MeinMMO author Dariusz Müller is a big fan of PvP shooters, but he is dissatisfied with the current offering on the gaming market. He thinks the types of shooters that are currently the most popular are crap.
I have three major passions in gaming: Pokémon, survival games and shooters – the latter especially with a competitive mind and PvP focus. It can be fast and action-packed, but I also like to see tactical gameplay.
However, what I don’t like seeing are new extraction shooters and battle royales. I’ve played different games of the two subgenres and have to honestly say that I didn’t have much fun most of the time. I don’t like the gameplay or the way the players interact in the two types of shooters.
A Whole New Gaming Genre Is Emerging – What Are EFT Likes?
The gaming industry loves battle royale and extraction shooters
The bad thing is that I keep reading the two categories when there are new game announcements. A new Battle Royale was only released in 2022 with Super People, followed in April 2023 by Farlight 84. On top of that, there are more extraction shooters in development with Haweked and Hyena, and even The Division Heartland looks more like an EFT than a loot shooter.
In addition, CoD MW2 and Battlefield 2042 are not as good as expected and partly disappointing in quality and Shatterline is too insignificant to provide a long-term alternative. In addition, arena shooters like Splitgate or Halo Infinite hardly have any players (via SteamCharts). It seems like battle royale and EFT likes are the only types of shooters that are currently successful.
My hope for the near future lies with Ubisoft’s CoD competitor XDefiant, but here too the beta had massive technical problems and insufficient server stability. That has to be much better for the release.
XDefiant Game Overview Deep Dive Trailer
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I want fair duels and no comparison of who has the better equipment
There’s a point in every battle royale or extraction shooter where I didn’t want to continue playing due to lack of gameplay. This point was often reached when I was losing more and more clashes because the opponent had significantly better equipment.
It can be down to luck in a battle royal, and playtime in an extraction shooter like Escape from Tarkov. I dislike both.
A gunfight can be noticeably more difficult for me if my opponent is better equipped and I do significantly less damage with my weapon or the type of ammunition used, even though I have better aim and movement.
I want fair gunfights and no battles over who had more time to gamble in the current wipe. I play various games and for example I will complete the current titan raid in Pokemon once the article is finished and my workday is over.
Then I might want to play Witcher 3 again, unlock the new supporter in Overwatch 2 and finally spend some time in New World.
For me, a shooter is ideal if my opponent and I meet under the same conditions as possiblewe will fight a fair fight and in the end the one who was better will stand still – spoiler: In CS:GO or Valorant it is usually the others.
In contrast to extraction shooters, Battle Royale have the advantage that everyone starts with the same equipment. However, I’m always lucky enough to find comparatively bad weapons for a long time while my opponent comes up with the current meta weapons.
And I’m just not the type of player to zigzag away in such situations and hide somewhere. I want the gunfight and then end up in the gulag – suboptimal.
Not everything that stinks is crap
Of course, despite my criticism, not all games that fall into the two shooter categories are bad. Some titles are really well implemented and extremely popular with many players, even if I find them stinky.
There are even a few titles that I enjoyed playing, at least for a short time. I quite enjoyed Warzone 2’s DMZ mode despite being an extraction shooter. The Cycle Frontier or Hunt: Showdown also have aspects that I can praise.
However, I personally just don’t enjoy Battle Royale and Extraction shooters and I wish that all developers didn’t jump into the two subgenres and want to make their own version of the same game principle.
An exception on the gaming market is the arena shooter “The Finals” by Embark Studios. MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider has summarized for you how The Finals plays.