Plain. Barren. Empty.

I have a thesaurus full of words I could use, but gist of the matter is that E.O.E.: Eve of Extinction is not much too look at. Each of the levels - from the city to the forest, each area is dull and devoid of any charm or style. In fact, it actually detracts from some of the fun of the game. The same goes for the decent, yet dull looking characters. While some characters, like Josh, are nice looking and well animated, they come off looking plain and after fighting the same five or six bad guys, the charm is lost easily. There is a nice lighting system in place - especially on the weapons, but it is a matter of style over substance. The same goes for the sound - which is mainly comprised of your typical stock action game sounds and rock soundtrack. Overall, the presentation is not terrible, but it is not quite good either.

EOE does set up a rather interesting plot premise - but fails to capitalize on it. You are Josh Calloway, a worker at the mega-corporation, Wisdom Inc. (just think Microsoft, only with their own personal army). When Josh and his girlfriend discover what the company is really up to, they decide to split. Of course, this doesn't sit well with the higher-ups so they decide to eliminate the duo. Since they get to Eliel (his girlfriend) first, they merge her soul with Wisdom's newest product - the EOE.

Interesting premises, but about thirty minutes into the actual game - things begin to fall apart faster than the Mir space station. You begin the game hours after Josh and Eliel are captured. During the flight, the plane crashes and Josh nabs the EOE - which is, for all intents and purposes a lightsaber that can morph into different weapons like swords, staves, a crossbow, and two ping-pong paddle looking things. The rest of the story unfolds in flashbacks told by Eliel (yup, the sword talks) and a few story sequences. In addition to the beat-em-up sequences, EOE also throws in a few 'reflex action' parts - which reminded me a lot of Dynamite Cop or Die Hard Arcade. At random times during cut scenes, you will get a message to quickly press a button: hit it and you get to see Josh either escape a gruesome death, or pummel the hell out of some poor shmuck. Miss it - and you have to fight your way out.

While the dumb AI and lackluster combat system make for a rather boring game, things really slow down to a crawl when you're trying to solve puzzles. Flip the switch, find the key - been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Between the mindless, switch flipping puzzles and dumb AI - EOE is not a challenge. Except for a few parts where I fell to my death because of the woefully awkward camera angles, I was able to breeze through EOE easily. I would love to know where Wisdom hires its special agents from - these guys are a joke. If you take an agent on from head on - he might get a few quick hits in while you're switching your weapons, but take him on from the side or back and he just stands there trying to attack the air in front of him. Things are even funnier when a group of three or more agents come after you in a group - but only attack one at a time. It's like they are standing in line saying 'Ohh..ohh..ohh...beat me up next!'

EOE does try to add some interesting elements into gameplay - such as using the staff to pole-vault over fences or to reach high places. The problem is that instead of having the game automatically have you grab the ledge you are trying to get to, you have to cycle though all your weapons to find the 'bare-handed' weapon so you can grab. It's an interesting idea - but just doesn't work the way it is meant to.

Beating up agents is made even easier by a very nice control scheme. Other than the premise, this is probably the shiniest star in the game. It is fun to see the combat system, or more accurately the weapons system, evolve around which ones you play with. For example, I discovered early on that groups of people attacking weren't going to be a problem, so I tended to stick to the swords. With every enemy you defeat, your weapon gains experience points in that particular 'mode'. Obviously, as it gains points, the weapon becomes more powerful. This system gives the game some much-needed depth, but is not enough to keep you interested for long. Overall, I just found EOE hard to play and lackluster. Usually, when I have a game in my system, I cannot wait for some free time to play it. The problem with EOE was, at times I felt like I had to force myself to play though the game, and during the rare times I did die, I was strangely relieved.