Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction

Rainbow Six Extraction is a fun and unremarkable co-op shooter with some very good ooze.

Rainbow 6 Extraction successfully combines tactical combat with PvE, offering a gameplay that you will have a lot of fun with your friends, but it misses the chance of being a very good game with its lack of progression and some missing features.

Extraction works when playing with friends, but also lacks personality and charisma, and that makes it harder to differentiate from similar titles.

Rainbow Six Siege’s co-op oriented spin-off is an enjoyable alternative that closely resembles its cousin in terms of gameplay but puts more emphasis on action. The game is quite rich in content and offers a distinct change of atmosphere but unfortunately fails to properly reward cooperation between players and has some balancing issues.

This coop-shooter is neither really good nor really bad. It borrows different elements out from other games, but ultimately fails to combine them in a way, the majority would like. It’s still worth a look, since some people will like the mixture.

Rainbow Six Extraction is a uniquely enjoyable entry in Team Rainbow’s history, though the significant crossover with its predecessor makes me feel like Ubisoft could’ve opted for a Siege expansion instead. It's not a huge problem for Ubisoft+ or Game Pass subscribers, sure, but it's a steeper ask for everyone else...That said, Extraction remains great fun, and the new settings meant my time with the familiar operators still felt fresh and interesting. It’s surprisingly challenging at times, and while missions do require trial-and-error, the level design is excellent. Extraction won’t set the genre alight like Siege did, though if you’re after a new PvE experience, I’d still give it my recommendation.

Rainbow Six Extraction brings some great new ideas to the venerable first-person shooter as it morphs to a sci-fi co-op game, but it doesn't distinguish itself quite enough to stand out on its own merits.

As a Rainbow Six Siege spin-off it’s fun to see all of the gadgets and mechanics of that game make their way over into the co-op space. The gun-feel is also on point. The ease at which you can throw out a recon drone or line up a head-shot through a wall is endlessly satisfying. And with all of its tactical stealthiness, Extraction plays unlike anything else we’ve seen in the co-op space. Unfortunately, it’s not enough to give the experience a true identity it can call its own.

Rainbow Six Extraction is an experimental spinoff that has some potential, with a solid foundation borrowed from R6 Siege. But the experience is constantly torn between stealth and action, and with the repetitive nature of the gameplay and limited content, it's tough to say how many will keep fighting to the end.

Solo incursions are definitely the best experience Extraction can deliver – although this isn’t exactly a high bar, considering how mediocre the game is. [Issue#259, p.62]

The concept itself is original, as is the fact that your operators can be seriously hurt in between your journeys. But it’s just way too repetitive and its storyline is beyond bland. In the end, this is a truly average co-op shooter.

Rainbow Six Extraction combines good ideas with bad ideas. The action is very entertaining and the jars are manageable. On the other hand, the design of the game is very erratic and everything starts very slowly in the first hours. If you're looking for a fun co-op shooter there are better alternatives.

Ubisoft's PvE shooter fails to extract the best out of Rainbow Six Siege's gameplay mechanics, and the result is a repetitive, mostly bland co-op assignment.

So overall, with all things considered, is Rainbow Six: Extraction a good game? Yeah, it’s alright. For my tastes, it doesn’t quite go far enough in some places, and it has lost a bit of that identity that makes Rainbow Six games special, but if you’ve got a few friends who are curious about it then you’ll have a blast jumping into it. It retains that slow, methodical gameplay that is so addictive to a certain kind of player, so I have no doubts that this game will remain a weekly venture for a community out there, somewhere. Whether or not it can retain that playerbase is something we’ll have to keep an eye on.

Is the game worth your time? Yeah, it’s worth a go, it’s on Game Pass, innit? This is where I can see Rainbow Six Extraction shine. Very dimly. If the game poses a genuine challenge and a progression system that feels rewarding over the long term, there’s no reason why this polished experience can’t retain at least a few players across the coming months. It’s not easy being a video game in 2022: you’ve got some real big hitters on the way, and if you’re not hitting hard then you’re just going to get knocked out, pretty little Siege engine and all. You alright there, Extraction? You’re looking a little woozy.

Rainbow Six Extraction takes Siege’s best parts—its characters and its gunplay—and successfully adapts them to a cooperative experience, but repetitive level design and an uneven progression system make the game feel more boring than it has any right to be. Extraction had all the elements it needed to be a great co-op “zombie” game, including an exact blueprint in Outbreak, but Ubisoft’s obsession with keeping players grinding forever won out, making Extraction feel like more of an obligation than an escape.