Rainbow Six Extraction

Tom Clancy’s name has been stretched in a multitude of ways. The franchises attached to the Tom Clancy’s brand have been equally stretched. Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, The Division… XDefiant?

The worlds inspired by the author’s works have often been relatively grounded, if not a bit out of the realm of belief. Years ago I read the massive tome that was Rainbow Six because I found it at a yard sale and had been curious what the fuss was about. Military espionage, bio-terrorism, globetrotting soldiers–it was all a bit wild but completely engaging. Thinking back, The Division‘s Dollar Flu is pretty similar to the virus the bad guys in the Rainbow Six book were going to use to wipe out humanity.

Who knows what would have become of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Patriots but Rainbow Six Siege has made its mark. Elite teams of good guys and bad guys taking hostages and disarming chemical weapons is a concept ripped out of the pages. Mixed with incredible shooting mechanics, destructible environments, and a large roster of unique Operators, Siege found its niche in the PvP space and fostered it into prosperity.

Rainbow Six Extraction, despite feeling like the biggest possible departure from core Tom Clancy’s, is surprisingly quaint. If an alien force invaded Earth, who’s to say that a group like the Rainbow agents wouldn’t be deployed to tackle the threat?

Spawned from a 2018 mode in Siege called Outbreak, Extraction is natural extension but also a departure Siege. Two opposing groups of five players is replaced by a team of three against a vile horde of aliens called the Archaeans (lovingly called Archies). But because the mechanics and fundamentals are so similar, a Siege player could blindly be dropped into Extraction and feel right at home.

There is a narrative in Extraction but it is mostly set dressing. I admire the amount of lore written for the game that is unlocked over time and the stunning cutscenes meant to get the player hyped for killing aliens. But honestly, I doubt most players will focus on or even remember the bits of dialog from recognizable Operators or what the purpose of a Nest or Grunt is.

Despite that, Extraction manages to retain its own moody style. The inky, sludge-like Archies are meant to blend into the darkened hallways of the mangled buildings they’ve found themselves in. The squelching sound of their movement and the infestation of the “Sprawl” created by them are meant to haunt the player as it encroaches on the playable space and threatens to slow movement when walking on it. Many of the levels take place at night with dull, incandescent light flickering objects in and out of view. REACT–the newly-formed organization taking on the aliens–has a distinct yellow tone to its technology, sharply contrasting with the subdued tones of the world.

While the game lacks the rich detail one might expect out of a PlayStation 5 title or even a Ubisoft game, the design of the Operators and the Archaeans will impress, as long as you don’t get too close. The game is meant to wow when breaking through walls and the amount of smooth movement when the Sprawl covers every surface and Grunts rush players while Breachers pop and explode, shattering a nearby wall.

What I admired most about Siege was that it ratcheted down the pace of traditional competitive shooters while disrupting the concept of static maps. Siege was basically the Search and Destroy mode from Call of Duty on steroids. A defending team would hole up in a central location while an attacking team would attempt to converge on the objective. But in Siege, there were few “safe” spaces because walls could be blown apart, drones could be driven through small spaces, players could rappel up and down walls and shoot through windows, roofs and ceilings could be chipped away at, a tiny hole in a wall could allow deadly bullets to shred the opposition.

Siege was thrillingly tense. Countless times I played the game and strained my ears to detect signs of life through headphones. Communication between teammates was crucial in survival and coordination.

Extraction does its damnedest to capture that feeling in a PvE space. And it usually does.

The game frequently features taut action as up to three players are tasked with objectives during an Incursion. Incursions are three-round missions in Extraction where the objectives range from killing an elite enemy, taking down an unaware enemy at close range, capturing an Archie, defending a position, or accessing computers within a tight window of time. Once players complete an objective they have the option to move to the next zone or safely extract and bank their earned experience.

One of the most compelling aspects of progressing through Extraction is the risk/reward that players must deal with. It’s the driving fuel behind the game and will likely serve as the driving force behind giving the game more than a few hours of your time.

After completing the first round of an Incursion and moving to the next, players won’t recover health. Was your team beat up pretty badly in the first round? You’re playing a dangerous game moving into the next. Medkits and healing abilities will only add temporary health to Operators that slowly ticks down as time goes on. But moving beyond the first mission guarantees more experience points and a multiplier. Manage to complete all three rounds and players will receive a high bonus that aids in furthering their unlocks.

Operators only recover health when they aren’t being used and the amount of health they recover is dictated by how successful subsequent Incursions go. Last longer and expect your injured Operators to regain more health. If an Operator is hurt too much, they become injured and can’t be used until they’ve recovered enough health.

