Rainbow Six Extraction Review – A Strange Encounter

Rainbow Six Extraction is a spin-off of Ubisoft’s flagship competitive multiplayer hit, Rainbow Six Siege, set in an alien-infested depiction of the United States. This three-player cooperative shooter borrows its predecessor’s roster of operators and weapons and recontextualizes them inside a more approachable player-versus-environment setting – often to fun results. Players who are willing to put in the effort to advance as operators will reap the exciting rewards, but the steep climb to the top is not for everyone. Additionally, a persistent health system creates meaningful consequences for players who fail to best Extraction’s many challenges by carrying over operators’ injuries from match to match. However, Rainbow Six Siege casts a substantial shadow, and despite its best efforts, Ubisoft’s latest shooter struggles to fully emerge from beneath it. 

It is technically flawless. It’s polished and enjoyable. Though, I don’t find it nearly as compelling as the shooter it spins off from. Even during the most exciting scenarios, I couldn’t help but wish I was playing Rainbow Six Siege. Every incursion in Extract begins as a match of Siege. Your team picks their operators and equipment load-outs and then prepares to fight an onslaught of AI enemies across four brand new locations: New York City, San Francisco, Alaska, or Truth And Consequences — which is A real New Mexico town. The maps can be divided into several sub-maps to provide ample verticality and cover, but they are not particularly memorable, with a few exceptions. Some locations are more interesting, such as a UFO-themed diorama and an abandoned casino. They’re covered with parasite nests, dark slime textures, which makes them hard to remember.

Your crew must complete an assortment of objectives in each section. You can choose from stealthy-based missions like Biopsy that require you to extract alien tissue samples using a knife or attack-oriented objectives such as Hunt and Decontamination which are standard-fare kill quests but still provide some satisfaction. Sabotage and Rescue are missions that Siege players may be familiar with. These objectives mirror those of Bomb and Hostage. My favorite objective type is Specimen, which requires your team to lure one of the powerful Archaeans – the parasitic antagonists tormenting the darkened hallways of every environment – into a trap to capture it alive. It’s hilarious. My teammates and I laughed a lot when one person was chosen to be the bait.

Airlocks separate each city’s three sub-maps, serving as safehouses filled with supplies like med-kits and (hopefully) ammunition. Your squad will need to venture further into the incursion to be able to remove the enemies. The enemy variety and difficulty increases, from low-level grunts up to fearsome beasts that can smash through walls. I enjoy the variety, but you’ll have to increase the difficulty level to encounter the best ones. If you manage to fight your way through all three areas, you earn extra experience points, unlocking perks like increased movement speed or new abilities like Sledge’s charged hammer swing. These operator advancements are the highlight of Extraction’s progression loop, and I wanted to keep playing to obtain them. Through completing challenges or matches at the level of your players, you also earn new operators and equipment. There are many exciting rewards, but I find the progression to be unnecessarily slow. 

Although each weapon has a different handling, I found that they were all enjoyable to use. Silenced rifles have been my favorite type of weapon. For their stopping power, they can also execute discreet kill-shots against all types of Archaeans. Shotguns reliably blow enemies – and walls – to pieces but attract lots of attention. The stealthy takedowns that are possible through extraction offer a discreet way to achieve your goals when both ammo or health are low. There is nothing more satisfying than quietly clearing the perimeter with your team. However, the game fails to adequately convey when you’re at risk of being detected, so my attempts at subtlety often devolved into panicked shoot-outs. 

Extraction is based on Siege but introduces something I really love, persistent operator health. Let’s say you played Vigil before and left the mission with four health. In that case, he’ll start the next game injured unless you let him recover by completing incursions as other characters. Your performance could result in several operators being injured or missing from action. I was encouraged to try out different operators from the roster. This led me to have white-knuckle encounters.

Rainbow Six Extraction converts much of Siege’s content library into an approachable co-op shooter, providing a tense environment for players of all skill levels. This installment is a collection of industry-defining hits that feels extremely safe, but it’s significantly less gripping than its predecessor.