There is a deluge of tactical extraction shooters flooding Steam right now, but at least Level Zero Extraction is moving away from the typical milsim aesthetic and throwing a bunch of freaky aliens at you instead. However, if you were planning to jump into the game on day one when it launches in Steam Early Access in August, you’ll have to ever so slightly change your plans, as the developers have pushed the launch back in order to avoid some rival “heavy hitters.”
Blending the action from FPS games like Escape From Tarkov with horror and sci-fi elements sounds like a winning combination, and there have been plenty of people excited to get hands-on with it to see if that’s true in practice. Level Zero Extraction had originally said that it would be hitting Early Access on August 6, but in a new announcement today, developer Doghowl revealed that it’s delaying it by just one week.
As a result, the new Level Zero Extraction early access release date is Tuesday, August 13.
It’s rare to see an important date like this move by such a small amount – in most cases, delays to a game at any stage are usually measured in weeks, months, and years, rather than days. However, as Doghowl explains, this pushback isn’t due to a sudden important bug fix or a last minute polish job, it’s actually more to do with external factors.
“If you follow videogame industry news, you may be aware that plenty of huge game updates and alpha tests were announced for August 6th – the date we at Doghowl had previously scheduled our Early Access launch for,” the studio says. “With this in mind, our team decided to give the game one more week so we don’t clash with those heavy hitters!”
While it doesn’t name any games directly, the one that immediately springs to my mind is another FPS with extraction-style modes, Delta Force Hawk Ops. It recently confirmed that its PC alpha (which, coincidentally, had also previously been delayed) would be dropping on August 6. Team Jade’s shooter is highly-anticipated and currently has over 600,000 wishlists on Steam.
While not as direct a competitor as Hawk Ops, co-op shooter Helldivers 2 is also dropping its long-awaited new update on – you guessed it – August 6.
However, Doghowl may still end up having two even bigger and more direct rivals to compete with, even with its new launch date. The next Escape From Tarkov wipe is due at some point in August, and another upcoming extraction shooter, Arena Breakout Infinite, said that its early access launch would be arriving “soon”. I told you there was a deluge. If you do fancy spending some time with Level Zero Extraction, you can check out its Steam page here.
Hopefully Level Zero Extraction can get its time in the sun and enjoys a successful launch, but it’s going to be tough with all of those rival multiplayer games luring players in. To check out even more extraction shooters that are in the pipeline, consult our upcoming PC games guide.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.