However, Operators can also go down during an Incursion and become MIA, meaning they can’t be used until a team goes back into the specific zone the Operator was captured in and then rescued. Extracting an MIA Operator results in an engaging and tense mission type where players must pull the Operator out of a kind of tree while shooting glowing points racing from tendrils to the trunk.

While MIA, an Operator’s experience earned while they were on the mission is locked away, preventing the Operator from gaining experience in addition to the main progression tree. If the Operator has yet to reach level 10 and the rescue fails, that Operator loses a chunk of their experience and may lose a level.

Progressing Operators and the overall REACT career allows players to tackle harder difficulties in Extraction. Operators gain increased health, speed, and resistance and have their primary ability boosted to new heights when leveling up. Leveling up to new REACT milestones unlocks new equipment, Operators, and locations.

Extraction has a confident and interesting approach to rewarding players continued efforts. That being said, the progression eventually comes to a halt as players run into a familiar problem for the genre. Ultimately, the game is about tackling harder difficulties that introduce the most dangerous Archaeans and add modifiers to gameplay that ramp up the challenge.

Those looking for more meat on the bone than a tougher challenge have likely met this problem head on when dealing with the increasingly busy co-op shooter space. And the difficulty in Extraction dials up quite fast, especially when taking the game on solo.

Players have to be deliberate when killing Archaeans and moving through maps. Weakpoint kills like headshots or putting a bullet through the glowing spot ensure an Archaean won’t cause a blob of Sprawl to grow where they died. Alert any Archaean and they begin a call and, if not killed swiftly, will cause any nearby Nest to constantly spawn new Archaeans until the Nests are destroyed. Running and gunning in Extraction is not a good idea, especially considering how precious health can be. And while there are safeguards in place to prevent all Operators from being unavailable, it’s still smart to keep everyone healthy.

Difficulty levels can be raised to allow for better experience gains but also mean that a single bullet may not take down a Grunt anymore. But I also think that Extraction would have benefited from more variety during its Incursions mid-mission. Players are given three overarching quests that are tied to a specific location that grant a ton of experience. But these quests are usually things like tag an item or enemy, get specific kills, or accomplish certain thresholds.

Eventually, players may learn the maps by heart and may go through the motions without any kind of surprises like a sudden VIP rescue or potential opportunity to earn permanent health. Instead it’s one objective that needs to be completed in 15 minutes, meaning that if you find the objective fast, there’s up to ten minutes that aren’t needed.

While Extraction serves as an alternative way to enjoy the DNA of Siege, I think its use of Operators and the destructible worlds falters a bit. Honestly, there are just some Operators that are great in Siege but aren’t as useful in Extraction, especially if they aren’t fully leveled up. Pulse’s ability to detect items and enemies doesn’t seem as great when compared to Lion’s ability to do the same while being able to shoot a gun. But in Siege, Alibi’s decoy might not fool a human player but it sure as hell distracts Archies. I love Tachanka being able to hold down a point in Extraction but am not sure how effective Sledge is if he isn’t using his hammer to shatter a well-armored enemy.

And really, there’s just not a lot of reason to mess with destructible environments in Extraction because it makes far too much noise for comfort. Archaeans don’t hole themselves up so someone like Thermite may feel a bit pointless. Barricading walls and windows only really makes sense when the objective calls for players to defend a point. Otherwise, I see players gravitating towards operators like Finka, Rook, and Doc who provide armor and health.

Still, nothing matters without a coordinated team and I see hardcore Extraction players as those pushing to level up to play Maelstrom Protocols and the timed events that throw in nine-stage Incursions or limit what Operators can be used or add different modifiers. Those are the kinds of events and the promise of ranked play rewarding unique cosmetics will drive the fanbase well beyond most players.

Rainbow Six Extraction may appear to be a vast departure from all things Tom Clancy’s and Rainbow Six on the surface. However, it is an often thrilling, tense PvE game that implements some of the best shooting mechanics found in Siege. Rather than focusing on swarms of fast moving zombies and floods of randomized loot, Extraction keeps things simple and often muted, rewarding careful and deliberate play. It may not have deep progression and constantly evolving objectives but it does present a challenge that only Rainbow Six can bring. While Ubisoft typically supports their games for the long term, I’m curious to see if Rainbow Six Extraction will be able to shine in this increasingly busy space and prove that the risk–and lengthy delay–was mostly worth it.