It kind of feels like extraction shooters are everywhere right now, which inadvertently makes it difficult for any new one to stand out on the label alone. Deep Worlds’ Beautiful Light seems to understand that too, because its strongest hook isn’t just that players are fighting to get in and out alive. It’s that they’re doing so inside a tactical horror FPS where three-player squads enter the world to secure an artifact and then attempt to extract while other players hunt them as both armed operators and monstrous anomalies. On Steam, Beautiful Light is described as a PvPvPvE tactical first-person extraction shooter for that reason, because it takes a concept that games like ARC Raiders and Marathon know well and then increases the complexity of what the genre’s gameplay loop traditionally reaches for.
Just at a glance, though, Beautiful Light basically looks like it’s taking the unsettling atmosphere of 4A Games’ Metro series and then dropping it into an extraction shooter. To be honest, that’s perfect for a genre that already thrives on tension—that feeling that a loot-filled run could end in a heartbeat—as it has the potential to increase it tenfold and make for an even more exciting high-risk experience. It has the gas masks, the military gear, the ruined environments, and the monsters, but the way it uses those things is what makes it stand out.
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The basic idea behind Beautiful Light is that players load into raids as three-player squads, look for a mysterious artifact, and then try to make it back out alive. That would already be enough to make it an extraction shooter, but the game complicates that setup with rival squads, environmental hazards, and anomalies that can be controlled by other players. The artifact itself also seems to matter beyond simply being another piece of loot, since the game’s world treats these objects as powerful enough to decide whether a city survives or falls.
Who’s That Character?

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.

Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Easy (7.5s)Medium (5.0s)Hard (2.5s)Permadeath (2.5s)
Beautiful Light’s Key Features
- EXTRACTION SHOOTER – Enter hostile zones and escape alive.
- THREE-PLAYER TEAMS – Squads fight, search, and survive together.
- PLAYER MONSTERS – Human-controlled creatures hunt operator squads.
- OBJECTIVE-BASED RAIDS – Missions focus on more than looting.
- HIGH-STAKES DEATH – Failure can cost gear and progress.
- HORROR FPS – Tactical combat unfolds in horrific environments.
- ASYMMETRICAL MULTIPLAYER – Operators and monsters play different roles.
- IMMERSIVE SURVIVAL – Sound, breathing, and gear build tension.
What helps Beautiful Light stand out is that its raids appear to have an actual centerpiece. Deep Worlds has described the game as objective-based, and that should make a difference in practice. Instead of every match being driven entirely by whatever players can find in containers or take from someone else, the artifact gives the raid a shared destination. That doesn’t mean loot suddenly stops mattering, but it does mean the FPS game has a built-in reason to push teams toward the same part of the map. If anything, this just increases the risk of taking what you can carry, as the longer a match lasts, the more likelihood there is that you’ll be taken out by an enemy team.
That should make the operator side of Beautiful Light feel like more than a simple race to extract. With six squads of three entering the same area, there is only so long a team can avoid making a decision. It can move toward the artifact early, wait for another squad to expose itself, or try to reach extraction before the situation gets worse. Those choices are basic on paper, but they are exactly the kind of choices that can make an extraction shooter work when the map, objectives, and player count are all pulling in the same direction.
Land in and explore a hostile environment filled with lore, obstacles, and hazards.
The horror elements seem like they are there to make those decisions harder. Beautiful Light puts a clear emphasis on sound, with realistic footsteps, breathing, and heartbeats listed among its immersive features, while its gas mask and forearm PDA keep the presentation closer to grounded survival horror than a standard military HUD. That matters because raids like this need more than gunfights to stay tense. If players are listening for movement, watching their route, and worrying about whether extraction will draw the wrong kind of attention, then the horror side of the game is doing more than changing the scenery.
Beautiful Light’s Anomalies Could Be Its Biggest Twist on the Formula
The anomalies are where Beautiful Light starts to distinguish itself the most. Rival squads are expected in an extraction shooter, but monster players give each raid another problem entirely. Operators may go in with a plan, move toward the artifact, and try to avoid unnecessary fights, but that plan can change fast when another player enters the match with the sole purpose of hunting them.
Rival operators and monstrous anomalies will do everything they can to take you down.
That’s what really makes this idea work, though. An AI monster can eventually become predictable, even if it is scary the first few times. A monster controlled by another player is different, because it can wait, follow, pressure a weak squad, or show up at the worst possible time. That makes the anomaly role dangerous in a way AI enemies usually are not. It gives Beautiful Light a threat that can think, react, and make a bad situation worse on purpose.
Deep Worlds also seems to be treating anomalies as their own side of the game, rather than a small extra mode. Anomaly players can earn experience, improve skills, unlock abilities, and even send some earnings back to the human side. That gives the role more long-term value, which is important because the novelty of playing as a monster would only go so far on its own. If Beautiful Light gives that side enough depth, players may have a reason to spend just as much time hunting operators as they do trying to survive as one.
That could be the piece that gives Beautiful Light a standout place in the increasingly crowded extraction shooter genre. The artifact gives squads a reason to move, the extraction format gives death a cost, and the anomalies give the horror side a real role in the match. Plenty of extraction shooters can make players worry about losing gear, but Beautiful Light seems more interested in making players worry about what else is in the raid with them.

- Released
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December, 2026
- Developer(s)
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Deep Worlds SA
- Publisher(s)
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Deep Worlds SA
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Number of Players
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Single-player









