense that it exists, but it isn't interesting. Its just System Shock, but without all the charm and quality that made System Shock good. But I'm running around this level for a good fifteen minutes. There are three elevators and only two computers. One of the computers is the one that does nothing, the other the code computer. A012, which I assume is level 12, that's all the sense the passcodes make to me anyway. One of the elevators take me back, but the other two each have two levels. The two I can access now, presumably the others need a new card, don't give me a new gun or anything. What happens when you run out of ammo? Nothing. You can't shoot at all.
Also, I don't know if I mentioned it, but the console controls are just so fast, its a pain to type codes or even use the elevator in general.

So the second area I go to, the 7th level, starts off with a half dozen enemies. In a good game, this isn't a problem; In this game, in a close area, its a pain in the ass. The only way this game has to avoid enemies is running away and hope the enemies don't have the AI to go into the area you've moved into. I'm not joking either. This whole section is weird, I find the E4 card in multiple places, but in some places there are no elevators forward, so its backtracking. But its not, because I get past the game without having to do that. Oxygen's tight though, very, very tight. Every time I reload I'm placed in an awkward position without much oxygen. I think at some point I'm going to have to speed run a section of this.

Now the Xenomorph rip-offs are getting really blatant. Which is the only interesting bit about this level. I can't even remember anything about this level beyond these guys. I thought the save code I had was for this level, and I died, but apparently I beat it, and the next time I started it up I was in front of more of the Y-shaped aliens.

This level is where the game is starting to get really unfair. I'm running out of ammo well before getting anywhere close to clearing out the level. This comes off as badly designed. The walking speed and the enemies tell me this is a slow-paced but apparently the level designer didn't get that memo. The specific problem is that there are areas where enemies are spawned, the spawned enemies home in on you and you need to use a bomb on that spawn point. The bomb is on the other side of the level and you have to walk all the way over there. This screams to me that this was either not tested or only tested by the developer of this level.

Anyway, I die. A strangely done cutscene has my character flailing his legs in vain.

Wow, this text scroll is hardcore. A lot of talk from a game that doesn't let me change weapons. A lot of talk from a game that doesn't even let me dodge enemies. At this point I try several more times and its clear this level isn't going to be legitimately won by myself...and that I can't cheat my way through it either. In good news, someone else suffered through this crap, and put the games codes online. I can tell he never used the CARTOONO code, because it doesn't use a 0 at the end. This would be the code for the level I'm stuck on. I skip that level and use the next nearest code.

This game just feels like, what if all the rip-offs of alien invaded a ship...and it was really lame. This level seems to have a million lamps as its gimmick.

Next level, a chase level. Worms, nasty-looking things. There are at least two worm-generating things, and the player is fighting them the entire time. There's probably no way to blow them up. Probably. I gave up on looking for that option, it seemed saner. I came across a rather unpleasant realization. These worms have to parts to their body. If you hit between those two parts, you miss the worm. I didn't expect that. I don't consider that a good thing.

Also, there's a plasma gun and its the first fun weapon to use, unfortunately, I lack the desire to use it on this level. In fact, I lack the desire to continue actually playing this game. I'll just cut to the end here, since the game gives me that option.

Final boss, alien queen. Not sure what I expected. Moves like a truck, and eats damage like a tank. This really shows the limitations of the game. A damage sponge enemy isn't very good in a game without any real tactics. I think the intention is to use bombs against her, but I used most of the ones I could find, several guns worth of ammo, including the plasma gun, and Jesus, it looks like I did no damage. I checked some LP, the ending is nothing impressive. With that, I'm done here. I skipped a lot more than I should have, but I don't think that really matters.

This Session: 3 hours

Final Time: 4.5 hours

In Extremis: Xeno-what?

In Extremis is at first glance, just some cheapo European ripoff of Wolfenstein. You'd be right. I'm relatively unfamiliar with what people thought of US Gold, but I do notice that name shows up a lot in the first decade I have written down. Blue Sphere, as opposed to Delphine, commonly accredited to making this, is French. Although the game is in a weird mix of English and French. I distinctly remember being not fond of this bad boy. In cinematic terms, this wouldn't be The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, this would be White Comanche...without William Shatner. I don't know what the correct comparison would be, just roll with it.

