homepage Forums Land & Armor Combat Tactical Simulations - General Extraction Shooters

As no one has noticed, I've been posting in this forum about extraction shooters. This genre has exploded. Tarkov kicked off the craze and now there are a dozen or more. Matter of fact, this article covers just about all of them

https://www.eneba.com/hub/games/best-extraction-shooters/

I've considered most of those. I like the premise of this sort of game, how loot progression has jeopardy. My teenage son loves Hunt Showdown and plays it all the time. The first one I took a crack at is Road to Vostok, a mil-sim level survival game currently in EA. I've dropped 20 hours in to it and started making good progress. This game is mostly potential at this stage, but it's perfectly playable in the current state and is challenging.

Gray Zone Warfare is another one on the shortlist and I might still get it. It's seen a surge of popularity over the past couple of months and I like a lot of what I see. One strike against it is it is PvPvE so there are humans as well as AI to battle. Not bad in theory, but when your gear is as volatile as it can be in these games, the thought of try-hard spawn campers doesn't fill me with enthusiasm. A second strike is reports that the servers are too full, and what that means is you often reach the objective to find all the enemies dead and the loot gone. I still might get this one, but I will be looking for some balancing changes maybe.

Escape from Tarkov is another, the place it all began, but it might be a bit too serious, more hardcore than I want it to be. Or perhaps more tedious is the right way to say it. Not ruled out entirely though. This ship has probably sailed but we will see.

One of my friends has dropped a shtload of time in to Deep Rock Galactic.

The second extraction shooter I picked up is Incursion Red River, also in EA. Plays well though, and early access has lost all meaning any more, it can mean just about any state. Perfectly playable though, and what attracted me to this one is the pure PvE game play. It's co-op or solo, always against bots, and the bots are highly customizable so you can get just the experience you want. You can tweak a bunch of stuff to alter how well they detect, or shoot or hunt. At Normal it is a stiff test for me, as the AI will aggro on your position once you've been detected, and will shoot from long range. But as always with games like this it's a matter of finding the right feel for it, and before long you're the puppet master making the bots dance to your tune. This one is set in modern-day Vietnam and looks good and runs well. You are a private military contractor sent in on missions to gather stuff or strike targets. You can team up or go solo.

Game play in IRR is mission-based, and like most of these games the idea is to deploy, gather stuff, survive and extract. Do so and the haul is yours. Get killed and you lose everything you had on you at the time, including what you carried in. I got smoked in my first mission after taking out four of them. Second sortie I survived and extracted without being detected or even firing my weapon.

And speaking of weapons, this is one thing this genre does well. Nearly all of these games have detailed and deep weapon customization. You can really tailor the loadout to your taste, provided you haven't lost it all already haha. This sort of treadmill loot progression is a good hook.

The fact that all your cool gear is at risk adds just the right amount of tension. More careful, cautious and considered. Or I suppose you could just head out with a handgun and a pair of shorts so nothing is at risk, and it's all reward.

Why would I want to buy anything else that Arma, for this kind of experience, since I play solo, or occasionally coop ?

What do these games bring that Arma 3 or reforger has not ? Are they way better in some area ?

i was tempted to buy IRR but still had in mind that time is limited and I'm pretty happy with Arma/Reforger/Ready or Not on the FPS side.

Against ARMA I'm not sure, and that game will give you things this one does not, or this genre anyway. I think the main difference is gear progression and the jeopardy I talked about. In the field, the games will play similarly I think. Mil-sim.

If you play ARMA I don't think that IRR or GZW will offer a big shift, but the loot is the hook I reckon. Acquiring and customizing gear, and protecting it against forfeiture

I'd say in a game like Reforger you're already getting the same sort of core experience and these extraction shooters won't move the needle a great deal, but still worth it I think, especially because you enjoy the mil-sim sort of game play. These games will offer a few twists I reckon, but not a core shift, and yeah, if you don't have time nor desire to be rotating a few shooters then you might not want to move. I really appreciate a reply however so thanks loop!

Road to Vostok and IRR were both US $20 so worth a punt to check one out. Of those two I think Red River is the better choice. It's further along and more robust. Good game for co-op with friends (but probably not randos) or for playing solo. That link I posted in the OP has a a lot of games, and I think there's something for just about any player with how extraction shooters have proliferated.

