What You Need to Know about Rainbow Six: Extraction

What’s Up with Rainbow Six: Extraction?

The cooperative FPS genre receives a new member as Rainbow Six: Extraction drops on PC and Console. The newest addition to the Rainbow Six franchise brings operators from R6: Siege to its spinoff game R6: Extraction. Extraction brings out the cool gunplay from Siege to a survival coop game much like Left 4 Dead, Killing Floor, and Back 4 Blood. Ubisoft hopes that the game will garner a similar, if not greater, degree of success with other titles in the franchise.

Despite being pushed back from September 2021 to January 2022, Extraction has kept the hype alive largely due to its loyal fanbase. Fans of the franchise and of coop FPS games are very much excited for the game’s release, but some are wondering whether the new Rainbow Six game will offer something new which hasn’t been done before by other titles.

What is Rainbow Six: Extraction?

Extraction is Rainbow Six’s franchise attempt on the popular survival coop FPS genre. Gamers will get to play 18 out of the 60 operators from R6: Siege. The game is based on an alternate reality where the world has been attacked by frightening monster-like aliens called Arachaeans. Extraction moves away from the franchise’s traditional PvP content to a PvE scenario where gamers will have to fight aggressive aliens, finish objectives, and ultimately survive their incursions.

Extraction might be a mix of Siege’s strategic gunplay and Left 4 Dead’s horror survival game, but it fuses the two genres so well that the gameplay stays unique and fresh. Extraction adapts the L4D’s objective of surviving the game as operators duke it out otherworldly monsters, but it also requires players to plan and strategize their incursions because there are objectives they need to clear before they can progress through the next stage. Unlike Siege’s 4-player team format, the game’s team will only consist of three players against hundreds of Arachaeans.

What can you expect from Rainbow Six: Extraction?

Aside from the three-man team multiplayer coop mode, operators can also opt to play alone via the single-player mode. This mode will allow players to practice their skills and improve their tactics while their teammates are away. It should be noted that in the multiplayer mode that if the players’ teams get wiped or killed, they lose all the progress they did from that instance. So, choosing to continue or stop after finishing missions will be a crucial point in the game.

Extraction brings several familiar things from Siege to the game. From operators and maps, veteran players of the R6 franchise will have an easier time learning the basics of the new game. Ubisoft has stated that they may rework or give small adjustments to these operators’ skills and mechanics to offer a new playstyle for them. For now, here are the known operators that will appear in the game:

• Tachanka
• Fuze
• Capitao
• Rook
• Jager
• IQ
• Gridlock
• Nomad
• Smoke
• ELA
• Sledge
• Alibi
• Lion
• Vigil
• Hibana
• Finka
• Pulse
• Doc

As of the moment, there are currently 12 confirmed maps for the game. These maps will be based on four central areas with each central area having three maps. Here is the list of areas and their respective maps:

• New York City: Liberty Island, Police Station, and Monolith Gardens
• San Francisco City: Tenderloin, Apollo Casino and Resort, and Enterprise Space Foundation
• The State of Alaska: Nome, Eurydice Valley, and Orpheus Research Center
• The quaint town of Truth or Consequences: Sierra County Hospital, Dam, and Downtown

The objective of the players as they group in a 3-man team is to secure these zones from the Archaeans. Gamers will have to make use of their equipment and strategize how to clear these zones using their operators. However, these incursions will not be easy as the aliens will provide significant challenges to their aggressors. There are multiple alien variants in the game with each having its own abilities. These variants will also make use of a mossy substance called Sprawl. The Sprawl is a strange body of matter that will cover walls and coats that will provide boosts to the aliens. These entities will make securing the zones much harder. Here is the list of known Archaeans:

• Sower – Aliens that plant traps around the map. Players unfortunate enough to step on these traps will be blinded.
• Tormentor – Archaean variants that can phase in and out of the Sprawl in order to shoot an endless barrage of projectiles. Not dealing with these creatures right away will cause tons of damage over time.
• Lurker – Alien variants that support their allied Archaeans by making themselves and other aliens invisible. Operators should develop a keen eye to fight against these monsters.
• Bloater – A type of Archaeans that will rush players and explode on contact. The alien will leave noxious toxic gas that will provide damage over time.
• Apex – The shot caller of the Archaeans. Aside from being hard to kill, this alien variant can call on other Archaeans to assist it during their fight against the incursion team.
• Proteans – The deadliest variant of the Archaeans. Proteans are located in places called singularity. These creatures can adopt the form of the Operators and imitate their skills and behaviors. Their ability to mimic the players’ characters makes them the most dangerous opponents in the game.

One interesting feature of the game is their M.I.A. mechanic. Essentially, if a player’s operator falls during a mission, that character will be locked and cannot be used for subsequent incursions. Gamers will have to rescue these missing operators by locating them in their next game and taking them to the extraction zone. Successfully rescuing fallen operators will enable players to play them again once they finish their objectives.

Is the Game Cross-Platform?

Since the game will be released on PC and Consoles, players have been wondering whether the Extraction will feature a cross-platform play between Xbox, PS4, PS5, Stadia, and PC players. The answer to the question is yes. Gamers can queue up with their friends even if they are playing on different platforms. This ensures that the game has a wide reach of audiences.

For players who might be worried that they might get queued up with console players while playing on PC, Ubisoft has got them covered as the gaming studio will enable an option where players can disable the cross-play feature in the game. This will allow players to queue up with other people on the same platform as them.

Another great news for this feature is that cross-progression is enabled in the game. This means that gamers can keep all their progress even if they play on different platforms from time to time. Nothing will be erased from equipment to character progression.

Rainbow Six: Extraction is expected to launch on January 20th, 2022. Players can now pre-order the Standard Version or the Deluxe Version of the game. The only add-on for the Standard Version is that they are given buddy passes where they can give token passes to friends to let them play a trial version of the game for 14 days. The Deluxe Version will reward players with a Noxious Touch Pack, an Obscura Pack, and a React Strike Pack. Gamers who pre-order the game, whether they buy the Standard or Deluxe version, can get an Orbital Decay pre-order bonus bundle and a United Front cosmetic bundle.

Overall, Extraction will definitely become a big name in the horror coop FPS genre. With its unique and strategic gameplay, fans of the franchise and gamers from other genres will appreciate the game’s ingenuity. It’s time to team up with friends and save the Earth from the Archaeans. Remember, never leave an operator behind.