Level Zero: Extraction still doesn’t have clear ideas. The project was born as a science-themed survival horror and then transformed into an asymmetric PvPvE extraction shooter during construction. After trying it out and speaking with the developers, it’s clear that this process of reshaping the gameplay is very much still ongoing. It is undeniable, however, that there is potential.
In the closed beta, we got to experience both asymmetrical factions: the mercenaries, who must gather resources and survive, and the aliens, whose goal is to kill humans. At the moment there is a clear disparity, in terms of pure fun, between the gameplay of the former and the latter. Being a mercenary for now is a rather generic experience made up of ugly, cumbersome shootings that lead to death too quickly. Playing as aliens, however, is fun, pushes you to use strategy and ensures that progression is constant.
Level Zero Extraction, by the developers’ own admission, is still looking for a balance and is trying to get into the hands of players with a solution to the identity crisis that grips all extraction shooters. “We don’t yet have a clear gameplay path to balance resource gathering, contract termination, and fighting both aliens and mercenaries to get to the extraction point,” said Daniel Kyrsa, Executive Producer. by DOGHOWL Games. “However, no one has yet managed to solve the problems we are encountering, both in the world of asymmetric games and in that of extraction shooters. We are still looking for the ideal balance between freedom of choice and the health of the game.”
Hunting for resources
If you have played one of the many extraction shooter that have arrived on the market in recent years, for better or worse you know how all the others work. Level Zero: Extraction is no exception: there is basic equipment to choose from, a weight limit that determines the character’s speed and the amount of objects he can collect, guaranteed slots that allow you to extract some things even if you dies and the loss of all items, weapons and equipment in the event of final death.
The originality factor of this game lies in the light management: given the underground setting in Antarctica, it is not certain that the corridors of the scientific laboratories in which an experiment has gone wrong are always illuminated: it will therefore be up to the player to turn on a flare or his torch not only to see where to go, but also to keep aliens away. Enemies, if exposed to light, immediately catch fire and die after a few moments, but on the other hand they have many tools at their disposal to take the darkness with them. Add to this periodic blackouts, lights that burn out, and a whole host of other random obstacles.
In addition to aliens, the mercenaries also face AI-controlled enemies including pseudo-zombies and automatic turrets. “The AI-controlled enemies serve to make the mercenaries act and in this way to get their heart rate up, making them visible to aliens. Now they’re a little dull but there’s potential” added Kyrsa. Making too much noise and working too hard (accelerating the pulse) makes the mercenaries visible to aliens through walls: this translates into tactical, measured and very slow.
“The focus of the game is still melee combat,” Kyrsa continues, referring to when the title it was still thought of as survival horror, “firearms still need to be fixed and have a very quick elimination time, we don’t like this and we have a crafting path in mind to be able to obtain the most powerful weapons in the game by collecting resources”. Playing as a mercenary, in fact, was the least satisfying part of our test, because the unjustified slowness of the approach (you have to crouch for kilometers to reach the extraction points) is contrasted with an absurd rapidity of the firefights, both against the other players are against the aliens, so within two or three seconds one of the two parties is dead and the interaction ends.
Hunting for humans
The most refined and fun gameplay in Level Zero Extraction is undoubtedly that of the aliens, not only because they have infinite lives, but also because they have a progression path inside and outside the game, with new abilities and sets of equipment. The mercenaries, in fact, do not progress unless you can extract, aliens don’t. On the other hand, the aliens, at the moment, do not have a victory condition because their objective is “only” to prevent the extraction of humans by killing as many as possible.
The aliens, then, in addition to seeing through walls, can slip into ventilation ducts and get behind, under or above the mercenaries for a surprise attack. “The gameplay of the aliens is much more passive, we know that” specifies Kyrsa. “The conduits are nice, but they have too few entrances, at the lower levels there is little modularity of the gameplay and we don’t like this. At the moment it seems to us that the aliens do not have enough tools to circumvent the mercenaries’ tactics. There are none many chances to counterattack, but more of an attempt to catch the mercenaries by surprise.”
Playing as an alien is satisfying because the movement is fast and the objective is clear, unfortunately, however, the mercenaries have too many tools available to kill aliens. This is also a legacy of when the game was a survival game, but it is easily solved by increasing the resistance of the aliens or decreasing the effectiveness of weapons and gadgets. Level Zero: Extraction, at the moment, is too asymmetrical in the sense that the two factions are both unbalanced for the wrong reasons: on the one hand there is too much firepower, too little life and too little to do; on the other there is little effectiveness, no counterattack and an unnerving passivity.
We tried a single map (there will be two at launch) and we did not have access to a series of ancillary activities that the developers are working on, including lore on collectibles that are only unlocked if extracted, crafting, seasons of contents and a whole series of Gameplay refinements. One of the most interesting, for us, is the permanence of every single consumable, from empty magazines to spent flares to bullet casings. This is to understand, at any time, if someone has passed by there and follow the traces of an enemy team and humans in general.
On a structural level, then, we know that, as in many other extraction shooters, there will be some periodic emptying of all inventory (to ensure a balanced level of play), three seasons per year and free and paid cosmetics. However, the great unknown of all asymmetric games remains, on which the developers have not yet decided: we do not know whether it will be possible to search for a match only as an alien or only as a human or if, to mitigate waiting times, one of the two will be assigned you randomly role players in the queue.
Level Zero: Extraction is a game that has not yet finished its transformation from survival horror to extraction shooter. Trying it, it is clear that some of its dysfunctions are the result of an incomplete transformation. Speaking with the developers, then, it is clear that there is an overall vision and that this also has the potential to stand out in an overcrowded genre. The problem is that a lot of work is still needed not only to achieve uniqueness but also to make those who play have fun. There are some good ideas in this game, but it’s as if they don’t fit together well: shootings, biological weapons, aliens, torches, zombies, killer robots and drones all mixed together have the potential to give hours of fun to those who are passionate of extraction shooter but at the moment all these elements have yet to find their harmony.
