Second Extinction is a co-op shooter in which you fight against mutated dinosaurs that dominate the world. In 2020, the game thrilled with a great trailer, but since its launch in Early Access, it has struggled with problems. It is set to be permanently shut down in 2024.
What kind of game is this? In Second Extinction, humans now only live in space stations in outer space, as the dinosaurs have taken control of the Earth. Players are sent out in guerrilla teams to reclaim the planet piece by piece.
- You complete a mission in groups of up to 3 players. The co-op aspect is supposed to play an important role.
- Expect main and side missions to complete.
- There are 5 different heroes available, each with special abilities.
- There are various firearms with different upgrades to adapt to your play style.
- The entire community should work together to drive the dinos out of the massive world. The longer an area remains unclaimed, the harder the opponents there should become.
At a first play event in September 2020, the shooter received considerable praise. The chaotic battles and the cool dinosaurs impressed the testers.
In October, the shooter was released on Steam in Early Access and on Xbox. Our colleagues from GameStar also tried the title. Overall, they had fun, but were skeptical about the long-term motivation and the amount of content.
And they were right to be.
But here you can first watch the trailer that has excited many people:
Little content and too monotonous
What did the first players say? When Second Extinction launched, it had around 78% positive reviews on Steam, but that figure has since fallen to 67%. The 170 reviews in the last 30 days are only 10% positive.
At the start of Early Access, many players complained that the story was far too short and that free exploration was too monotonous. There were simply no tasks or goals to keep them engaged with the shooter for long.
The positive reviews highlighted the potential they believed the title had.
What happened next? While there were always smaller updates in Early Access, a significant content surge was lacking. Player numbers developed correspondingly poorly.
At the start, there were over 2,000 players online at the same time; by August 2021, there were only 42 on average and a peak of 95. In October 2021, the last major update followed, briefly pushing player numbers back over the 1,000 mark.
Since May 2023, the shooter has only seen double-digit player numbers. There were even short phases where no one was online.
For a co-op game with such a unique world feature, this is, of course, a problem.
A major setback for the community occurred at the end of 2022. The official release was supposed to take place in October, finally moving out of Early Access. But it was delayed, first to November and then to 2023. However, the release was never to happen.
The last news about the game came in November 2022. Then there was silence until just a few days ago when the shutdown was announced. This explains the extremely negative reviews in the last 30 days.
The last blog post stated that some critical bugs prevented the release. With the small team and limited resources, they had no chance to finish the shooter. After much discussion, the decision was made to shut down Second Extinction.
When will the game die? The shooter has been removed from the official store and can no longer be purchased. However, anyone who owns it can still access the active servers. The shutdown of these is planned to take place “later in 2024.” The developers want to announce it in advance.
What do you think of Second Extinction? Have you tried the shooter?
This shooter is not the only one that could be hit this year:
