Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction

The Outbreak event that released within Rainbow Six: siege way back in 2018 was a perplexing move by Ubisoft. The gamemode itself wasn't the confusing part; it was an up to three-player co-op experience that used the base game's weapons, operators, and mechanics to transform the platform from a tactical PvP competitive FPS into a cooperative horde shooter. Relatively straightforward, but the question remained; why??? This was well before Rainbow Six had even hit its peak, and it was so far removed from what was expected of the game in both mechanics and story. An alien virus that turns humans into Left 4 Dead zombies that look like they were attacked by a roaming pack of Destiny concept artists? What happened to the more contained and grounded narrative about a group of elite counter-terrorist operators fighting... each other? Could we attach a motor to Tom Clancy's grave in order to harness the energy generated by him spinning in it? While the bewilderment was certainly understandable, it quickly subsided due to a dawning realization: Outbreak was fun. In a game where a single wrong move could lead to you passively spectating the match for the next several minutes, or one teammate being a dickhead could spoil the whole experience, the ability to cast off the shackles of extreme focus and strict disciple and just blast aliens was new and cathartic. It was dumb fun, but fun regardless.
And then, after a month, the event ended.
And as the game grew and grew, bloated with features and reviled map reworks, infested with a constant onslaught of cheaters and toxicity, those of us who had fun with Outbreak wondered what ever became of it. Such effort put into designing enemies and maps, reworking mechanics and recording voice lines. Where did it all go when the event ended? Surely, they had to have used it as a way to test a working concept of a co-op game. And with such positive feedback and memories, they'd come back to it, right?
Right?

Three years later, in the midst of a much more serious outbreak, we finally got definitive news; Extraction, as it was (understandably) renamed, was indeed on its way. And towards the end of 2021, I jumped at the invite to the Closed Beta (given how the full game has been out for a month I'm gonna assume we're beyond the statute of limitations on the NDA I signed). And what I found upon launching the game was something I had quietly been hoping for since 2018.

They didn't fuck it up.

Rainbow Six: Extraction takes the horde-shooter-with-stealth formula but does something with it I've never seen before: It actually works. The base premise of the game is that your healthbar is everything. You cannot regain it, you can only provide a shield with overheal. Whatever you leave with (assuming you make it out) is what your operator has until you complete another match with someone else, at which point they will have the chance to heal while you're gone. It's an almost XCOM-esque system that punishes "death" with the inability to use that operator until you drag them out of the place they got wrecked in. So the simplest way to retain health is to not lose it at all; thus, stealth is the ideal method of attack. But if you don't want to do that, or if you mess up and the enemy sounds the "alarm", the game isn't over. It just gets a lot harder. Instead of being locked into a stealth build that has no ability to survive when things get hot (cough cough payday 2), all you need is a weapon with a silencer and some know-how to get by quietly.
The gameplay loop itself has evolved significantly from Outbreak. Instead of a couple of linear campaign-style levels that always play out the same, a match of Extraction is a series of three subzones with randomly generated enemy spawns, resources, and objectives. If you're low on health, ammo, and/or confidence you can head to the helipad and Extract at any time, which will bank all the experience you've earned and get you home safe. Going further will provide better payouts, more XP, and more enemies as well. There are a few new enemies and many more mechanics as compared to Outbreak, such as upgradable operator abilities, unique grenades and equipment, and environmental hazards. All of this combined with the semi-procedurally generated missions provides the game with a lot of replay value. I 100%ed it in a bit over two weeks after release and I've still been playing it daily since.

So what's wrong with it? Well, it certainly isn't perfect. It's fairly harsh to newcomers, especially those who have no familiarity with Siege's base mechanics. While progression is good at the start, as of writing there's not too much to work towards after unlocking everything. There are also a few enemies that are real bastards to fight and and feel frustrating when they overwhelm you. And above all else, there isn't a huge wealth of content in the game right now. But "right now" is the operating term. This game JUST came out, and as of now, I'm already quite happy with it. There's absolutely more content planned, and with the relative explosion of community activity and apparent playtime, I would wager to guess that Extraction is already performing better than Ubisoft had hoped for.

Overall, I absolutely recommend this game to anyone who remotely enjoyed the Outbreak event, as well as to anyone that likes co-op shooters. Extraction was a very welcome surprise in such a catastrophic series of AAA releases, and it stands to only get better from here.

This game is probably one of the best games Ubisoft has made in ages.

Rainbow Six Extraction might seem like Rainbow Six Expansion to you, BUT we are in a completely different game here. First of all I want to say that I am very critical of this company and that I had a lot of fun despite my low expectations for this game.

First of all the overall structure of the game seems to me very well designed. That is to say that we are here in front of a game that takes a rather interesting bet. Each game is divided into three zones, each with random objectives and random enemies. During each zone you have a choice to make, either continue to the next mission or leave with all your XP. Sometimes very difficult choices arise during the game, putting even more stress on the decision. Despite this great game structure, I found the game to be terribly lacking in variety. Both in the level design, in the enemies, the missions and the art direction. Unfortunately, it gets boring pretty quickly. However, the gameplay is still very good and the co-op is even more interesting.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a cooperative game I can recommend Rainbow Six Extraction.