The evolution of multiplayer shooters has never ended. Once it all started with primitive deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, then Counter-Strike gave us a "bomb" mode, interesting and already classic gun game and king of the hill appeared, and with the advent of DayZ, the survival genre conquered the world, and then battle royale. But now, a new star is entering the scene: extraction shooters. And if earlier many people found in shooters an opportunity to relax in the evening, to distract from work and life problems, now extraction shooters are more likely to make you sweat and nervous.
If we try to briefly describe the mechanics, these are session shooters where a player prepares in a safe haven, takes everything they need, and then enters the game map for a limited time, during which they need to collect valuable loot, complete NPC merchant missions, and evacuate to a specific location. Bots get in the way of an easy walk, but the main problem is other players who also do not plan to leave empty-handed. The price of death is equipment and weapons that remain in the raid and can become the enemy's trophy. In this case, you need to gather again, gradually emptying the cache.
The main idea that attracts players is the ability to accumulate resources in the form of money, weapons, and equipment. Over time, the player's level rises, relationships with merchants improve, and he or she can get access to more interesting small arms and armor. But there is a certain drawback in extraction shooters that no one has managed to get rid of yet. This is the endgame, which, in fact, does not exist. Sooner or later, NPC quests end, and successful raids bring a lot of money that solves the issue of weapons. The only option that is currently relevant for all projects of this genre is a general void with a reset of inventory and progress.
I don't think anyone will be surprised by the fact that I'm not going to talk about the most famous game in this genre. The fact is that the developer of Escape from Tarkov is the Russian Battlestate Games, whose representatives have been repeatedly noticed in the same company as war criminals who directly participated in the aggression against Ukraine. But fortunately, BSG is digging its own grave with greed, so even loyal streamers are gradually turning away from this project.
Moreover, the audience paid attention to the Chinese clone called Arena Breakout: Infinite, despite the fact that there was a lot of evidence that Morefun Studios "borrowed" both the code and 3D models from Escape from Tarkov. Considering that Arena Breakout: Infinite is the same EFT in terms of mechanics, and in some moments even better, I can easily start with it.
Arena Breakout: Infinite
Platforms Windows
Genre FPS
Year 2024 (closed beta test)
Arena Breakout: Infinite is not the first time a mobile game has evolved and appeared on PC. A huge number of licensed weapons, slides, adapters, and sights is a paradise for fans of small arms who are not afraid of the need to spend a lot of time in the storage to assemble their own dream gun. For convenience, there are presets, a separate tab for customization with the ability to save presets and automatically buy and assemble everything together. For those who are not very confident in the selection of ammunition, there is a gradation by level and coloring. If you find a pack of ammunition in a raid, you'll know right away if it's worthy of attention. This is important because ammo is currently the most valuable thing in the game. You can fight bots with cheap ones, but they are unlikely to help you break through the armor of "packed" players.
This is where another classic element of extraction shooters comes in handy: a bulletproof case that the player takes with them on a raid and which ensures the inviolability of the items stored in it. This way, you can guarantee to take out some jewelry or store the same ammunition. By the way, it is through these cases that the developer plans to earn money. So far, they are being given away for free, but there are rumors that the price will be unpleasantly surprising after the release.
One of the innovations in the genre is the availability of special hardcore modes. The zones are the same, but the loot is much more valuable, and the bots are better dressed and armed. In addition, you can't go into such a raid naked with a gun - you need to have equipment worth a certain minimum amount so that your character is also a reward for a potential killer.
The maximum number of players in a team is 4, but you can raid either alone or with the automatic formation of a group. Some tasks from traders need to be performed in a group, so you won't be able to play alone all the time. In addition, the game does not have a section of raids for singles and groups - a lone Rambo can easily run into a foursome, and in this case, the probability of survival is almost always zero.
If there is nothing interesting left in the vault, and money is also hard to come by, you can choose the Covert Ops mode. You will be raided as a local bot with a random set of equipment and weapons. On the plus side, you won't be touched by local AIs, and on the minus side, you don't have a secure container with you, and you'll have to fight back with what you've got.
