Back in 2018, Rainbow Six Siege had a free event called Outbreak. It was received rather well, an infectious outbreak that Team Rainbow Six must quarantine and eliminate. Since then, fans have wanted another Outbreak event, and sadly it never came, until now, and that’s not a good thing. Rainbow Six Extraction starts of well, with a beautifully designed and animated beginning cutscene depicting the oncoming threat. Things quickly go downhill from there, and I couldn’t help but feel let down. Extraction takes place in an alternate timeline away from Siege but using the operators from said game. Once you get your hands on an operator it feels welcoming, precise gameplay found in Siege is here with Extraction. Even with the precision of siege playing Extraction made me realize just how bland the rest of the game is. You’re given a tutorial to introduce you to the mission layout you’ll be playing. Every single level has a different layout but it all plays the same, same objectives and same enemies. The objectives are not hard to do, pick up this item, save this person, pick up this other item, that’s it. Other games have done this and have done it better. You can challenge yourself with harder difficulties with different risks but you must unlock those difficulties in order to play them, which can take an annoying amount of hours. The objectives are easy to get through and the game doesn’t become a cohesive game until you unlock those difficulties. Having said that, you’re still playing the same objectives but now you can’t run and gun. It’s barebones mindless gameplay, instead of 3 objectives , it’s now 9 objectives, back to back, on the same 3 maps, all while the game decides to throw waves of enemies at you. To add insult to injury, the harder difficulties doesn’t reward you with a stronger attachment or weapon for your arsenal, no, you get a hat/helmet, or maybe a shirt. The customization for your weapons and Operators are still here but serve very little purpose. As long as you have a gun, you’ll be fine, wave after wave of enemies, in a game that was not built for such gameplay. After putting in hours and hours of game time into the game, I cannot recommend this title, even at its discounted price of $40. Playing through the same maps with the same repetitive objectives does not justify its development. Ubisoft could’ve put there resources into something else for Siege, Extraction is not the game we were waiting to play. A testament to lazy and bland design cannot make for a good PvE game, that was a recycled season event. To quote a fellow gamer The Escapist, “A Bland Game is worse than a Bad Game”. Rainbow Six Extraction is a perfect example of this. The game is solid, it works, Day 1, very little bugs at launch but this cannot excuse the pure blandness that is brought to the table. I cannot say go out and buy this game, not even at a discount. If you have Xbox GamePass, it might be worth checking out but for everyone else, you’re better off skipping Rainbow Six Extraction.
Unsung Gamers Score – 5
Reviewed by ShadowAlchemistX
unsunggamers.com 