With Rainbow Six: Extraction, Ubisoft tries its hand at a co-op PvE shooter. It looks far less at other AAA games than one might think. Instead, Extraction cleverly borrows the best mechanics from indie games. MeinMMO author Marko Jevtic is excited about the first impression.
The best co-op shooters on the market excite me with their replayability and adaptability. I love adjusting with my team to new conditions time after time. However, most co-op shooters suffer for me from the same problem: they are a significant time investment.
That’s why I love playing roguelites endlessly. Like the best co-op shooters, they excel in constant replayability and engage with ever-changing gameplay conditions. They are also much easier to enjoy in shorter gameplay sessions.
For a few days now, I have had the chance to play Rainbow Six Extraction before its release. To my great joy, I found that the game combines the best of co-op shooters and indie roguelites, whether you play in a team or alone.
Rainbow Six: Extraction often adapts to your needs
Like the best indie roguelites on the market, Rainbow Six Extraction is engaging, unpredictable, and constantly replayable. Because Extraction is like the parasite aliens you fight: extremely adaptable.
The missions in the game are divided into 3 sections. Each of these takes place in one third of a map and is randomly generated. At the end of each section, you have a choice:
- Do you want to continue with more difficult tasks and greater rewards?
- Or do you want to retreat to keep what you’ve gathered so far?
This is not only a strategic decision. It’s also one that you can adapt to your moods and scheduling agreements.
If you can or want to play for just a few minutes, you can do only the first section of a mission and then pull back. Depending on the difficulty level, this takes a few minutes, and you will get your reward in every successful case. But even a whole mission on the second difficulty level takes about 15 – 25 minutes.
This is a very pleasant timeframe for short gamers. But long gamers can also flexibly chain several missions together and play as long as they want. This design decision is therefore not a disadvantage or a compromise for any player type.
Hades, my favorite roguelite of recent years, works similarly: A successful run in Hades now takes me about 25 – 30 minutes. That’s short enough to quickly play a run during a lunch break. But no one is stopping me from playing several runs in a row and gaming for hours.
Rainbow Six Extraction works on the same principle – and I’m very happy about it.
Rainbow Six: Extraction cleverly and enjoyably enforces gameplay diversity
The most exciting twist for me is that Rainbow Six Extraction not only offers this flexibility – it also demands it in return. If your character takes too much damage or even “dies” in a mission, they are unavailable for the next mission. Only when you rescue them can they be played again. You will therefore be forced to use one of the other 18 operators.
In games like Left 4 Dead, GTFO, or Deep Rock Galactic, missions are usually very extensive. On top of that, there is the planning effort when it comes to assembling a team. Technical issues and setting adjustments regularly delay the action, as do drinking and toilet breaks.
By the time a larger chunk of content is finally completed, a good hour will have passed. Often even more. While this is a lot of fun in between, it can be done better.
Rainbow Six Extraction does not circumvent all these problems because it cannot control all of them solely through gameplay ideas. But compared to other co-op shooters, I can easily and willingly start a quick solo mission here while waiting for my team, without fearing not finishing in time.
It should be noted that we have only played two of the 4 different difficulty levels in standard mode so far. Later, it could definitely take longer, even with practice. And especially the incredibly tough Maelstrom protocol, the endgame of Extraction, could raise the stakes even more. Luckily, all of this is optional, and it’s possible that this may change at launch or shortly thereafter. However, I do not expect that.
His favorite genres, besides shooters, also include metroidvanias, immersive sims, and roguelites. Therefore, he tries to discover and play through a new indie game at least once a week. Over the years, many games have accumulated that he has absolutely loved – and would probably not have played under normal circumstances.
Just the fact that I have this option makes the game one of the better co-op shooters I have played. Because Rainbow Six Extraction understood what makes roguelites so popular and cleverly processed their best mechanics.
If this article has made you eager for more, we have all the important information about the release of Rainbow Six Extraction:
The first new co-op shooter of 2022 arrives – All about the release of Rainbow Six: Extraction
The fact that you can no longer use your favorite characters not only reminds me of games like XCOM and Fire Emblem but also of roguelite gems like Rogue Legacy or Darkest Dungeon. In Extraction, this mechanic has the same effect as in the mentioned games:
- On the one hand, you handle your favorites very carefully, planning strategically and long-term with their availability and the risks of deployment.
- On the other hand, you learn to appreciate the strengths and nuances of the other operators, enhancing the mechanical depth of the game and your own flexibility in handling those mechanics.
After a mission that completely failed, I had to do without my previous favorite Sledge. So, I reluctantly took IQ. She is an operator I thought was too weak in theory. In practice, it turned out how strong her weapons are. Her gadget was also much more useful than I thought because she can mark the objectives in certain mission types like Seismic.
That’s why I don’t just have one favorite character, but several. And since each operator is leveled up separately, I will need to broaden my options even more. This is a considerably more varied solution for me than, for example, the classes in Deep Rock Galactic. There, I see no reason to deviate from my beloved and leveled drill dwarf.
Other elements also remind me of indie hits. What in Hades is the heat system or in Curse of the Dead Gods are the curses, in Extraction are the mutations. These randomly change various elements of the mission structure or enemy behavior. So, I had significant problems yesterday with the mutation where sticky mines cling to all enemies. Therefore, I couldn’t handle Sledge’s sledgehammer quite as aggressively as in the mission before.
I love that the game forces me to demonstrate flexibility here. Both the game and the player benefit from this: I am pushed out of my comfort zone and learn more about the game’s gameplay possibilities; in return, the game gains depth and provides me with more motivation to play it long and often.
Conclusion – Rainbow Six: Extraction is a flexible gaming experience, and therefore more fun than expected
Whether it’s 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 rely on roguelite tricks. But no game has, in my opinion, achieved this as successfully as Rainbow Six Extraction.
The game combines the liveliness and adaptability of the best roguelites with solid gameplay. It is also unafraid to lure the player out of their comfort zone with intentionally frustrating mechanics. Thus, the game rightly demonstrates that it has great confidence in its own design structures.
In games like Left 4 Dead, GTFO, or Deep Rock Galactic, missions are usually very extensive. On top of that, there is the planning effort when it comes to assembling a team. Technical issues and setting adjustments regularly delay the action, as do drinking and toilet breaks.
By the time a larger chunk of content is finally completed, a good hour will have passed. Often even more. While this is a lot of fun in between, it can be done better.
Rainbow Six Extraction does not circumvent all these problems because it cannot control all of them solely through gameplay ideas. But compared to other co-op shooters, I can easily and willingly start a quick solo mission here while waiting for my team, without fearing not finishing in time.
It should be noted that we have only played two of the 4 different difficulty levels in standard mode so far. Later, it could definitely take longer, even with practice. And especially the incredibly tough Maelstrom protocol, the endgame of Extraction, could raise the stakes even more. Luckily, all of this is optional, and it’s possible that this may change at launch or shortly thereafter. However, I do not expect that.
His favorite genres, besides shooters, also include metroidvanias, immersive sims, and roguelites. Therefore, he tries to discover and play through a new indie game at least once a week. Over the years, many games have accumulated that he has absolutely loved – and would probably not have played under normal circumstances.
Just the fact that I have this option makes the game one of the better co-op shooters I have played. Because Rainbow Six Extraction understood what makes roguelites so popular and cleverly processed their best mechanics.
If this article has made you eager for more, we have all the important information about the release of Rainbow Six Extraction:
The first new co-op shooter of 2022 arrives – All about the release of Rainbow Six: Extraction