This is the least weird shot from that cutscene

The story is, we're somewhere out in space, we come across a space station...and our ship explodes for some reason? The opening cutscene isn't clear on anything, but it looks nice. I configure my controls (Shoot and open is controlled with the same key!) I start the game...and it doesn't work. Dosbox wants to give the game 100%, that causes the game to move fast...and I can't move forward. Turning it down is funky, because it doesn't register right away, so I do something that ends up causing the game to not register any in-game button presses. I eventually decide on 30%.

This game feels pretty casual about the corpse there

Let's talk about the second problem this game has, because the first is going to require a bit more explaining. Shoot and open are the same key. There's nothing I can do to change this. In theory, this isn't a bad idea. Because you don't need to do both at once. This is obviously bad as soon as you start playing, pressing space on something that looks like it should be interactable but isn't still shoots. I have no idea if I'm going to get more ammo (or even health) later. I will cheat if necessary, but I'd prefer not to, for obvious reasons.
The first problem is that moving around is ass in general. You've got a crouch button, there's no use for that yet. There's a run button, which makes you go 50% faster, not much when you move like you're in what modern people think plate armor was like. The player is in some kind of power armor, it functions accordingly, except I'm using a SMG for some reason. Also incredibly obvious before the first shot is fired, password doors? I don't know what they're supposed to be, but so far I see no way of finding the codes. You also type in the code via the arrow keys. I want to point out from my own experience, that's more work than just typing stuff in. Even if it isn't, they put in that effort for the copy protection. Its impressive it was cracked, since Mobygames says it was heavily protected for the age. Anyway, moving around the code pad is far too fast, and I'm not going lower than 30%.

They're certainly well-done ugly, but they only have forward frames

These problems are all visible before you fight the first enemy. Its some kind of green spider thing. It goes down quickly, a few shots from my rather slow SMG-looking gun. What makes them trouble is they knock you back with each blow. Most of the time this is okay, but sometimes they knock you on top of scenery. A FPS with an actual Z-axis? That's possibly a first. Upon dying, they explode on the screen. Possibly if they're far away enough they don't, but that seems impossible so far. Also a first, automatically opening doors. I guess the latter's helpful.
Also, all the sound effects sound like they were ripped out of Star Trek, but whoever added the trivia to Mobygames says they're stolen from Alien. I think you'll find that I don't really care. Whatever the case, the sound effects have very bad noise, like popping sounds that don't make sense, included.

That's not something I can use, too much color

There's also another neat thing in the game, the lighting, wander to close to a ceiling light and the screen changes color to signal you are inside. This is about as far as I got last time I played. There's no in-level save function, and you can make a complete circle of the level without any idea of what you're doing. There are several access terminals, but there doesn't seem to be any in-game way to find out the codes. I would also like to point out at this time that each time you restart the game, you have to spend a minute watching the unskippable logos and credits before playing the game. There's no one credited as testing this game, "Notice" mentioned in the credits is for the manual.

This is before I get anything, trying to interact with a card reader

Anyway, the manual, the only one I could find was in French. The language barrier in-game is some fever dream of French and English, so I don't understand any of this. Most of this is relatively unimportant at the moment, except for inventory, the I key, and the computer code. Yeah, all those computers around? Literally necessary to advance the game, they contain items, and more importantly, keycards. The first terminal just gives me some transfer stuff.

I don't know if this has a point or not

So, the terminals are all item lockers. The green bar is oxygen, the red health. The game is not generous with health items, but on each level you can usually find a new weapon. Weapons so far are straight upgrades, making this game very arcadey for some reason. Combined with the codes, makes this feel less advanced than Wolfenstein, despite the obvious graphical improvements. You don't get an item picking up cutscene there. Probably for good reason, this is some trippy stuff.

Whoever drew this was wasted here

In order to advance, you need to find a key card, which are inside the terminals, as mentioned. You have three slots, and so far it only seems to be necessary to have two, a E-card and a C-card. One controls the elevator, the other the password computers.

All of them very ugly

That's about it for now. Two interesting things, levels have walls that have 45 degree angles as opposed to Wolf's entirely block-based system, and each level has a new monster. There's no difference between the monsters, there's just a different graphic. Level design isn't impressing me too much yet, but it isn't offensive.

For future player's reference, here are the computer codes for these levels:
C200: IJEKAH
B101: JBHGAD
A002: CJBAIK
B103: FIJGAD
C204: KADBEI
D305: JDKCHB
A012: ABFEKI

And here are the save codes:
ATILAHUN
(I missed one here, sorry)
STRADIUS

This Session: 1.5 hours