A round in Rainbow Six Extraction lasts less than 30 minutes and that’s the good thing about it

With Rainbow Six Extraction, Ubisoft tries a co-op PvE shooter. In doing so, it looks far less to other AAA games than one might think. Instead, Extraction cleverly borrows the best mechanics from indie games. MeinMMO author Marko Jevtic is enthusiastic about the first impression.

The best co-op shooters on the market amaze me with their replayability and versatility. I love to constantly adapt to new conditions with my team. But most co-op shooters suffer from the same problem for me: They are a big investment of time.

That’s why I love playing roguelites so much. Like the best co-op shooters, they shine with constant replayability and inspire thanks to changing gameplay conditions. However, they are much easier to enjoy in shorter gameplay chunks.

For a few days I’ve been able to play Rainbow Six Extraction before release. To my delight, I found that the game combines the best of co-op shooters and indie roguelites. It doesn’t matter whether you play in a team or alone.

Rainbow Six Extraction often adapts to your needs

Like the best indie roguelites out there, Rainbow Six Extraction is entertaining, unpredictable, and constantly repeatable. Because Extraction is like the parasite aliens you fight: extremely adaptable.

The missions in the game are divided into 3 sections. Each of them takes place on a third of a map and is randomly generated. At the end of each section you have the choice:

• Do you want to continue with more difficult tasks and more rewards?
• Or do you want to back down to keep what you’ve gotten so far?

This is not just a strategic decision. It’s also one that you can customize to suit your whims and schedules.

If you can or only want to play for a few minutes, you can only do the first section of a mission and then back off. Depending on the level of difficulty, this takes a few minutes and you will receive your reward. But even a whole mission on the second level of difficulty takes about 15-25 minutes.

That’s a very comfortable amount of time for short gamers. But even long-players can flexibly string together several missions and play as long as they like. So this design decision is not a disadvantage or a compromise for any type of player. And in any case, you leave the game with experience points that help you in some way – be it to unlock new weapons for the operators or new gadgets or areas.

Hades, my favorite roguelite of recent years, works in a similar way: A successful run in Hades now takes me about 25-30 minutes. That’s short enough for a quick run during a lunch break. But nothing can stop me from doing several runs in a row and playing for hours.

Rainbow Six Extraction works on the same principle – and I’m very happy about it.

Rainbow Six Extraction enforces gameplay variety in a clever and fun way

The most exciting twist for me, however, is that Rainbow Six Extraction not only offers this flexibility – it also demands the same in return. If your character takes too much damage or even “dies” in a mission, he will not be available for the next mission. Only when you free him is he playable again. So you are forced to use one of the other 18 operators.

The fact that you can no longer use your favorite characters is reminiscent of games like XCOM and Fire Emblem, as well as roguelite gems like Rogue Legacy or Darkest Dungeon. In Extraction, this mechanic has the same effect as in the games mentioned:

• On the one hand, you are very careful with your favorites, planning strategically and long-term with their availability and the risks of a mission.
• On the other hand, you learn to appreciate the strengths and finesse of the other operators, which increases the mechanical depth of the game and your own flexibility in dealing with these mechanics.

I had to do without my previous favorite Sledge after a mission that went completely wrong. So I took IQ out of necessity. It is an operator that I found too weak in theory. In practice it turned out how strong their weapons are. Her device was also much more useful than expected because she can mark the objectives in certain mission types such as Seismic.

That’s why I don’t just have one favorite character, but several. And because each operator is leveled separately, I’ll have to position myself even more broadly. For me, this is a much more varied solution than, for example, the classes in Deep Rock Galactic. There I see no reason to deviate from my beloved and leveled Bohr dwarf.

Other elements also remind me of indie hits. What the heat system is in Hades or curses in Curse of the Dead Gods, mutations are in Extraction. These randomly change various elements of the mission structure or enemy behavior. So yesterday I had big problems with the mutation with which sticky mines stick to all opponents. That’s why I wasn’t allowed to handle Sledge’s sledgehammer quite as aggressively as the mission before.

I love that the game forces me to be flexible here. The game and the player benefit from this: I am forced out of my comfort zone and learn more about the game and the gameplay options; in return, the game gains depth and gives me more motivation to play it long and often.

Conclusion: Rainbow Six Extraction is a flexible gaming experience, and therefore much more fun than expected

Be it Left 4 Dead with the AI ​​director, GTFO with the rundowns or Deep Rock Galactic with the procedurally generated cave systems – co-op shooters often resort to roguelite tricks. But no game has done that as successfully as Rainbow Six Extraction, in my opinion.

The game combines the entertaining and versatile nature of the best roguelites with rock-solid gameplay. Plus, it’s not afraid to push the player out of their comfort zone with intentionally frustrating mechanics. With this, the game rightly shows that it has great faith in its own design structures.

In games like Left 4 Dead, GTFO or Deep Rock Galactic, the missions are usually very extensive. In addition, there is the planning effort when it comes to putting a team together. Technical problems and settings gimmicks regularly delay the action from time to time, as do drinking and toilet breaks.

At least an hour has passed before a larger chunk of content is finally created. Often even more. It’s a lot of fun at times, but there’s a better way.

Rainbow Six Extraction doesn’t bypass all of these problems because it can’t control all of them just through gameplay ideas. But unlike other co-op shooters, here I easily and happily launch a quick solo mission while waiting for my team. Without having to worry about not being able to finish on time.

It has to be said that we have only played two of the 4 different levels of difficulty in standard mode so far. Later it might well take longer, even with practice. And especially the extremely hard Maelstrom protocol, the endgame of Extraction, could go a step further here. Luckily, this is all optional and may change at release or shortly after. But I don’t assume so.

Just having this option makes this one of the better co-op shooters I’ve played. Because Rainbow Six Extraction understood what makes roguelites so popular and cleverly processed their best mechanics themselves.

If this article has made you want more, we have all the important information about the release of Rainbow Six Extraction:

The first new co-op shooter of 2022 is coming – everything about the release of Rainbow Six: Extraction