About the Game

Each infiltration, known in the game as an incursion, involves three interlinked map areas and asks the player to collect or complete any one of the twelve quests embedded in each map sector. You can call for extraction after each successful mission, or continue into the next section, earning higher rewards for the latter. However, if you are killed or captured during the latter missions, you will lose all your loot, which can be highly disappointing.

If one of your team is captured by the enemy, they will show on the dash as MIA and that character then cannot be played until they are rescued. Likewise, if they are seriously injured, they will need to take time to recover, with more time needed depending on the severity of the injury.

The enemies are aliens are called the Archaeans and you are left in no doubt that you are playing in their backyard in this game! They are stronger on mutated terrain called Sprawl – which looks a lot like a thick mobile oil slick and which slows you and your team down. But you don’t have to step on it, fortunately, shooting sprawl makes it ‘splash’ out of your way leaving you a clear path – temporarily, at least!

The pace is deliberately kept slow and careful, with few resources (food, medical aid packs, and fuel) to power you back to full health and non-existent healing during and between missions. This builds tension and makes gameplay even more suspenseful than it would otherwise be! Get in the habit of using stealth mode as standard as excessive noise will attract an enemy of some kind, whose alarm shrieks will then summon a whole more of Archaeans.

There is no spray and slay mode in this game: your team is expected to use guile and cunning to ambush the enemy in small groups (the above-mentioned stealth mode!) rather than bed in behind fortifications to wait for them to come to you. The ecosystem is kinder to the aliens than it is to you (as evidenced by Sprawl) and they are constantly evolving: you will quickly find Archaeans come in ten different shapes and sizes! (See below for more)

Need to Know

There is a comprehensive operator menu in the game, and you can set and reset your character’s skills before each mission, choosing from 18 different operators. Some of these characters will be recognisable to players of the previous games in the franchise. Each character comes with their own unique skills and weapons.

Elsewhere in the game, you can send out drones for recon in comfort, shoot through walls to take out villains who are hiding, and reinforce your own doors and windows to prevent the escape of captured enemies. You can ‘ping’ information to your teammates about enemy positions and what resources they have.

As well as the three-person coop mode, you can also play solo, working your way through all twelve game maps solo. This game was first called Quarantine, then Parasite, before settling on Extraction shortly before release.

What To Look Out For

Watch out for the various types of Archaean, and some of their nastier environmental surprises as you play:
 

• Bloater: Sounds slow and noxious, but try fast and noxious instead! These nasty guys rush at you and explode on touch, exuding poison gas all over your team
• Breacher: Similar to Bloaters, these guys explode on contact – but they are pre-loaded with corrosive fluids that shower all beings in the immediate area; humans and aliens alike
• Grunt: Fast moving, sneaky and great at melee attacks
• Lurker: A sneaky troop of aliens, who lurk (hence the name) unnoticed thanks to their powers of invisibility, leaping out to support the group of Archaeans that you are just about to finish off
• Nests: These tumorous growths constantly ooze sprawl – if you can destroy the nests, it will make your life so much easier
• Rooter: Ooze a harmful goo that will leave you paralysed while they run roughshod over you and your team
• Sludge: Not to be confused with Sprawl, this stuff oozes around on the ceiling and the floor, and instead of being ‘killed’ like Sprawl, divides into three (albeit smaller) pieces when you try!
• Sower: Dismiss thoughts of peaceful planting and gardens, these guys are the seed. And you don’t want to be the compost in which it plants itself! They can make you blind, and they set traps, as well as being a parasite of the worst order
• Spiker: These guys don’t just have spikes; they shoot spikes from their arms. Beware!
• Sticky Spores: Like a sand storm in slow motion, these tiny motes drift down and cling to you, causing harm and blocking your vision. Annoyingly, they only cling to humans, ignoring the other aliens…