Currently, the main problem of Arena Breakout: Infinite is the unbalanced economy. Going on a raid without high-quality armor, powerful ammunition, and sufficiently tuned weapons is suicidal. It costs too much to pack up and the loot you get does not justify the risk.
The second problem is the lack of atmosphere. This is the moment when the game looks nice, animations, characters, sounds - everything is of a sufficiently high quality, even the story is there, but for some reason it is not interesting. And Arena Breakout: Infinite is at a stage where cardinal changes are hardly to be expected.
Gray Zone Warfare
Platforms Windows
Genre FPS
Year 2024
But this project has more than enough atmosphere. The Czechs from MADFINGERS Games have also previously developed mobile games, but unlike the Chinese, they chose Unreal Engine 5 to enter the PC market. And the difference is immediately apparent. However, this is not the only thing that contributed to the atmosphere of a paradise abandoned by everyone, where various PMCs are fighting.
The main innovation that Gray Zone Warfare brought to the genre is shared bases for players of the same faction, and going on a raid is not about uploading to a separate server, but about flying a group by helicopter to the right area on the map. Each time you are sent further and further away, and at some point a meeting with players from another faction is inevitable. And what's extraordinary here is that you can no longer act as part of a group of four fighters - if there are friendly forces nearby, they can join the battle.
But so far, this only sounds interesting, because the developers have clearly not taken into account some points. Firstly, the number of helicopters that are simultaneously present on the server is limited to four for a faction, so there are constantly situations when a group sits at the base and cannot take off for half an hour, waiting for a free "chopper". Secondly, PVP servers are not popular due to constant problems with player disconnections - no one wants to lose their equipment for no reason. Therefore, the servers that are currently full are PvE servers, where players of different factions meet but cannot harm each other. Thirdly, it is very difficult to fight each other when there are inadequately configured bots running around that can see through walls, shoot you in the head with mechanical sights on the run from 200 meters away, and run from the entire town as soon as you make yourself known. Even in PvE, the player spends most of his time providing medical care to himself, pulling out bullets, stitching up wounds, and taking painkillers.
And finally, another serious problem is optimization. Gray Zone Warfare allows you to use both AMD's FSR and NVIDIA's DLSS, but the first option causes an unpleasant feeling of lag, and the second gives a significant increase in frames only when generating frames, which works only on 4xxx series cards.
I gave some credit to the developers, hoping that everything would be fixed in the coming weeks. Several months have passed and all I see now are the Czechs' plans to release content updates, including, for example, a night mode. It is unknown why this is necessary now, if the optimization problems have not been fixed yet.
Delta Force
Platforms Windows, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 5, iOS, Android
Genre FPS
Year 2024
Every time I see familiar words in the name of a new game, I realize that it is a license that has ended up in the hands of the Chinese. The second sign is support for all possible platforms. The third is free of charge. And, yes, this time, it was Tencent that obtained the rights to the Delta Force gaming brand.
The Chinese decided to combine several genres in the Delta Force project. The first multiplayer mode is more reminiscent of Battlefield, while the second one, which we will talk about in more detail right now, has all the features of an extraction shooter. And for fans of single-player modes, the game will feature a campaign about the US military operations in Somalia, or rather a reconstruction of the famous operation in Mogadishu.
A mode called Tactical Turmoil offers a fairly standard set of mechanics familiar to us from other games in the genre. But some of them are simplified, and in most cases, this simplification does not have a negative color. For example, a player does not need to prepare a bunch of magazines for a weapon before a round - the game behaves like a regular shooter. It is enough to have only one magazine and a bunch of ammunition.
There is also no excessive nervousness about the possibility of losing equipment. Those wishing to prepare for the landing on their own can also buy backpacks, tile carriers, and various weapon harnesses, but there is an easier option for the lazy - choose one of the ready-made kits. They are provided once a day in a certain amount and this is a great example of optimizing the hardcore genre for a more casual audience. Such kits cannot be changed, but they have everything you need for the battle - equipment, weapons, ammunition, and medicines.