What time zone are you ? GMT -4, right ?

I just bought IRR, I have little spare time sadly but if we hook on discord, we may try coop one day ?

New York time, yeah, is that -4 GMT? New York time

Yeah that sounds great if we can swing it. I think this would be a good game to play with friends on comms. Two barrels is way better than one!

Let me know how you get on after you've given it a go. It's still EA so maybe rough around some edges

Will do !

IRR is giving as good as it gets. I've extracted seven times, but been killed five times. Five! That's a lot of good gear gone, and the last one was a gut punch and yeah, that's the hook. In other games, you'd just reload, or maybe be forced to return to the base or whatever, but you'd still have your good gear. Both missions after finally getting a nice reflex sight for my AR were deaths, and those sights were lost.

Not a bad idea to head out with minimal kit and gear up in the field. less at risk, and more room to bring stuff back. I did this last mission. Taking just a MP5 and one magazine. No backpack, no harness or helmet or anything else, and came back fully outfitted. The game is mission based, but you can also deploy in to one of the maps and just hunt around and extract when you're ready. Good way to build up your stocks.

Not a popular genre around here, it would seem, but then I say that about everything, don't I?

I've dropped 22 hours in to IRR and I like it. It's difficult, and I lowered the AI difficulty to give me a better chance of making it to the extractions, but then that's one of the things that caught my eye, the ability to dial in the right experience, and the fact it is PvE-only and so the game can be tailored to the player.

So that's equal time put in to both Incursion Red River and Road to Vostok and of those two I prefer IRR. It's a more mil-sim sort of game and doesn't have the survival aspects Vostok does. Both seem good games, or potentially are good games, but still In EA. IRR is further along at this point. In Red River we have a safehouse and it can be upgraded in a number of ways. Stash size, appearance, lighting, gun range, weapons bench and more. To do the upgrades you need stuff, like spools of wire, or generators or fuel, concrete and lots more. So that's a hook. I might find I need a toolbox and a spool of wire to do my next upgrade, so I deploy in to the map, no mission really, just the objective of finding the resources I need. A sort of fee-hunt thing, and extract when ready. I like this sort of free-form game play, not tied to any specific objective, though that exists too, and the rewards are good for completing those missions. One gives night vision, another rewarded two pristine MP5SD SMGs.

Looking forward to seeing how IRR goes as more is added to it and the systems are refined. It's a good solo experience. Challenging. The AI is really good. They take cover, and duck and scoot. Change positions. Flank. If you shoot and miss they don't just stand there to take your next volley. They get out of sight in a snap so you had better not miss! Pretty good overall. So far I have extracted 17 times and been killed 7.

Hopped on last night and did my first runs on the Bunker map. This is all indoors, low-light, corridors, corner clearing, gunfire reverberating through the halls. Each map is rated for difficulty, and this one is four skulls, the hardest of the three current maps. But I think its probably the easiest, because if you play smart it is hard to get flanked or surrounded, which can happen more easily on the open maps. And the loot on the map is better. Better weapons carried by the enemies, more resources (concrete, food, oil, metal for safehouse upgrades) and a lot of the health injectors, which are scarce on the other maps. So don't be like me and put off the Bunker map. Hit it early and often. Raids are faster here too as you fill your loot bag faster, so more can be done.

One thing I really like about this game (and it's the same in most extraction shooters) is how firearms are implemented. The customization is really high, all the attachments. Of course you run the risk of losing that weapon, which is great when you think about it. This adds tension, and changes your mindset as there are no mulligans. Take a round through your noggin and all that gear, time and effort to trick out your weapon is gone. So you'll be more cautious, more alert, and each decision is final. And the weapon roster is already quite extensive and is growing all the time. If you like firearms, this a is a good game to get. Rails, flashlights, lasers, suppressors, all manner of optics and iron sights, thermals and NVGs, alternative mags and more. Some attachments require other attachments.

It's a job to find, buy and acquire all this kit, and to take it in the field with it all at risk is a nice hook.

I've been using a number of weapons, but I've taken to the Sig Sauer MPX, a 9x19 SMG that's as much carbine/assault rifle as SMG. IRR has an extensive roster of real-world weapons with real-world names.

