With the sudden re-emergence of PvE shooters like Aliens Fireteam Elite, Back 4 Blood, and more, Ubisoft is taking a stab at it with Rainbow Six Extraction — a PvE co-op shooter that’s steeped in Rainbow Six Siege’s lore. While the game is out soon (January 20, 2022), MP1st managed to get some hands-on time with the game last month thanks to Ubisoft!
For long-time R6 Siege fans out there, you may be all familiar with how competitive and daunting the PvP experience can be — especially for those who have taken a hiatus from playing in between content drops. But make no mistake about it: fans of Rainbow Six Siege will undoubtedly feel right at home with Rainbow Six Extraction, as it has a bunch of elements that make Siege great, but centered on PvE this time around.
In total, I managed to get around four hours of game time, and it was a pleasant few hours of shooting. Now, I will say I do love Rainbow Six Siege but the PvP experience can be daunting if you don’t play for a while and get tossed into an insanely hard match. The nice thing about Rainbow Six Extraction is that since you can control the difficulty level, you will never feel hard pressed taking a week or so break without getting pummeled hard by enemies.
In Rainbow Six Extraction you get the option to pick from New York City, San Francisco, Alaska and Truth or Consequences as city locations. It may seem like a small list but every single match in the listed cities played out differently depending on where you can proceed, or where the objectives are taking place. This helps spice the game a bit, as it offers a unique experience without it getting repetitive.
For those unaware: Rainbow Six Extraction is a three-player co-op game where each game has a set of objectives that you are tasked to do. You have the option to leave the game after completing just one, and most of the time you will only have three objectives to complete in a single match. That is, unless you pick the hardest difficulty (called Maelstrom Protocol) that has nine objectives you must complete, which is easier said than done. In my play session, we only got past two objectives before collectively getting downed by enemies. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to try out every single objective, and there were quite a number of objectives to keep you occupied for quite some time.
Make no mistake: if you aren’t someone who’s keen on teamwork, you will not get far in Extraction, as you’ll easily fall victim to the horde of enemies trying to end you and your cohorts’ lives.
Speaking of which, there is a decent selection of enemies you will encounter in Rainbow Six Extraction, each having their own weaknesses, and specific way of taking them out. Varying from having assassination as the only option to take it out or to having a fun explosive surprise. As well, there are random yellow spores laid out that if not dealt with by your friendly teammates they will explode on your operator and cause decent damage.
Extraction borrows a lot of its lore and elements from Rainbow Six Siege, and this should please fans of the game. Rainbow Six Siege players will feel right at home; from the Operators that have crossed over, to the whole tactical objective planning that must be done to achieve a successful victory. The typical options from Rainbow Six Siege are here as well: from customizing your loadout as well as your Operator skin with sick items that you will get from clearing levels.
At launch, there will be 18 Operators to choose from, and it will be a team decision on which Operator to use in each match. You di get to see what objectives you’re facing before selecting your Operator, which will help decide which ones are the best picks going into the match. Just like in Rainbow Six Siege, each Operator is unique in what they bring to the table. Choose wisely though. If the Operator you are playing as dies during the match, they are unfortunately going to be MIA (Missing in Action) until you play a few more matches. Each successful objective you complete grants you health towards all of your Operators. Given there are 18 of them in total, players will have plenty to choose from so there is a slim chance you will actually run out of characters to play as. Want to see how it plays out? Check out our hands-on gameplay footage below to see how I kill (and get killed)!
Based on my hands-on, Rainbow Six Extraction is looking to be a solid experience for fans of R6 Siege, and PvE fans in general. If you’re looking for something new to play with buddies, this is one extraction you might want to consider being part of.
Stay tuned for more Rainbow Six Extraction coverage here on MP1st, which includes an interview with the dev team.
Rainbow Six Extraction is set to launch this January 20, 2022 on the PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Seres X|S, and PC.