Tomorrow, January 20, 2022, the first co-op shooter of the year will be released with Rainbow Six: Extraction. The new installment in the series is more or less a spin-off of the popular tactical shooter Rainbow Six: Siege. However, you don’t need to be a Siege fan to enjoy Extraction. MeinMMO explains who should check out the new co-op shooter.
What is 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 against an alien parasite that threatened the world.
This is also the premise of Extraction. With familiar 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; instead, you always play together. However, communication and tactics remain an extremely important factor.
When does the game come out? On Thursday, January 20, 2022, at 1:00 AM German time, the servers will go live. From then on, 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.
Here we now take a look at the contents and explain 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 at least 7 of them with “yes”, you can confidently reach for the new Rainbow Six. More detailed information about Extraction can be found further down the text.
- I have played Outbreak in Rainbow Six: Siege and enjoyed it greatly.
- I am 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 enjoy Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood, but find the games too difficult.
- In a game, I want to be able to make progress.
- I prefer playing co-op with friends.
- I like tactical gameplay in shooters and don’t just shoot recklessly.
- I am interested in characters with special abilities and how they develop synergies.
- In games, shorter rounds for in-between are important to me.
- Stealth games like Hitman are fun for me.
How many of these 10 statements apply to you? Have you said “yes” at least 7 times? Let us know in the comments below.
Popular Event Mode as a Standalone Game
Why should I check out Extraction? Mainly, Extraction is aimed at those players who have been playing Siege for years or enjoyed the Outbreak event from 2018. The playable characters also come from Siege, which creates a certain familiarity with the tactical shooter.
Therefore, you should especially check out Extraction 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 to play with you for free and convince them. You can read more about it in our special on co-op and crossplay in Extraction.
The new shooter primarily relies on communication and tactical approaches. The different abilities of the operators can be combined and adapted to your playstyle. It is important to choose the right approach for the current mission.
You have various tasks like scanning areas, defeating opponents, or rescuing people. Depending on what you need to accomplish, the special abilities of the characters may be more or less suitable.
As a special gimmick, your operators must rest after a mission if they have lost health points. If a character goes down in the mission, they are considered “MIA” and you must rescue them on the corresponding map before you can regain access to them. This forces you to play and master several characters.
For All Co-op Fans, Even If You Don’t Know Siege
Is Extraction worth it if I don’t know Siege? The gameplay principles of Siege and Extraction differ completely. So much so that you can only partially rely on knowledge from Siege.
Reinforcing walls and positions is important, but is significantly more dynamic than in Siege. Camping quickly leads to death, as opponents can swarm from all directions and the different missions require various approaches.
Therefore, even Siege players have to first adapt to Extraction. The gameplay is more comparable to GTFO, Payday, or Left4Dead, although the individual rounds are significantly shorter. Depending on your playstyle, Extraction can even be compared to Hitman since you often get through the levels better when you are quiet and take out opponents silently.
You can choose to flee at any point during a mission if it gets too overwhelming. This takes a significant amount of the game’s harshness away. However, if you want, you can make the game quite challenging for yourself even in the endgame:
When should I not play it? If you have no interest in co-op games and shooters at all, you should not buy Rainbow Six: Extraction. Even as a shooter fan, you should have a certain affinity for stealth shooters. If you usually play Call of Duty or Battlefield and need the action of these classics, Extraction cannot provide you with that.
Similarly, you won’t get a full-fledged “Rainbow Six: Siege 2,” but rather 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 likely the closest thing to a sequel for now because Siege really doesn’t need something like that:
Rainbow Six: Siege – The popular shooter doesn’t need a sequel
