33 Days till Extraction doesn’t make a good first impression. Its opening slides throw around all sorts of grand-sounding terms, apparently suggesting some incredibly deep lore that we never really learn anything about. The artwork doesn’t help matters. We’re looking at these enormous, Halo-inspired soldiers wearing armor with shoulder pads that seem almost comically impractical. And then there are those tiny, almost cutesy vampire teeth poking out of the mouth of this gigantic armored fellow. Really? We’re apparently supposed to take all of this seriously, but for the love of God, we couldn’t stop rolling our eyes. It fits together about as well as pineapple on pizza (we look forward to your comments). Fortunately, the story soon disappears, leaving us with a fun and intriguing top-down shooter.
Another Night, Another Raid
We play as a Space Desant death-chaplain stranded on a planet devastated by orbital bombardment. Rescue is supposedly coming in 33 days, and until then, we have to survive by gathering resources, improving our equipment, and keeping our little operation running. Armed patrols make daytime exploration too dangerous, so our expeditions take place at night.
Before each raid, we select a fighter, prepare their equipment, and head into procedurally generated locations filled with hostile soldiers. Raids have objectives and extraction requirements, so there’s no need to eliminate everyone. Sometimes bringing home the supplies we desperately need is more important than another firefight.
Combat is primarily viewed from above, although there’s an optional third-person camera. We have ballistic, plasma, and laser weapons to choose from, along with enhancements that affect their behaviour. Ignition Chance, for example, can set enemies on fire, while a necromancy skill causes burning opponents to explode upon death. That’s quite a useful combination when several soldiers are standing close together.
Necromancy also allows us to resurrect fallen enemies and turn them against their former comrades. We can place an Undead Beacon to direct these temporary allies towards a particular location, while other supernatural abilities include invisibility and orbital strikes. Using these powers requires developing the appropriate skills and managing Necromatter, which we can obtain through combat. We can even absorb corpses to restore health. Dead soldiers are surprisingly useful around here.
Keeping Everyone Fed and Confused
Between raids, we return to our base, where things become considerably more complicated. We recruit fighters, assign workers, craft equipment, produce food, and improve facilities. The Workshop handles crafting, the Generator provides electricity, and the Kitchen keeps everyone fed. Workers have different professions, so assigning a Cook or Baker can affect how much food we produce.
There’s a lot to manage, and unfortunately, some of these systems aren’t explained nearly well enough. We often found ourselves trying to understand what the game wanted from us rather than making meaningful decisions. Improving a facility might require additional electricity, particular materials, or a worker with the appropriate skills. There’s logic behind it all, but figuring out how everything connects can become unnecessarily frustrating.
The Clinic also plays an important role because fallen fighters can be revived using the appropriate resources and preparations. There’s even the option to sacrifice a character permanently to obtain Necromatter. Squad members can gain experience together, which encourages us to develop more than one capable soldier. Auto-Battle, as the name suggest, is there to let us skip certain raids after examining the projected rewards and casualties. It’s useful when we’d rather concentrate on improving our base than fighting through another location.
Thirty-Three Days Is a Long Time
33 Days till Extraction has some interesting ideas, particularly its necromancy abilities and the way our raids support the base. We do feel that the presentation tries far too hard to establish a serious universe, while the management systems could desperately use clearer explanations. There’s a potentially enjoyable shooter underneath all that complexity, and experimenting with different weapons and supernatural abilities is certainly appealing. It’s an EA title and we’re sure many of the things will evolve and change as the devs work on it.
Our score: EA Title
Game at a Glance
- Platform: PC (Steam)
- Developer & Publisher: Three Whales Studio
- Genre: Action RPG, Extraction Shooter
- Modes: Single-player, Online Co-op
- Status: Early Access
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