Rainbow Six: Extraction in a short check – why you should play it and for whom it is worthwhile

Tomorrow, January 20, 2022, Rainbow Six: Extraction will be the first co-op shooter of the year. The new part of the series is more or less a spin-off of the popular tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Siege. You don’t have to be a Siege fan to like Extraction, though. MeinMMO explains who should watch the new co-op shooter.

Was ist Rainbow Six: Extraction? The idea behind Extraction is actually the Outbreak event, which was playable in Siege years ago. There, the Rainbow team had to fight an alien parasite that was threatening the world.

This is also the premise of Extraction. With well-known operators from Rainbow Six: Siege, you fight in pure co-op with up to 3 players against AI opponents and complete various missions.

Unlike Siege, you don’t have to compete against other players, you always play with each other. However, collusion and tactics are still a hugely important factor.

When is the game out? The servers go live on Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 1:00 am German time. From there you can play Extraction on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4 and PS5. In our special you can find out everything about the release of the new co-op shooter.

Now let’s take a look at the content and who should check out Extraction.

Checklist – Should I Play Extraction?

For a quick overview we have included a short checklist for you.

We have prepared 10 statements for you and if you answer “yes” to at least 7 of them, you can confidently reach for the new Rainbow Six. More detailed information on Extraction can be found below in the text.

• I played Outbreak in Rainbow Six: Siege and really enjoyed it.
• I’m interested in the story of Tom Clancy’s: Rainbow Six.
• I like the new survival shooter GTFO, but the missions are too long for me.
• I like Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood, but the games are too difficult for me.
• I want to be able to make progress in a game.
• I prefer to play in co-op with friends.
• I like tactical gameplay in shooters and don’t just shoot away.
• I’m interested in characters with special abilities and how they develop synergies.
• In games, shorter rounds are important to me in between.
• I enjoy stealth games like Hitman.

How many of these 10 statements apply to you? Did you say “yes” at least 7 times? Let us know in the comments below.

Popular event mode as a separate game

Why should I watch Extraction? Extraction is mainly aimed at those players who have been playing Siege for years or who liked the Outbreak event from 2018. The playable characters also come from Siege, which creates a certain proximity to the tactical shooter.

Accordingly, you should check out Extraction especially if you enjoy playing Siege but don’t want to compete against other players. With the Buddy Pass you can even invite 2 friends for 14 days free of charge to play with you and convince them. You can read more about this in our special on co-op and crossplay in Extraction.

The new shooter relies above all on consultation and tactical action. The various skills of the operators can be linked and thus adapted to your playstyle. It is important to choose the right approach for the current mission.

You have different missions like scanning areas, defeating enemies or rescuing people. Depending on what you are supposed to do, the special abilities of the characters are better or worse.

As a special gimmick, your operators have to rest after a mission if they have lost life points. If a character is knocked out in the mission, he is “MIA” and you have to save him on the corresponding map before you can access him again. This forces you to play and master multiple characters.

For all co-op fans, even if you don’t know Siege

Is extraction worth it if I don’t know Siege? The game principles of Siege and Extraction are completely different. So much so that you can only draw on knowledge from Siege to a limited extent.

Reinforcing walls and positions is important, but much more dynamic than in Siege. Camping kills quickly because enemies can appear en masse from all directions and the different missions require different approaches.

Accordingly, even Siege players have to adjust to extraction first. The game principle is more comparable to GTFO, Payday or Left4Dead, although the individual rounds are significantly shorter. Depending on how you play, Extraction can even be compared to Hitman, because you often get through the levels better if you are quiet and kill opponents silently.

At any time in the middle of a mission, you can make the decision to flee again if it gets too much. As a result, Extraction takes a good deal of the hardness out of the gameplay. If you want, you can make the game really difficult even in the endgame:

When shouldn’t I play it? If you don’t like co-op games and shooters at all, you shouldn’t buy Rainbow Six: Extraction. As a shooter fan, you should also have a certain penchant for stealth shooters. If you usually play Call of Duty or Battlefield and need the action of these classics, Extraction can’t offer you that.

Likewise, you don’t get a full “Rainbow Six: Siege 2”, but just a spin-off with a completely different mode. If you are hoping for a new PvP game from Rainbow Six, Extraction would disappoint you. Nevertheless, Extraction is probably the closest thing to a successor for the time being, because Siege doesn’t actually need something like that:

Rainbow Six: Siege – The popular shooter doesn’t need a sequel