I thought there must be a Tarkov player or two, maybe someone playing Gray Zone. Deep Rock Galactic too.

I've gotten on a bit of a run, haven't been shot and killed in a while, and now like 30 to 7, extractions to deaths. Over time you start to feel the flow of the game, know more about how the AI enemies will behave, and where they are likely to be, and maybe most importantly of all, you get better gear.

There's one thing I don't like, and it's faction rep and how it is tied to the upgrades available for the safe house. I want to upgrade my stash to level 3, but need level 2 VLF rep and I have zero VLF rep, and I've dropped forty hours now. The rep comes from in-raid missions that you can pick up, but I've only seen a couple and have yet to do any. I don't mind needing to upgrade this stuff, it gives you focus and direction. And I don't mind needing materials and money, that's sensible. But why should I give a toss about that faction to make my stash bigger?

Mostly I'm running an AKS-74 since it's the only weapon I have a suppressor for. Reflex sight, custom stock and more to trick it out a bit and it's done a fine job. The marketplace is also tied to faction rep so that prevents me from purchasing most higher end gear, but you can always get lucky out in the field with the drops.

It's been a long time since I've played a shooter with a minimal HUD and it's nice. Just a compass tape. It will flash up when you switch fire modes, and when you are near objects you can interact with. Some unobtrusive meters will appear bottom center if you are depleting health or stamina. But otherwise this is how it looks when you're out in the field. There's a mod to remove the alpha disclaimer in the corner. The weather is nicely done too.




I said Red River is a good game if you like firearms. It says it's alpha but it's been out two years, and the weapon selection is nice. A lot of ARs, a number of SMGs, several hand guns, DMRs and sniper rifles. Each of these has a full suite of attachments, with many attachments able to cross-mount, or on any weapons in the 'family'. The next update will add nine new weapons, but I have no idea when this will be out. You can see in the screenshot all the various ammunition types (that I have found in the field). FMJ, HP, AP and others. The next update will introduce mixed magazine loading so you can combine various types in each mag. My stash is nearly maxed out, and the expansion is rep-locked as I mentioned. So at this point I need to cull to clear space for any new and interesting weapon I might come across. Everything can be sold for cash. The suppressors I need for most of the firearms on the right are rep-locked. But I can hope for a drop. I tend not to carry a secondary to keep that slot free for any new long arms I might want to bring back.

For the Bunker map I am using an AK-102, which is an export version chambered in 5.56. It has low recoil compared to my 5.45 rifles, so it can be fired automatic with some control. In the bunker I want full automatic most of the time because the fights are at close range, and I want a flashlight, which requires a mount. I have another 5.56 rifle, a M4, but no rail to mount a light. For whatever reason, a bug or by design, suppressors have no advantage in the Bunker. The enemies detect you as if your weapon was not suppressed. So might as well go loud. On the outdoor maps the suppressors work better, keeping the fight local rather than drawing in those within a wide radius. The AI communicate in Red River, and the radius of this is on a slider in the difficulty settings. In the bunker, your first shot will draw in a dozen, but you can sit on chokepoints and lean around corners to put them down as they approach. Outdoors you can't control it like this, and need to stay on a swivel.

Here's a shot of the AK-102 on the weapons bench. You can see how many things are customizable . Some weapons have more slots, some less. This rifle has custom stock, reflex sight, muzzle brake, 4x1 rail with a flashlight and a few other bits and bobs. This is my only AK rail and if I die I lose the ability put lights on them until I find another.

Sounds like a decent ExS game. That said I'm leary, lol, as I've had some terrabad experiences with online extraction shooters, in particular the gankfest that is 'Synduality Echo of Aida' (a mech extraction shooter) where the devs gave all the best gear to the gankers lol.

This one is PvE only correct? I like the concept of ExS games-- get in, grab the lewt and run, rtb, cash in. I have no problem with losing everything should my character get killed. Dems da breaks.

Yes, IRR is PvE only. It's set to private by default, and there's an option for invite co-op. If there's matchmaking I haven't noticed but I've only played solo. This is a good game for players who don't want to deal with hackers, and sweaty try hards. I just play it as if it is a single player extraction shooter, but you can have your mates join you. There's a friendly fire toggle. All sorts of things are adjustable, so you can get the sort of stealth/combat experience you want. It's still early access, but I've dropped 50 hours already as I like gearing up and heading out to see what I can stir up, and what I can bring back.

