On January 20th, we will have the launch of Rainbow Six Extraction, a cooperative multiplayer game that is based on the world of Rainbow Six Siege, but this time instead of fighting each other, all players have a common goal: to save the planet of the Parasite, an alien race that looks a bit like Venom, only not so cool.

Extraction is very reminiscent of the Outbreak event, a game mode that took place in Rainbow Six Siege some time ago, only now as a separate and more complete game than what we saw in the competitive shooter. The question is: Does it really offer enough to be released as a full game and no longer an event? Also check out our video review below:

a big guy

It all starts with training so that we become familiar with the mechanics of the game, although in training we do everything ourselves, raids can be done by up to three people.

The general idea is to infiltrate an alien-infested location and complete objectives such as collecting samples, destroying regenerative portals, rescuing people, and looking for information about the alien race.
Each game session is split between four locations: New York, San Francisco, Alaska and Truth or Consequences, a city in the state of New Mexico.

These locations are composed of three interconnected submaps with three distinct objectives. The location of objectives, the point of infiltration and the placement of enemies are always random from one session to another, so there’s no point in being smart thinking you can decorate. Also, each time we go through a subarea, the next one gets harder.

Did you find it confusing? There’s more, these mission objectives aren’t the only things on your to-do list, you also need to perform a series of small tasks called “Studies”, to complete the completion percentage of each city and “advance” in the game’s story. .

During the action, operators have two options when fulfilling the missions: continue to the next area or extract the team using a helicopter. What is the advantage of one and what is the advantage of the other?
As I said before, the next area is always more difficult, but as a reward for our bravery to keep going, we get more rewards for doing everything successfully.

However, exfiltration may not be a bad idea if the party is low on health, or if any member of your party has already buttoned their wooden coat, as it will guarantee all the experience gained so far.

getting to know your team

Extraction operators have formed a special group called REACT, which stands for Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team. We can choose between 18 of them, each one has its own characteristics that must be taken advantage of when fighting against the Archeans.

The “powers”, let’s say, of each operator will govern the formation of their team, it’s always good to give a variety making the gameplay very dynamic. Trust me, varying your team’s background is key to success. To give some good examples, we have Doc, who has a little healing pistol, Lion who has a drone that detects moving enemies and Ela who comes equipped with three stun mines that are great for taking down enemies that have fire resistance. . But, these are just a few examples.

Doc, one of the game’s operators

It is also important to mention that each operator has its own evolutions. They have a level that goes from one to 10, each mission carried out grants experience and makes you level up, guaranteeing a wider range of weapons and other advantages, such as reduced time between skill uses, more damage resistance, more movement speed, among others.

knowing the enemies

As important as knowing the characters is knowing the enemies. Archeans also have special variants that make the game more strategic, such as scouts and toxics that are little monsters that carry a type of explosive bag on their backs, in the case of toxics the bag still leaves a corrosive smoke that is very annoying .

We also have the Thorns, which can attack at long distances, the Seedbearers, which place some types of mines that blind the operator and the Penumbra, which has the ability to turn invisible and make their alien companions invisible as well. These are just some of them, we meet even more boring ones as we go along.

Some game enemies

Thrift or rambo style?

One of the things that the player is sure to notice when playing Rainbow Six Extraction is that it is much more cadenced than Back 4 Blood, Aliens Fireteam Elite or World War Z, games to which it is often compared. However, a more assertive comparison would be with GTFO.

While most other co-op multiplayer shooters focus primarily on using firearms to blow the brains out of enemies, Extraction tries to focus on objectives and survival of encounters with the beasties. The damage caused by the aliens is pretty high, they don’t need a lot of beating to send the operator to hell. Here, the shit is crazy, sometimes three hits from a Shredder is enough to kill you.

saving fallen operator

But calm down, there is a second chance if you lose your operator. One of the coolest mechanics in the game is exactly that. If we happen to get a hoot from Venom’s stuntmen, we can go back on that same mission with another operator to rescue him or we can also ask a little friend to carry the character to the helicopter. This is even the best option, trust me, nobody wants to lose the Doc level 10 and then have to rescue it using a Tachanka level 2, really, it’s very sad.

This tension of losing your most evolved character gives a very interesting flavor to the game, as players always have to decide whether to continue venturing further into the containment zone at the risk of losing an important agent.

Also, characters injured in the previous mission will remain injured, recovering a little bit of HP with each new mission completed. Did you get the idea?

I finished the game, now what?

To “zero” the game, we need to complete missions and studies and advance in a progression system called “milestone” that goes from 1 to 30. It works more or less like the player’s level, with each milestone reached we release more technologies to research, cosmetics to give operators a new face and even new game modes.

Of course, Ubisoft’s interest is to keep people playing even after finishing all the content. As such, Extraction also offers a Late Game content called “Protocol Maelstrom”, a type of Raid, so to speak. To unlock it, you need to reach milestone 16.

It works as if it were an extra hard mode, increasing the number and intensity of objectives, here we have not just three, but nine tasks to deliver before exfiltrating.

Once you get through the first three objectives, the difficulty will increase, your time limit to accomplish the next three will be reduced, and health and ammo refill stations will become increasingly difficult to find.

The challenge will change weekly, and completing it will earn you loads of experience points for your operators, REACT credits to spend on cosmetics in the in-game store, and a special helmet that varies depending on the rank you get from completing Maelstrom.

Speaking of helmets, yes… the game has microtransactions. However, they are only useful if the player wants to buy uniforms and helmets for their operators or pendants and decals for their weapons. All cosmetic, from what I could see, there is no pay-to-win type in store, for now.

It is worth it?

The big question people have with Extraction is that they say it could just be a Rainbow Six Siege DLC, after all, it was already an event they did there in 2018. And to be honest, this statement isn’t even that absurd.

Extraction could be a Rainbow Six Siege DLC. Even that big monster they used in the event is present here in the game, that giant full of armor, who played remembers. Well, he’s the same!

If it was a DLC, people would say “Damn, it looks like a new game” and they wouldn’t be wrong either. But, if we think about it, do we know of some cases where a DLC is really worth it to the point of giving our arm to cheer?

This line is very thin. If you don’t expect much from Rainbow Six Extraction, believe me, it’s capable of surprising, with a good action moderated with strategy, a good play with friends, and a feeling of evolution that you can really feel as you advance each mission in the game. So, yes, you will enjoy Extraction and you will want to join the gang for a good mission, with your favorite operator.

Now, if you expect an action-packed game with shootings everywhere, grenades exploding, while you whistle and suck cane at the same time, or a SUPER complex story, full of twists worthy of great Hollywood movie moments, then… brake.

One more point: if you subscribe to Gamepass, on Xbox or PC, you will have the opportunity to test it for yourself. The game will be available on Day One so it’s worth giving it a try.
Now I will answer some questions that may have been left in the air:

Yes, you can play with your friends from PC, Playstation, Xbox and even Stadia (does anyone have Stadia?)

Yes, it has some cutscenes that take place a few years after Raibow Six Siege, as we can see that some operators are older, like Thermite and Ash. By fulfilling the missions called “studies” within each city you release parts of the codex to stay on top of the game’s events.

He can! You can play alone, in pairs or in trios. The game adapts the difficulty depending on the number of operators in the squad. But of course playing with more people gives you a lot more opportunities to complete the mission safely.

At the end of the day, Rainbow Six Extraction is fun, strategic and will bring you good times with aliens, it’s not a revolution, it won’t be the best multiplayer coop you’ll play in your life, but it’s competent in what it proposes. Could it be DLC? Yes, it could, but if it was, it would be great DLC. Your grade is 80.

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