When Ubisoft first unveiled Rainbow Six: Extraction (then Quarantine) at E3 2019, the surprise announcement was warmly received by the public. Still, this is a rare case when a major publisher really listened to the wishes of the audience - although here, perhaps, one cannot do without a little historical background. In 2018, the Operation Chimera update was released for Rainbow Six: Siege, and with it the new co-op mode Outbreak appeared in the game, where operators confronted hordes of mutants infected with an alien parasite. Against the background of the tactical near-realism of the basic Siege, a simple but quite competent zombie shooter looked like a good opportunity for a change of scenery, only it was available for only a month. Numerous requests to make Outbreak a full-fledged part of the game, or at least briefly return the mode to the rotation, were constantly refused, allegedly for technical reasons.
Now it is clear that it was not only about server logistics. Most likely, the studio was originally going to build an independent product based on this idea, so the positive feedback from the players only contributed to the process. The question is: was it worth building it at all? To be honest, after more than 20 hours in Extraction, I cannot give any definite answer. The company can hardly be accused of laziness, because all the components of a good co-op shooter seem to be in place, but now the game is more like a late prototype. Curious, but nothing more. Especially if the publisher asks for money for it.
Dead silence. A year has passed since the incident in New Mexico, where the Rainbow team first encountered an alien threat. The outbreak has been quelled, the situation has been brought under control, and personnel have returned to normal counterterrorism work - even if some now have nightmares. But the trouble came from where they did not expect: suddenly, similar foci of infection began to appear throughout the United States, and the infection is spreading at a monstrous pace. This time, getting off with all possible help will not work, so the command formed an internal REACT unit and took up the problem in earnest. Volunteers of the organization will have to land in infected areas to collect information about mutants, pull survivors out of quarantine zones and clean up the territory before everything goes too far.
In the back of my mind, I hoped that the developers would take the chance to reveal characters familiar from Siege a little better, but in vain. The plot (apart from the deposits of boring lore) in Extraction feels even less than in the original Outbreak mode, although there the narrative was limited to just a couple of CGI cutscenes. Of course, there is no single campaign either - only session matches that are not connected in any way. Of course, this could be expected, but it’s still a shame: one scene from the original, where Tachanka tried to buy a new machine gun on the Web during a briefing, is remembered more than all the events of the new epidemic combined.
However, there is also good news. Ubisoft has seriously worked on the structure of the gameplay: despite a lot of mechanics borrowed from the original source, Extraction looks like a more or less complete game, and not just a spin-off created solely at the request of the audience. First of all, raids into infected territories are arranged in a rather cunning way. The locations where a squad of three operatives will land are divided into several separate sectors, and in each sector, players need to complete one or another goal. Lure a dangerous monster into a trap, rescue a hostage and escort him to the evacuation point, mine parasite nests - there are many types of tasks, they are issued randomly. And after completing a mission in one sector, the team can advance to the next one through a special gateway ... Or, interrupt the landing halfway and return to the base, retaining the experience gained as a reward: the game encourages even the minimum passage of raids, the main thing is to get out of there at least a little bit alive.
True, in words it is often incomparably easier than in reality, because Extraction is absolutely ruthless. Any, even the smallest mistake on the part of the operatives will definitely be punished. At low levels of difficulty, the average raid can be completed without much difficulty, but it is worth taking a step even a little higher, as the gameplay becomes much more dynamic. And the point is not at all in the number of opponents and not in the fact that they bite painfully - the real danger lies in their habits. Archaea (those same mutants) do not shine with intelligence, but all individuals are united by a collective mind, which allows them to exchange information. Monsters patrol the corridors of abandoned buildings and are sensitive to any noise: if one of them notices the victim, then the player will have about a second to neutralize the sentry with a couple of well-aimed shots - otherwise he will raise the alarm. All surrounding mobs will immediately rush to the signal, and incubator nests will begin to give birth to reinforcements and clog everything around with gray mucus, slowing down the operatives. Most archaeans are capable of knocking down even a heavily armored character in no time, so letting an enemy within arm's reach is very unhealthy.
It probably sounds too hopeless from the outside, but in reality, Extraction is surprisingly competently pumping up tension - much more competently than most similar cooperative shooters. It does not put pressure on the brain beyond measure, but at the same time it rarely allows the player to feel completely safe and at any moment is ready to accelerate the pace of the gameplay to the limit. One stray bullet or a reckless move can turn a calm sweep into a complete disaster, where victory from failure is separated by a matter of seconds. Exploding kamikaze archaea tear down destructible walls that could provide cover from the spikes of long-range gunners. Nimble creatures with armored foreheads cover vulnerable spots with their own heads and scatter blinding mines in their path, while the elite archaea come in from the flanks, moving stealthily inside the slime. In general, the prospect of reeling in early, sacrificing rewards for unfinished tasks in the following sectors, sometimes looks extremely tempting.