Dems da breaks is right, and you'd probably find it suitable, but who knows. Watch a few videos. If the one I posted above looks good you'll probably dig it. It's cheap enough to have a punt. IRR runs nicely, and I've had no crashes, and any bugs have eluded me. It's not in a finished state but that hasn't put me off, but others might want to wait.

Having a good time with Incursion Red River. Nearly 60 hours now I reckon, hundreds of kills, and many successful extractions. I died five out of my first 12 raids, but not once since then. Partly that is due to just getting better at it, finding the flow, acquiring better gear. Partly it is due to lowering the difficulty of the AI, though they still are quite dangerous. One thing I did that is a massive cheat is to turn off the ability of the AI to detect my flashlight. Stumbling around in the dark with computer-controlled bots seeking to shoot me is hard, and the flashlight overcomes this, but to make it invisible to the AI is an excessive solution, but there you go. You can tweak how well they spot you, for example how much of your body needs to be seen and for how long before they detect you. You can adjust how accurate they shoot, how quickly they can turn around and lots more. As I said you have quite a bit of control over the stealth/combat experience you want to have, and this is a nice benefit of a PvE-only shooter. New players should probably put the AI on low and then can tweak further if needed, to make it easier or harder as the case may be.

Weapons have condition and degradation, and repair. Repair requires duct tape and WD-40 (two things you'd never find on my bench in real life) so it's simple to keep your firearms fit and firing.

The last few raids I've been running a Steyr Aug, since I can easily mount both a laser and a flashlight on it along with a magnified optic. Don't have a suppressor for it yet though. Stash space is limited so I have to limit the weapons I'm keeping. But I have a M4, M700 sniper, several AKs (chambered in 5.45 and 5.56), a Saiga semi-auto 12ga (my right hand in Stalker) a Vietnamese rifle called a SVT-380, Sig Sauer MPX which is like a SMG/carbine mix, MP5SD, a couple handguns and a couple more. The weapon roster is quite diverse already and expanding in the near future. The ability to modify and customize these weapons makes them feel more personal, and losing them imparts a greater sense of loss in my view, especially if it had the last one of something on it (scope, suppressor, laser, rail, etc).

Typical game play is like this. You start off in the safe house, where you can rifle through your stash and select your loadout for the coming raid. There are primary and secondary weapon slots, which can take any gun. A sidearm slot for a handgun and a melee slot for a knife (which I have never found, but they can be purchased). In addition there are helmet, plate carrier, tactical rig and backpack slots. The tactical rig and backpack are the open storage slots for ammunition, magazines and whatever you pick up during the raid. There are a variety of each of these, some with better protection, some with more space. I tend to deploy light, just a rifle, handgun, first aid and a few mags in order to maximize space for loot (leave secondary slot free for example). You can usually find more ammo in the missions, or pick up different weapons to use.

Once you are locked and loaded you go to the terminal where you can deploy to one of three maps. Bunker is dark and interiors. Quarry is outdoors mostly. Delta is also outdoors mostly with more open area. It's rice paddies and urban/villages.

Click Ready and it's a fairly long initial load. No loading screens in the raid. You'll deploy in a random location, free of enemies. Each time you insert, the loot and enemy placement changes to give each of the three maps some variance. There are missions handed out at the terminal, and you can look to complete these, or just make it a free-hunt sort of thing, taking out enemies and looting the good stuff. In addition, there are in-raid missions that are triggered when you find a radio to accept the mission (and are indicated on the map by exclamation points). These in-raid missions must be completed before you extract and are the primary way to gain faction rep, which is needed to unlock better gear and improve the safe house. These are things like find and deliver a document, place bombs, and this sort of thing.

