this game can't make up its mind re: how badly it wants to be Siege. it's not an awful game, i don't hate it, but all of its most prominent strengths - the gunplay, the operator variety, etc. - all of them are Siege exports. all of its biggest drawbacks come from changes made for this new game mode (because let's be honest, that's what this is).

some operators have interesting changes made to their abilities for this, some are just pasted in wholesale. the operators here seem to be selected based on popularity instead of utility - there's virtually no reason to ever use Fuze or Hibana, and there's no sign of operators that would be far more useful here: Ying, Lesion, etc. guns that were changed for the PvP of Siege are virtually useless here - any especially rapid-firing SMG is unusable due to recoil - it's a much greater issue when you're up against more than five opponents and are spraying most of your bullets into the wall.

weirdly though, i do keep coming back. the game gets the noggin joggin' a lot more than it ever was during Siege's Outbreak event (the thing that inspired this whole shindig). the sprawl seems kind of tedious when starting out but becomes a genuine issue at higher difficulties when you realize it makes everything else more threatening by merely existing. wrangling randos towards an objective can suck in ways multiplayer is always capable of, but the satisfaction of working with them to reach ever-higher Maelstrom Protocol ranks is real, although hard to convey. watching someone you just met brave a horrifying wave of enemies, risking their own operator's death just to help you recover yours is always heartwarming (not a word i thought i would use in a review for a Tim Clunky game).

the short version of this review is that this is very, very obviously for people who like the strong skeleton Siege has (with its operators and satisfying gun mechanics) but want a PvE game built on this chassis. it reminds me a bit of the kind of fun i got from playing Vermintide 2, effectively a horde mode where the horde itself is a credible threat (and not just fodder). all in all? i do like the game, it's fun in a completely different way from normal Siege. i'm a little mad at myself though for paying Forty United States Dollars for this (sponsored by White Claw Surge™) - if you're interested in this, definitely wait until it's on sale or try it through game pass if you're already subbed. i think you're much more likely to find an experience that's worth the money this way. strong 6 to low 7/10.

Score: 67/100

After the first hour it’s just the same thing over and over. Also the progression system sucks. It does look and sound nice though and the gunplay is very good.

Idk man, I just don’t have any desire at all to keep playing it. It’s not boring it’s just blande.

A three player co-op spin off of Rainbow Six Siege where many of the playable characters of Siege fight against an alien threat. Not at all what I would want out of the franchise or made from Siege that has some of the best feeling shooting in a video game, but not that bad. Varied enemies, difficulties, character abilities, types of missions mixing stealth/defense/rescue/etc, good location variety, good visual style, unlockable modes that offer more difficult but rewarding consecutive missions.

Not all characters seem that useful. Not that much staying power as the mission types will start to get repetitive. The experience system just seems like an afterthought that doesn't work well as getting basic abilities or weapon unlocks from level 1-10 can keep you from being on the level of your friends, you can rank characters up fairly quickly, and you can lose XP if you lose all your health and are unable to rescue a character in a new playthrough of the level but your XP is save from dropping when you reach 10 and you can just put it on a lower difficulty for a rescue. It feels like it wanted to make death and needing to get into a desperate extraction situation as a major source of gameplay but it never really matters much. Ranking up your intel for new gadget unlocks ends up mostly being following generic objectives that are unlocked in sets of three that force you to play the same area again and again as you try to complete them.

It can be fun for a bit but unlikely to hold interest for long for you or two other friends willing to try it out, and it was just a strange thing to have done with the series in the first place.

Screenshots: https://twitter.com/Legolas_Katarn/status/1523519326552133633

Played from – to: (2022-01-23 – 2022-01-24) – PC keyboard.
‣ 5/10 – Just keep making Assassin’s Creed games.
‣ Game Audio / Soundtrack - 6/10
‣ Graphics – 8/10
‣ Atmosphere – 7/10
‣ Main Story / Characters – 4/10
‣ AI – 7/10
‣ Ragdolls / Physics – 8/10
‣ Movement – 8/10
‣ Voice acting – 9/10
‣ Combat – 8/10
‣ Final notes: If you played the Outbreak event on Rainbow Six Siege a few years ago this won’t look any different to you in fact I would say this spin-off is a weaker cousin of the event we saw. Nothing here is new. If you have a good chunk of hours on Rainbow Six Siege, like myself any gameplay that you will see here won’t be new to you. Honestly there are good ideas here and there, but everything you see in the first 2 to 3 hours is what you will keep seeing later. Enemies get boring quick, spores that blind you 15 seconds later become a nuisance. The progression is slow and does not award you with anything fun besides unlocking some operators that you already know way too well. Playing this game solo is possible, but just like me you will find it rather depressing to play alone. I believe that this game is more fun with a couple of friends but good luck getting anyone who would like a tactical zombie shooter. That’s the other problem. Rainbow Six: Extraction relays heavily on tactics and stealth, you can’t just go in guns blazing, I mean you can, but you will be heavily punished implying that stealth is the right way to play this game. Overall, I think this game could’ve been more enjoyable if it was more narratively driven and not just a boring lore dump on meaningless information in the codex menu. And it is sad to see a game that has been delayed and in development for at least three years just recycle literally every asset from Rainbow Six Siege. If you just reused every possible asset, then might as well just make this an event again instead of a fully priced game. Rainbow Six: Extraction could’ve been a better game if it had drastically different gameplay, maybe even a turned based system like in XCOM.

This game got dumped on at reveal and launch and I think it's not that bad. In fact I think it's a little more than not bad, it's pretty solid.

There's this special feeling when you go into a round and you get two squad mates who are locked in, and you complete a round flawlessly. It feels...professional?

I'm not sure how else to describe it really. It's just this slick feeling when you can do a multi-pronged area clear and know that your squadmates can handle themselves and have your back.

The flip side to this of course is that having bad squadmates is hideously annoying because they can make you actually lose XP. And while the highs of playing with a professional group of randoms is super cool, playing with no mics and no friends is kind of a snooze after your first 3-4 Level 10 operators. If you have two or more people that you can rotate playing this with, I think you'll have more fun with it.

It's also interesting because the gun/equipment mechanics of R6 Siege feel very different here. In that game, you're doing relatively slow, tac shooting, but in this game you can quickly face a horde of enemies charging you. Which puts a pretty new, fun spin on the implementation of R6's gunplay.

I get why people have problems with the game, but I think it deserves better reception than it has gotten, and I hope Ubisoft gives it (like R6S before it) enough time to get its feet under it!