As players progress, they get access to new maps and features. And this is where the Chinese origin of Delta Force comes into play - it's quicker to list what's not there. Building a base? Okay. Production? No problem. An auction where you can find anything and quickly sell the loot for much more than the trader? Of course!
The amount of additional equipment operators have, the variety of handles, forends, barrels, and slats is not a problem, but each detail has its own impact on the final characteristics of the weapon. In addition, a huge pile of different coins, rewards, passes, levels, etc. constantly falls on the player. Daily, weekly, and monthly tasks are also present.
Delta Force goes beyond the usual extraction shooter not only because it has a second mode for massive battles. There is no such pain after losing valuable loot due to death. In general, it is hard to imagine a situation where a player has nothing to wear to a raid. For now, of course, since free cheese, as we know, exists only in mousetraps.
So far, Delta Force is being tested only on PC, and later the game will appear on other platforms.
Marauders
Platforms Windows
Genre FPS
Year 2022
While new games in this genre appear, some, unfortunately, are already in decline. This is the case with Marauders, an interesting concept in the world of alternative reality, where players not only fight inside gloomy space stations, but also have to get to them in their own space shuttles. The shuttles themselves are even armed, so it is quite possible to prevent competitors from getting to the station.
It has everything and even a little more: equipment crafting, trading, quests, character progression, and even the purchase of new ships that serve to deliver a space pirate to a raid. In the battle, you can meet not only live players, Marauders is a PvPvE game where local bots will also be opponents. And all this in the setting of some wild diesel punk.
Marauders is a hardcore game and requires training in literally everything. There is no map or compass, so thirty minutes may simply not be enough to find the right hatch for extraction, even if you are lucky enough not to die in a battle with other players. Yes, you can spend time exploring the locations, but not everyone has this time and not everyone wants to spend it on this process. The game literally punishes any ignorance instead of teaching the player to be more efficient. And perhaps that's why the peak online Marauders player count now does not exceed 200, which is death for games of this genre.
Zero Sievert
Platforms Windows
Genre top-down shooter
Year 2022
This game falls out of the general list a bit, because it's not a first-person shooter and it doesn't have a multiplayer mode. Not even cooperative playthrough, which would be nice, by the way. Zero Sievert has only single-player, but all the other features of an extraction shooter are in place.
A post-apocalyptic world with bunkers, secret laboratories, mutants, and artifacts greets the player with a constant threat of running into bandits, the military, or local fauna that does not really distinguish between the above. The territory is contaminated with radiation and anomalies, which cannot be called safe either. At first, Zero Sievert may seem difficult, but the balance is not yet good, so after a while, the player will get enough money, quality weapons, and resources to feel confident even in boss battles.
There is no tension and nervousness due to the absence of live enemies, and because it is impossible to lose equipment with the standard game settings. When a character dies, he or she ends up back at the base as if after a bad dream. Therefore, unsuccessful attempts and exits to the "zone" are perceived much easier and do not lead to nervous breakdowns.
Unfortunately, there are not many levels in the game. Of course, I've never been involved in game development in my life, but it seems to me that during the two years of Zero Sievert's existence, the developers had the opportunity to do much more than they have now. With each patch, players were expecting new modes, maps, weapons, but they got something completely different. Because of this attitude towards the community, Zero Sievert currently has a Mixed rating on Steam, but it can still be recommended for those looking for an extraction shooter game that won't be stressful and won't require extreme skill from the player. A light version for beginners, so to speak.
For those who didn't have enough
Of course, I didn't set out to talk about all games of the genre. Therefore, this article contains only those projects that I managed to play personally. But you can add a few more games to the list without me, I'm sure. Among those that I know, but didn't have enough time to get acquainted with, are the famous Hunt: Showdown from Crytek, and the relatively new Dark and Darker or the game from our compatriots Level Zero: Extraction.
And that's certainly not all. As Sergey Galyonkin said in an interview with Mezha, every other company is now developing extraction shooters, so there will soon be even more games of this genre. Evolution is unstoppable.