Rainbow Six Extraction has just recently launched, but oddly enough has been hit or miss for many players. Using the formula of our beloved Siege formula for gameplay, it strays away from the norm of Tom Clancy Games. While many people love the cooperative, let’s kick some alien butt theme; others have been left massively disappointed. However, the game really isn’t too bad if you look at it from another perspective and can be insanely fun with the right people.
What is Extraction?
Originally known as Quarantine rather than Extraction, this game launched this past January 20th and is supposed to be a spin off of Siege. The story is fairly basic, for aliens have invaded, and some of the operators from Siege form a group known as Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team (a.k.a. REACT) to combat these aliens known as Archæans, and try to learn more about them. While the concept is great, sadly, there’s not much to it as you go on. Many missions have you try to discover and take samples to learn more about the enemy, but it feels as if the developers never wanted to expand farther. Every mission completed does add to the percentage of each location for intel and mission completion, but the game is far my gameplay focused as opposed to story. That is not always a bad thing, but it would be nice to get some more lore in the game, considering how great of a concept they have.
Great Gunplay, Redundant Objectives
Due to sticking with the Siege combat formula, the gun play sticks out the most for this game. Each operator is unique in set up, so there are a lot of guns you can try out off the bat. As you level up in milestones, you can unlock more for each character in terms of abilities and weapons, as well as tech to bring on missions like grenades and armor. Progression can feel slow at first, but you can gain more experience by completing side objectives and completing missions successfully. This can feel like a drag if you have no friends or get stuck with bad players, but if you stick to the objectives, you can get through it. Milestones cap at only 30, but there is a decent amount of experience needed to progress there.
Sadly, the mission objectives can also feel a bit redundant at times, and the only way to bring the excitement back is by progressing to new areas for a change of scenery or increasing the difficulty. Mission objectives come in three per main mission and usually consist of tagging pods, luring an elite to the extraction point, and even rescuing operators that went M.I.A. on a mission gone bad. While failing missions can be punishing and create an incentive to keep going if you have lost an operator or have injured ones, it would be nice to get more of a mix-up for missions.
Top Notch Level Designs and Cool Ranking System
The layouts for each map feel well designed for strategy and exploration. The mission areas provide great opportunities to set up plans, force you to utilize your drones and provide carefully place ammunition boxes or ability replenishments to add an element of difficulty to the rounds. Players will find themselves punished even on normal for not preserving their ammo correctly and force operatives to work together when saving hostages or even setting up barriers to protect an area. The best yet worst part is that it is beyond hard if your team is not communicating; playing with randoms can really screw any player over. Even if one person drops the ball and does their own thing, that can set the whole team up for failure despite how skillful one is.
The ranking system adds a competitive edge for those who like following the mission requirements. Killing the Archæans will not put you on top due to objective points being worth more. This all contributes to the final performance score at the end to see who was putting in the work and who wanted to kill the farm or ignore everyone.
Unique Operatives and Enemy Designs
Operatives feel pretty unique in weapon layout and abilities off the bat. For example, Finka can revive downed allies while Pulse can detect enemy nests, which can really come in handy for nest tagging missions. Each operator caps at level 10, and as they progress, they unlock new weapons to customize your loadout. Unfortunately, some of the operators feel next to useless compared to others’ ability-wise, for example, Nomad. Nomad is not horrible, but her ability is shooting proximity mines to knock back enemies. While the ability is not entirely useless, it hardly does any damage, and there are far better abilities to utilize. Tachanka is another one that suffers since the mounted gun ability is only useful for specific objectives.
Alien designs, on the other hand, feel cool yet dumb. The alien A.I.s can feel like a joke on the lower levels but nasty on the high difficulties. Each Archæan’s design does feel pretty cool, but I wish there was more of a variety and a better difficulty jump. Grunts are a prime example; they feel like fodder was thrown in to give you an easy target. Bloaters come in two varieties, and both explode but are easy to kill from afar. Some will sneak out on you, and the green ones will damage you the most. Rooters can be very dangerous and immobilize if you are not careful. Breachers are easy to deal with but will alert the others if they notice you making your day hell.
If You Are Expecting a Siege Experience, Look Elsewhere
While there are some issues or improvements the game could use, it is overall a pretty fun experience. The game is definitely better if you have friends to play with and can communicate plans. Playing with randoms will 100% make the game less enjoyable if you get stuck with bad players or new players who won’t talk. If you are expecting to play a competitive game like Siege, look elsewhere because this is entirely different. It is meant to be more of a cooperative survival and tactical game rather than beating another team. Not to mention, playing against real people is completely different and less competitive.
Vibe Score: 7/10
