EARLY ACCESS HANDS-ON / PC / UNSCORED
Good guns, greedy pockets and one very hostile planet. We’ve spent time with Three Whales Studio’s top-down looter shooter, and there’s already plenty here to bring us back for another run.
There are plenty of games that ask you to save the world. 33 Days till Extraction seems perfectly happy if you can just get off the bloody thing.
Developed by Three Whales Studio, this sci-fi action RPG drops you onto a thoroughly unpleasant planet with a simple enough proposition: survive, gather whatever you can carry, and make it to extraction. Preferably without becoming part of the scenery.
We’ve spent some time with the Early Access version, and while there’s still plenty of development ahead, we’ve come away rather pleased with what we’ve played.
It’s a competent top-down looter shooter with satisfying gunplay, an enjoyable approach to scavenging and enough going on beyond the shooting to keep us interested.
And yes, we’ve already developed the usual problem of wanting to pick up absolutely everything.
The important bit: shooting things
Let’s get straight to it. A shooter can have all the progression systems, equipment menus and elaborate backstory it likes, but if pulling the trigger feels rubbish, we’re going to have a problem.
Fortunately, 33 Days till Extraction gets the important part right.
Combat feels solid. The top-down perspective gives you a good view of your surroundings, while movement, positioning and choosing where to aim remain important as you work through hostile territory.
There’s a satisfying rhythm to moving through an area, dealing with opposition and working towards your extraction objectives. We never felt that the perspective was getting in the way of enjoying the action.
The game also supports different weapon types and character abilities, including some rather unusual necromantic tricks. There’s clearly more to experiment with as development continues.
For our time with it, though, the straightforward business of shooting things was enjoyable enough to stand on its own.
That’s a good place for any shooter to start.
Just one more crate…
The other part of the equation is loot, and this is where 33 Days till Extraction starts getting its hooks into you.
Searching through environments, collecting equipment and finding something worth carrying back gives the missions an extra purpose beyond simply clearing an area.
The loot system is engaging without requiring a degree in inventory management to appreciate the appeal. There’s something satisfying about finding another container, checking its contents and deciding that yes, we absolutely need whatever is inside.
Do we really need it?
Probably not.
Are we taking it anyway?
Obviously.
Items, equipment and character progression all contribute to that familiar temptation to squeeze another run in before calling it a night. Even seemingly modest rewards become a reason to keep exploring.
Our screenshots capture some of those moments, from collecting equipment to retrieving extraction keys and making a rather determined effort to leave with our pockets full.
We even found garlic. Quite what our enemies have planned that requires us to carry garlic into a science-fiction firefight is anyone’s guess, but we’re prepared for it.
A surprisingly interesting place to get shot
Visually, the game has a distinctive atmosphere.
Rocky wastelands, ruined installations, scattered machinery and industrial compounds give the environments a battered, abandoned quality. There’s plenty of warm orange lighting cutting through darker terrain, while other areas introduce cooler blues, dense vegetation and small patches of glowing purple flora.
It’s a pleasing contrast.
The elevated camera also allows the environments to show some scale. You’re frequently looking down across large sections of damaged terrain, with the remains of equipment and structures scattered around you.
The industrial areas, in particular, work well with the game’s perspective. Containers, machinery and narrow approaches help give each encounter some shape rather than leaving you wandering around an empty arena.
There’s a decent amount of environmental character here, even if most of your attention will understandably be focused on not getting killed.
More than a quick trip to the scrapyard
Away from the immediate firefights, there’s another side to 33 Days till Extraction.
The game combines its raids with longer-term progression and base management. Resources, character development and preparation between expeditions all have a part to play.
The daily reports give you a glimpse of the bigger picture. Food supplies, project progress, income and character development continue to matter after you’ve finished collecting ammunition and liberating everyone else’s possessions.
We particularly like the idea that surviving an expedition isn’t necessarily the end of the job. You’ve still got a base to maintain and decisions to make about what comes next.
It adds another reason to care about what you’re collecting and why you’re risking your neck to collect it.
We’re not far enough into the longer-term systems to give a definitive assessment of their balance or depth, but there’s certainly enough here that we’ll be spending more time exploring them.
Early Access, with plenty still to come
It’s worth remembering that 33 Days till Extraction is still an Early Access release.
Three Whales Studio has outlined plans to expand the selection of weapons, abilities, locations and other content, with player feedback helping shape further development.
That matters because the existing experience already has some worthwhile foundations.
The shooting works, the loot is enjoyable and the combination of exploration, extraction objectives and progression gives you reasons to keep playing.
What we’ll be particularly interested in seeing is how much variety the developers can introduce over time. The more reasons we’re given to experiment with equipment, visit different locations and change our approach, the better.
We’re also keen to spend more time with the broader character and base systems before drawing any conclusions about how everything fits together over a longer campaign.
For now, though, we’re enjoying ourselves.
And that’s considerably more important than having an impressive list of promised features.
Our early impressions
33 Days till Extraction has made a good first impression on us.
It’s a competent, enjoyable top-down looter shooter that understands the importance of decent gunplay and rewarding exploration.
The shooting feels good, the loot gives us an excuse to poke around every corner, and the additional progression systems leave us interested in what comes next.
We aren’t going to pretend it’s a finished product, nor are we ready to put a score on it. That’s not what an Early Access hands-on feature is for.
What we can say is that we’ve enjoyed our time with it, and we’re looking forward to seeing where Three Whales Studio takes things.
There are already enough reasons to return, and we’re confident there’s more enjoyment to be found as development continues.
One to watch, definitely.
Just don’t expect us to leave any crates unopened.
Game: 33 Days till Extraction
Developer / Publisher: Three Whales Studio
Platform tested: PC
Availability: Steam Early Access
Early Access release: 17 September 2026
Verdict: Positive early impressions. No score awarded.
Disclosure: A review copy was supplied through Keymailer. This does not influence our editorial opinions or guarantee positive coverage.
Hands-on impressions by the Coloured Static Press team. All gameplay screenshots captured during our own play session.