Whilst the Tom Clancy name has branched multiple game series and has been going strong for some years now, there are few that can quite match the excitement of a new Rainbow Six adventure. Of course, with Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege drastically shaking things up and pushing the series in a multiplayer focussed route, only for it to be incredibly successful, many have been keen to see if the series follow up titles would return back to a single-player or narrative-focused affair. Now, we have our answer with Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction having just arrived.
The first thing I want to get out there however, and I’m likely to divide players with this, is that whilst this may be being billed as an entirely new title in the series, Extraction feels more in line with being a Rainbow Six Siege 1.5 if you will. But before we get into that, and you feel put off before we’ve even begun, let’s look at what’s going on.
Rather than another shot at the brutal Terrorist Hunts, or indeed any terrorist hunting whatsoever, Rainbow Six Extraction puts players back into the shoes of the beloved operators we know and love from Rainbow Six Siege, with 18 available for selection at present, but this time they are each forming part of the new REACT team (Rainbow Exogenous Analysis and Containment Team). As a REACT team member, it’s up to you to brave the fight against the all-new and invasive parasitic alien creatures known as Archaeans.
The fight takes place across numerous procedurally generated missions known as Incursions, with players able to team up for each Incursion as a three-man team or go it alone in a solo effort. Each Incursion takes the form of a three-part mission and will see players tasked with various objectives such as collecting samples, planting explosives, extraction efforts of either intel or MIA operators and hunting Elite Archaens amongst others. Each mission section will have one objective and a 15-minute time limit applied to it, whilst one-way quarantine doors separate each area from the last, requiring all players involved to interact with them to progress. Now, of course, 45 minutes per mission does sound like a fairly large outlay, but chances are even on the easiest difficulty, you’ll rarely be making it out alive and will have messed up long before even reaching the third objective.
Fortunately, should you decide your team aren’t able to continue and need to abandon your efforts for whatever reason, you can pull out at any time with a dash towards the extraction helicopter. Here, successful efforts get rewarded a mission success. Even if you’re overall efforts didn’t seem all that valiant on reflection, however, should you go down too many times you’ll end up in an awkward predicament as you watch your operator gets encased in foam and given an MIA status for their efforts, which will mean a later effort will be needed to save them from the Archaean threat and leave them currently unavailable for selection until they have been rescued.
Whilst that sounds rather incredible on paper, putting it into practice leaves a bit of a mixed bag of results. This is mostly down to the rather brutal difficulty of each Incursion. Even on the lowest difficulty, it only takes one mistake for players to find themselves in a position in which you need to make a break for the exit. Throughout my time with the game, I played in a coordinated team effort with friends from our Xbox Tavern faithful, and with complete strangers, and there was only a handful of occasions throughout either that I was ever able to successfully complete all three stages of any incursion, with multiple operators left MIA, or worse, losing experience points when the rescue efforts went awry.
What makes things so difficult is that the game is very clearly focussed on stealth as the ideal avenue for a successful Incursion, but with several operators’ weapons proving simply too loud, and the first alerted enemy capable of raining down an entire army of Archaens with one fateful shriek, it doesn’t take much to see yet another stealth effort ruined within just seconds of entering a room.
In terms of gameplay, Rainbow Six Extraction borrows from many of the same features we’ve already seen in the previous Rainbow Six outing. Besides feeling exactly the same as Rainbow Six Siege in terms of the moment to moment gameplay, there are also the returning operators such as Pulse who comes equipped with a heartbeat sensor capable of seeing enemies through walls, which allows players to make the most of the returning fully destructible walls to get an early drop on unsuspecting enemies. Naturally, there are defensive objectives and here you’ll see the wall barricades that we all grew so fond of also returning to assist, whilst the remote-control drones can be thrown out to scout ahead before running into an objective should you want to know what’s ahead.
That’s not to say there isn’t anything new to experience, as one of the key gameplay features players will be dealing with here is often what you see all around you. Black, sticky, and capable of slowing any operator to a snail’s pace, Sprawl is essentially a calcifying lime that spreads to any surface a defeated enemy was previously touching, and should you find yourself entering a room filled with this unique substance, you’ll need to either use a melee attack to remove it, or shoot yourself a clear path should you wish to proceed without the threat of being unable to run away if needed.
As mentioned before, the goals and objectives are an entirely new take for Rainbow Six, but in terms of gameplay and overall feel, Rainbow Six Extraction feels like more of a reskinned DLC rather than a full-blown follow-up and if you’re one of the many who enjoyed their time with the timed Outbreak event for Siege, then the overall tone of Extraction simply feels like the natural follow up to that very timed event.
Now before that’s taken as a criticism, that’s not to say Extraction is in any way a bad game, but with a seemingly overwhelming difficulty, even on the lowest settings, there will be very few who get to experience the entire fight the way it was intended.
You see, should you possess the skills to head past the Moderate difficulty setting and head into the Cautious, Severe or Critical options, things take a further step towards the outrageous for the series, with players not only fighting a difficult alien threat, but also one containing a bunch of mutations that make the fight even more deadly. Getting through any of these difficulties in a solo capacity is near impossible though, at least for anyone not able or willing to dump hundreds of hours into the game.
Fortunately, it’s only these mutations you are unlikely to see, however, as the multiple Archaean enemy types are aplenty as you progress through each of the multiple locations included within the game. With nothing more than your overall level preventing you from playing new locations, it’s only a matter of time before you finally get to experience the joys of San Francisco, Alaska or indeed one of the best Motel layouts we’ve seen for a while.
Away from gameplay and in terms of presentation, Rainbow Six Extraction is a game that appears visually very similar to that of its predecessor. Character models are the same as before, and locations and environments once more feel impressive both inside and out with fantastic destruction capabilities. That said, don’t let the clear comparisons detract from the fact that Extraction is very likely to be one of 2022’s best-looking games.
Onto the sound and should you be playing with a stereo headset, then chances are it won’t take long before you’re fully taken away from the real world and encapsulated in the ongoing alien invasion. From the breathing of our operators and each footstep that echoes throughout, to the thud of each shot as it gets planted in an enemy or even the wall behind them, the audio is fantastic. Sure, this isn’t really going to be the biggest focus point for most players, but it has to be said that too many games have forgettable audio and Rainbow Six Extraction doesn’t fall into that category.
Conclusion
Overall, if you’re after a new co-op shooter to play with friends, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction isn’t a bad way to go. Sure it’s difficulty will be enough to turn some away, but should you stick with it, formulate a plan and not mind the frequent MIA operator in need of a saviour, what you’ll find is a competent multiplayer shooter that brings fantastic visuals and challenging gameplay to an already beloved franchise and with plenty of returning characters that players will know from before, this doesn’t feel like yet another game that you’ll need to learn from scratch. Is it worthy of being a fully-fledged game? I’m not so sure, but with it currently available on Xbox Game Pass, there is no reason to avoid checking out what is likely to be one of the years biggest shooters.
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This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox Series S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
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