A title long forgot, Extermination is a quite an enjoyable game, hard enough to make you earn your while.
The story is a bit lackluster, with only a few unexpected twists. Basically, you're a member of an elite Marines squad who got a distress signal from a base in the Antarctic and it is your job to uncover whatever the hell happened out there.
The gameplay is one of the most interesting aspects of the game. While most survival horrors rely on "heavy" characters, the protagonist of this game, Denis Riley, is a very nimble person. With the action button, you can not only pick items up, but you can also jump chasms, climb whatever looks climbable and perform evasive rolls around your enemies. If evading is not for you, you'll also have your trusty SPR4 rifle, which is a customizable weapon: you can change it's rate of fire, the scope mount (laser scope, zoom scope, infrared scope...), the lower attachment (initially a flash light, you can acquire a flame launcher and other weapons attachments), the rail attachment and use multiple parts attachments to transform your rifle into a rifle/rocket launcher, for example. Attacking is done through the square and circle buttons, and your stance will determine the action. While aiming (be it via 3rd person with R1 or 1st person with R2), circle is your rifle trigger and square the lower attachment trigger. The rifle ammunition is rechargeable via reload stations, but the lower attachments ammo has to be picked up as you go. When you're not aiming, square makes you unleash a strong knife attack and circle uses a weaker, yet connectible knife swipe. All those battle aspects would be of no use without enemies to use them on, and there are plenty out there, ranging from small, insect-like enemies to your larger, abominable ones. It is wise to avoid direct contact with the enemies, and try to use the environment to your advantage since some enemy attacks not only hurt you, but can start infecting you. There's an infection gauge in your inventory and, when it reaches 100%, you'll enter a pre-infected stage where your HP depletes gradually and it is decreased to a maximum of 60, greatly reducing your chances to survive. There are medicines that will stop the infection, but to cure yourself from it completely, you'll have to turn to the healing stations spread through the base, which aren't many, and use a vaccine, which is hard to find. Other noticeable aspects of the gameplay is the use of a battery unit to open doors and save your progress, a vest which will protect you from blizzards, a pulley-harness which you can use to stick to ceiling bars and aim in a safe position, climbing gear to climb ice walls and a zip-line harness.
The graphics aren't bad, especially for a 2001 game, and do a pretty good job of depicting the monstrosities you'll encounter in the game, though the character models for the protagonist and his allies lack polish.
The sound is a bit repetitive, with many recycled groans and a fitting, yet mostly dull soundtrack. In spite of this, the weapons sound alright, and there are a lot of effects that depend on the environment, such as echoes and whatnot.
Not a bad game at all, and a great acquisition at low prices, Extermination is fun for fans of survival horror looking for a cool little title. And it might even shed some light on where the developers of RE4 got their inspiration for the gameplay.