If you get killed you lose everything you are carrying. If you survive and complete your objectives, whatever they might be, even just filling your carry capacity, you can extract. Extraction zones are spread around the map, but just a few of them, so you need to make your way there, and these are visible a long way off due to the red smoke they put off. Each of these is on a timer, so may be closed when you need it, but never more than a wait of a few minutes. Then it's back to the safe house to store or sell your haul, and then off to another one. Or work on the safe house, or try out different weapons at the shooting range at your base (ammunition is not depleted here so have at it)

It took 60 hours but I got the rifle I was hoping to build. A M4 with some attachments, including a suppressor which finally dropped.

Nice write-up. I added it to my steam list and will probably grab a copy 'soon' (I have a backlog of gaming I need to do lol). Thanks for writing about it!

Thanks Leaf. It's still in EA of course so even though I am digging it I can't say if others will. I think players who enjoy the freedom to just deploy and conjure up their own objectives will have a good time with it. There are missions, but that side is still limited. The stash quickly becomes too small, as you gather stuff needed for safe house upgrades, but don't have it all or have the requirements met, like faction rep or other requisite safe house improvements. So all this stuff is taking up more and more space, along with the weapons and ammo and other stuff you're collecting and before long there's is none left. Once you gain some rep and can start upgrading, this eases. But it's sort of frustrating in the second half of the first 50 hours, or it was for me.

Another thing I'm looking forward to is the next update is to add the ability to 'submit' the materials to the project, which will take them out of the stash and hold them until you have everything needed. That will free up a lot of stash space in the early going for sure.

One of the ways I got in to the flow, as I said, is I realized every enemy is moving. And that means footsteps. Another thing I did to make it easier is I disabled the setting that requires two AI or more within a certain proximity for them to speak out loud. Without this, solo enemies never say anything, and this is valuable in finding them before they find you. Most games have everyone mumbling about something to give the player some audible cues, but IRR it's there's no chatter with isolated enemies which is cool, even though I turned it off to help me survive. Another setting I tweaked was the proximity radius for AI to communicate with each other, and ended up in a good spot. It's improved the stealth side to the game for me, so good play and suppressed equipment feels rewarded. Set higher, local actions draw in area foes. But this is all part of how the game allows the player to dial it in to suit him.

Once you have an optical sight, and higher grade helmet and armored rig, plus a steady supply of the health booster injectable, the survival rate goes way up. Getting to that point is fraught with peril

And personally, kitting out assault rifles with the lowest possible recoil. Kill them before they kill you. The AI is better than most I'd say, and puts up a decent firefight if you let them. They corner-fire and use suppression, dash, duck, seek cover, flank and reposition. They are still AI and I feel like the puppet master at times, funneling and drawing them in to good spots. If I shoot someone, I don't go and loot him. I sit still, or pull back, and keep overwatch, because there's always someone nearby who will come to investigate and you don't want to get caught with your mitts in that dude's backpack when another walks up. The footsteps help a ton, but only at medium to short range. The more patient a player is the more success he will have in IRR I think. There are no mulligans here, and I know already you like that sort of thing Leaf. All headshots are final

Picked up a copy last evening and spent an hour messing around. I'm impressed at how smooth the graphics run even on my potato (3070, and at 1440p) with the FPS locked at 30-- I'd run it faster but my case fans are crap and anything these days faster than 30 FPS gets them spooled up like a turbo jet lol. Gotta say I like the sound design in the game a lot, and the gunplay is decent although at times the AI enemy seem a bit like bullet sponges although it was inconsistent-- maybe lucky hits v body armor hits? Anyway, I like the vibe. Will play more for sure.

Which ammunition were you using? Of course many or most enemies have plate, and each ammunition type is rated for penetration. 9mm is the worst.

I finally died after a long run, losing two good rifles. My tricked-out M4 and a Galil I had just found and modified. Lost two suppressors that I have no replacement for, and that's a killer, plus I had the top backpack and that's gone too. But within a few missions I had recovered and fully kitted out. Now running a AK-12 and got the recoil down to 10.5

I'm happy you picked it up Leaf, and I hope you find it suits you. If there's anything I can help with please ask.

I have a bunch of tips but one that may not be evident at first is you need to leave an open, mag-sized slot in your tactical rig, or you will drop the replaced mag on the ground when reloading, and that can catch you out at first.

