Rainbow Six: Extraction Review
Rainbow Six: Extraction
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre:
PEGI: M
Comments:
New Mexico: An unidentified Russian Soyuz capsule crashed and triggered an epidemic. Ground zero was the city of Truth or Consequences. Rainbow HW launched an operation outbreak with the goal to collect data and contain the deadly disease.
The Truth or Consequences event raised questions about the handling of future threats. The formation of a specialized task force dedicated to containing possible similar dangers was discussed.
Global consensus followed and the Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team (REACT) was formed with the goal to contain and assess exogenous threats to the known world, and study them for the advancement of science and the human race.
Truth or Consequences was not an isolated incident. A few years after the Outbreak Event, in rapid succession, New York City, San Francisco, and Nome, Alaska all experience catastrophic emergence events.
REACT is deployed on-sight within hours…
Welcome to the world of Rainbow Six Extraction, which many are describing as a survival horror game…I would say it’s a tactical shooter with supernatural elements. The game is split up into a loop of Tactical Incursions which can be tackled alone or with a team (3 folks) utilizing your operators and their abilities to achieve up to 3 objectives per mission.
Tactical Incursions are the infiltration/exfiltration gameplay loop at the core of the Extraction experience. Squads are always in control of whom they choose to launch an incursion into the Containment Zone and when they decide to extract.
Containment Zones are sectioned off into 3 areas, linked by airlocks that provide a safe, sterile location for Operators and quarantined staff. This also allows you a safe place to heal, reload, etc.
At any time, you can bank rewards and XP from completed objectives by extracting, or you can double down by proceeding towards the next area and objective.
Stadia Update
Over the past few months, we have been playing Rainbow Six Extraction for multiple hours on Google Stadia. There have been a few frame rate issues but as we always say, that could be an Internet issue locally as opposed to a problem with the games servers.
The thing is, being able to play Extraction anywhere has actually be a really nice touch. I’ve been able to play with friends and family wherever I go, and not only show off a great game, but also highlight the benefits of cloud gaming, and how well Google does it. From our standpoint, this is an easy recommendation on Google Stadia!
The types of objectives vary and are randomized during each experience but can include: Specimen – Where your goal is to lure an enemy to a certain area and trap it, alive. Nest Tracking – where you are to place trackers on nests. Biopsy (one of the harder ones) – where you kill a specific target by performing a takedown with your blade. Sabotage – you have to defend two destruction charges from enemy waves. Triangulation – you have to interact with laptops in a given sequence spread throughout the map. Serial Scan – You must capture different zones while being attacked by waves. Hunt – you go on a murder spree to trigger an Elite enemy’s presence and kill it. Rescue – Liberate and carry a target to the extraction zone. Decontamination – Destroy nests in a certain area to get a sample. Shutdown – Carry three bombs to destroy a parasite tower. MIA Rescue – Extract the operator and bring them back to the extraction zone (this is how you get back fallen operators) No one left behind – Bring back your fallen teammates (in a squad game) to the extraction zone. Lastly Gateway – enter the singularity to Kill a boss.
As you can tell there is a decent variety of challenges each time you play. And since there are various maps there is a decent loop before getting tired of the same old stuff. Now there is no reward without risk, which brings us to how your operators work.
The operators work just like they do in Rainbow Six Seige, each has its perks and special abilities as well as its XP level. As you level up you can unlock new tech that will provide you with new gadgets and enhancements you can use in your mission. But there is always the risk of going MIA (missing in action)
Operators that are downed in the containment zone are protected by a medical device that dispenses a prophylactic serum that causes the wearer to enter stasis, keeping the alien parasite from taking over its host for up to several hours or days. Operators can be saved by squads returning to the scene of the encounter. This gameplay feature will encourage players who have invested in upgrading certain characters to double-down and reenter with a new squad to save their valuable operator and all their upgrades and gear.
There are numerous operators to choose from right out the gate with the ability to double them as you play through the game. There are tons of upgrades and new explosives, gadgets, and other stuff as well if you invest the time in it.
Visually the game looks good and was running perfectly on my PS5 unit. The only downside was during the review period there sometimes would take a bit of time to matchmake which won’t be an issue once everyone gets their hands on it.
Playing as a squad is tough, not going to lie, this game can be hard. You need to communicate, plan and execute your objectives carefully because if you make a scene it’s easy to get overrun and wiped out within seconds. I invested a good amount of time playing solo which helped me understand the mechanics better for the sake of reviewing. The game does scale difficulty depending on solo or squad. It’s easier solo, but not easy by any means.
Long-time fans of Seige I think will enjoy this game a lot, I am having a great time playing through it and will look forward to playing with my friends upon release. But if you are not a fan of tactical shooters, this might not be the game for you. It does take time to get good and get upgrades so you can stand your ground longer. The repetition might get to some folks as there isn’t a huge variety of objectives and such, but I think what they offer is more than fair for the price of entry.
All in all another solid game release by Ubisoft, which thanks to game pass should have a great day one audience to play with.
Trailer
Article By Kevin Austin
Kevin Austin has been in gaming journalism in one way or another since the launch of the Nintendo Gamecube. Married and father of 3 children he has been gaming since the ripe age of 6 when he got his first NES system and over 30 years later he is still gaming almost daily. Kevin is also co-founder of the Play Some Video Games (PSVG) Podcast network which was founded over five years ago and is still going strong. Some of his favorite gaming series includes Fallout and Far Cry, he is a sucker for single player adventure games (hence his big reviews for Playstation), and can frequently be found getting down in one battle royale or another. If it's an oddball game, odds are he's all about it.
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