But even in the most difficult situations, operatives, of course, are far from defenseless. Eighteen characters from Siege moved to Extraction almost unchanged: some (like Doc, Finky or Rook) were moved by the authors as they are, while others were slightly corrected so that their arsenal fit better into the new gameplay. Thus, Alibi's holograms automatically attract the attention of the Archaean, Hibana's explosive charges pierce armored enemies, Vigil's camouflage jams the opponents' vision due to the lack of surveillance cameras. Lord Tachanka is again wielding a heavy machine gun, which for once looks appropriate and tangibly helps to repel waves of Archaean. Characters armed with assault shields flew by (including Fuse), but that's understandable: a significant portion of the archaean attacks in melee, and it would be too easy to take their hits on the shield.
And so it goes. Ubisoft has really tried to keep the scope for tactics and improvisation inherent in Siege, but Extraction is unforgivably quickly starting to lose its fuse. The mechanics seem to be in place, everything seems to work as it should, but the more time you spend in the game, the more difficult it is to get rid of the obsession that the authors simply pulled the gameplay core of a tactical shooter into a format that is completely inappropriate for the genre. When the developers pulled off a similar experiment with the Outbreak mode (which, let me remind you, was by no means a masterpiece), it turned out to be a success, because shooting mindless zombies was optional, and even absolutely free entertainment. A light relief for the stress accumulated in matches against live opponents. But in order for the same formula to function normally within a separate game, it had to be overhauled, or even completely rethought, and in isolation from the gameplay features of the original source.
Either Ubisoft decided not to delve into such esoteric matters, or the development team simply did not have enough time and resources to bring everything to mind. For a project that ostensibly relates to tactical shooters, Extraction actually offers not so much tactics, even if it is not immediately evident. Of course, the game gives operatives a whole arsenal of different tools with which to do interesting things, but there is no real incentive to go for any tricks. For all their speed and power, the deadly archaea are not cunning and always push ahead. They are devoid of abilities or properties for which it would be important to choose the right countermeasure. They do not lie in wait in ambushes, do not set traps for the squad, and do not try to somehow catch the victims by surprise, which automatically deprives intelligence of any meaning. The most effective tool in any situation is aimed shots at heads and other vulnerable points. Character gadgets make the task easier, but you don't actually need to use them. It is quite possible to control the flow of opponents by periodically throwing smoke or stun grenades into the crowd, which leave alien predators completely helpless. So, despite the wide variety of combat options, the battles suddenly become boring after a few successful raids. And to pass them covertly, slowly and painfully scouting the path with a drone, you get bored even faster.
Those who do (for whatever reason) play Extraction the way it wants will run into another problem: hectic difficulty balance. Since the game randomly selects tasks, types of opponents and the starting sector in each landing, it is impossible to confidently predict what exactly the squad is waiting for and what route will be taken. At first glance, it seems that this is even good, because replay value, emergent gameplay and all that, but the AI director seems to be pathologically unable to find the golden mean. Maybe it's just me being so lucky, but in my case, all raids were either offensively easy or absurdly hard, regardless of the number of players. Here's how lucky. In one raid, the random number generator can unleash crowds of weak Archeans and relatively harmless kamikazes on the squad, and in another they can be replaced by creatures that are more drawn to mini-bosses than to ordinary opponents. If the game suddenly wants to bury the operatives, then well-coordinated teamwork and tactics simply will not help.
This is doubly unpleasant, because Extraction severely punishes the death of characters. An operative who has lost all health can be brought to his feet a couple of times, but the next wound will be fatal. The body of the fallen can be taken out of the sector by dragging it to the evacuation point, but if you leave the out of action behind, he will be considered missing and will disappear from the list of available characters. To unlock the prisoner again, you will have to organize a rescue operation on the same map where you lost him, and then give him time to recover at the base. Such mechanics fit perfectly into the surroundings and raise the stakes, only for the loss of each character the game subtracts the experience earned, greatly slowing down the already slow progression. Not to mention the fact that, by chance, which directly affects the difficulty of raids, you can easily get stuck (I got stuck once) in a vicious circle: I climbed to save one character, pulled him out, but lost the active one - and all over again.
Rainbow Six: Extraction could be something worthy. No, really, I believed. The concept of a tactical zombie shooter sounds appealing, but Ubisoft hasn't done a good job of implementing it - at least not to the level that would justify the game's price tag. And although it cannot be called completely bad, it is also difficult to advise buying an obviously raw product. However, if you are an ardent fan of Rainbow Six: Siege and subscribed to Xbox Game Pass, then why not? For one or two evenings, it will probably drag out, and then ... And then you can download Deep Rock Galactic. There's at least a beer in the bar poured.
Rainbow Six: Extraction could have been a truly great game if the developers had given it enough time and attention, but Ubisoft was clearly in a hurry with the release. Or she simply did not quite understand what she was doing, why and for whom. Fans of Rainbow Six: Siege may have their fair share of fun, but everyone else is not sure.
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