I've dropped 70 hours now and still having a good time with it. I'm mixing missions, operations (in-mission tasks) and free-hunt sorties. Safe house is 2/3 upgraded. Upgrading the intel center gives you a choice of two mission start times so you can choose day or night. Flashlights work well, especially if you disable detection and the NVG sets work very well too. I have three NVGs but only used one for the first time last night as I didn't want to risk them, and the flashlights did the trick. But I like it a lot and will take NVG on patrol more often.

My loadout depends on a number of factors. Which weapons and gear I actually (still) possess, the condition of those things, experimenting, the mission requirements, or conditions. But in the main I tend to run something like this. Most important of all is a good rifle. Snipers are too niche, and I've sold all I've held. DMRs are better, and I've held on to a few, but got rid of them when I found the SR-25. It's semi-auto but fires fast enough and hits hard with a 20-round mag. The Scar-H is a DMR with full-auto select. Shotguns I haven't even fired, but I have one shown in this screen, it's the VR80, and it's such a fantastic shotgun I sold my long-time mate, the Saiga. Still, I don't use them. But if I were to, the VR80 would be a great choice. Holding on to it for now, because it really is good and maybe I'll carry it one of these times. I've run a number of missions with a SMG, early on, and they are OK, but the rounds don't offer enough punch at anything but close range. Is fine as a secondary if the player opts to carry one (and not leave it open for looting in the field). I do like the Sig Sauer MPX (shown near the top on right)

For sidearm I am carrying the FN Five-Seven, and I just found a 30-round mag for it a couple missions back. I've really only used it to shoot out lights, or cause a puppet-master distraction, but it's the last line of defense should all else fail. There are five handguns and they are all quite similar. The big magazine means I don't feel I need to carry additional ammo for it.

Helmet is grade 3 protection, and this is something I definitely want, and continually search for, because eventually you'll be killed, and need another helmet, or the helmet will have saved you too many times and needs to be replaced. Headshots are lights out and all that cool gear is gone, so this is important, to wear the best helmet you can buy or find. Pictured here is level 3 plate too. Having both at 3 is key to surviving being caught in a bad spot. Backpack is the Bergen which I think is the biggest you can have. And it certainly has the most non-compartmentalized space so is good for big items, especially the 4x4 materials needed for the safe house upgrades. The Delta pack is a good one to use until you acquire a Salt or Bergen.

Most important of all is the primary weapon, and all I want to use are assault rifles, with the spot DMR run. Selective-fire, rifle-caliber long arms are the sweet spot in this game, giving you the right mix of single-shot precision and full-auto lethality, with the range and penetration to make it count. The key for me is the recoil. Since the weapons are so highly modifiable, the player has a lot of control over how it performs, and several parts affect recoil, like the stock, barrel length, foregrip, pistol grip, muzzle brake, suppressor and more. What I want is my rifle to have the precision of semi-auto but firing full-auto, and recoil is how you close that gap. The M4 I lost a few missions ago was at 20. So I was sad. But I looked through my options and picked the AK-12, the latest in Russian assault rifles. It's 5.45x39 so ammunition is plentiful and cheap. In stock form, it had a recoil in the 30s. But as I tricked it out the recoil fell to 10.5 which is fantastic. This one has suppressor (for which I used the only 'coins' or whatever they are called that I have spent, on the black market), foregrip, custom stock, laser and light. The scope is the Spectre, which is variable 1x4 zoom and it's the best one I think. This AK-12 is even better than the M4 I was so sad to lose and so who cares, right? the 5.56 FMJ of the M4 is a little better, but on full-auto it makes little difference.

I head out as shown, three magazines (one in the rifle), 180 extra rounds of ammunition, which can be used to refill the magazines when you catch a breather. Two health injectors and one bandage to stop bleeding. There's also a key there for the locked extraction room in the bunker map. I also have the knife which I just bought but I've never used it and don't plan to I guess.

When I lose this one, I will be sad.

It was whatever the ammo was that comes with the starter rifle. I was mainly using it on semi-auto, but used full (3 round bursts) if I was in almost touching distance. I'm thinking the bullets were acting like 556 rounds but whatever the Eastern Bloc equivalent is/was-- they tumble early irl, designed for spray n' pray unlike say the 762 rounds. Really dumb question time: is there a tactical map available? I was looking for some indication where the extraction site(s) are but when I was in the field I checked my gear and no map. Lol.