The best extraction shooters on PC or: how I learned there are other games like Arc Raiders

Extraction shooter is a fussy, intimidating name for what was once a fussy, intimidating genre. The impenetrable militarism of Escape from Tarkov was for years the tone-setter – but now the pool is thankfully deeper, wider, and warmer.

The genre has a couple of defining traits: you need to "extract" – leave, basically – at the end of a run to secure everything you've gathered so you can add it to your permanent stash, and if you die you lose what you're carrying. But beyond that it's surprisingly flexible...