REVIEW: Rainbow Six Extraction — Not-so-tactical Quarantine Action

The Rainbow Six franchise has been well-known for over a decade for its keen focus on tactical FPS gameplay. And though Siege was technically a departure from the original formula, it managed to retain the same old SWAT sim feel. With extraction, we see the biggest departure the franchise has ever taken. Unlike Siege, however, this is one that isn’t as welcome.

R.ainbow E.xogenous A.nalysis & C.ontainment T.eam

Extraction is based on the Containtment event from R6 Siege. An unknown parasitic outbreak, or more accurately, invasion, has NYC, San Fransisco, Alaska, and New Mexico on intensive quarantine. REACT, a Rainbow Six division tasked with combating this ‘Archean’ threat, conducts a series of excursions and extractions in these zones in the hopes to gather enough intel to stop the parasitic attack.

Fans of Siege might find it entertaining to see more interactions from their beloved operators in cutscenes and dialogue throughout the game. Those that can’t relate with that may find extraction’s plot a bit derivative and uninteresting. But hey, as long as you get to shoot alien zombies, amirite?

SIEGE BUT WITH ZOMBIES

Speaking of derivative – Extraction’s gunplay is pretty much Siege’s albeit set in a mission-based PvE environment. Each map consists of three zones, each with its own mission objective. Upon completing a mission, you can choose to either extract or proceed to the next objective. Depending on how well you did and how lucky you are with your instance, it may be smarter to pull out of a mission rather than see it through. After extraction, any damage you’re operator has suffered will be retained, and depending on how severe, they may not be deployable until they’ve recovered enough health. In the event that your operator becomes MIA (when they basically fail a mission), they’ll appear as extraction missions in that region until you recover them. Even on a successful extraction, they will be severely injured and will also need to heal. Health for your entire roster is recovered at the end of each mission. How much health is based on how well you did on your mission.

Missions can vary from extraction, capture, hunt, or survival. Beyond that, there are a couple of stand-out missions that attempt to keep gameplay fresh between regions. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite succeed. After only a few couple missions, it already starts to feel repetitive despite the element of randomness between each run. Levels are often a dull series of same-looking interiors jumbled up in each instance. On top of that, enemies are also quite dull both in design as well as combat behavior. Granted, bullet impact and kill confirms still feel quite satisfying, but even that won’t stop shooting the same boring units over and over feeling like a chore. Playing with friends certainly makes the game feel a bit more exciting, and some hazards and gimmicks like the sprawl – an organic growth that drastically slows movements – attempt to keep you on your toes, but hardly does it ever feel as tactical as what the series is known for.

Stealth mechanics are inconsistent and enemy AI is also fairly generic. There are only a handful of unlockable tools and only a couple of them seem useful. The majority of the tactics at play is in which Operator to deploy. Beyond that, it’s a fairly generic PvE experience where tactics are more of a deliberate commitment from pre-made teams rather than an unavoidable gameplay element like it was for Siege.

SIEGE BUT WITH MOLD

Visually, extraction looks just like Siege outside of the parasitic growths and biohazard suggestions, which is not exactly a compliment. Siege also had some pretty bland-looking levels but considering that it is intentional so as to not draw you away from the very competitive gameplay elements. But for a co-op PvE title that has supposedly scary mutated creatures as fodder, the atmosphere should have been a key feature to sell the experience. Instead, we get very dull levels that are made worse by the fact that the majority of the levels take place indoors.

VERDICT

Tactical FPS action is at the heart of the Rainbow Six and Extraction proves that putting it out of focus is against the franchise’s best interest. Still, it’s not a bad game and if you’re a fan of Siege, then this will serve as a great title to alternate with. Newcomers looking for a manageable PvE co-op title to play with friends may find some value in this, too. But then again, there are quite a few other titles that may be easier to recommend.

We’re not completely counting the game out, though. Even Siege had a bad start but still ended up being a successful title. Perhaps in time Extraction could be the same case, but for now, if you’re neither of what I mentioned above, probably best to wait on this one.

[This review was based on retail copies of the game provided by the publisher.]