Rainbow Six Extraction test: the good surprise of this beginning of the year

After having tried its luck in competitive versus with the success that we know, Ubisoft Montreal is once again stepping out of its comfort zone with the Rainbow Six license. Aliens have replaced terrorists, and the franchise's signature action/tactical recipe now requires minimal player collaboration.

Following its tentative announcement in 2019, the game got a name change - who wants to hear about quarantine right now? - and has experienced several postponements: the measured expectation has had plenty of time to turn into concern, and it is therefore with a certain restraint that we embarked on Extraction. Will it be in PvE what Siege has become in PvP, that is to say a credible alternative to the heavyweights of the genre? Yes, but.

Rainbow Six Extraction test: the good surprise of this beginning of the year See PriceRead ConclusionRainbow Six Extraction

Clean realization and impeccable optimization
Effective and pleasant action/infiltration loop
Well-balanced difficulty
Real accountability of players

Repetitive in essence
Level Design timide
It still lacks verticality
Not very varied environments

Rainbow Six Extraction has been tested on PC with code provided by Ubisoft. It will be available from January 20 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Series, Stadia and GeForce Now. It will also be present as soon as it is released in the Game Pass (Xbox and PC).

Chance and responsibility

The Chimera parasite, responsible for an epidemic that paralyzed New Mexico, is growing everywhere in North America. That's all it takes to dispatch the Rainbow Exogenous Analysis & Containment Team (REACT), an elite squad made up of the 18 most prominent counter-terrorism operators from around the world. Ubisoft Montreal strangely did not want to push its pitch much further; apart from a few atmospheric cinematics, centered on three characters that we will never embody, the game does not really develop its scenario. That's not really why we came, but the result is quite abrupt and does not particularly highlight the work done on the universe as a whole.

Extraction fortunately has more to say with its game system, a clever hybridization of the action / tactical / infiltration prominences at work in the series for nearly 25 years, this time enhanced with cooperative sauce (up to three). Its bias is interesting: the game randomly fills in a certain number of parameters once the team has selected the environment and the level of difficulty of their choice, among the four available each time. The types of enemies and their placements, the place of entry and exit of the agents, the objective to be accomplished and the location of this one therefore vary systematically from one expedition to another.

Each sortie is divided into three segments, and it is up to the squad to decide whether or not to continue hostilities at each stage. It is indeed possible at any time, even if the objective is missed or pending, to return to the warm base or to move on to the next map, under penalty of drawing a line under a good packet of experience points. This responsibility of the player is not feigned: in the event of death, an operator will necessarily have to be exfiltrated by the survivors, under penalty of being unavailable for the next expeditions.

Abandoned to his sad fate, he will necessarily have to wait for him to be taken out of there, when the player decides to return to the scene with another agent within the framework of a specific mission. A find that empowers the members of the squad, who have the choice of whether or not to continue their attempt despite the loss of a member. Unlike most games, here we have something to lose by tempting fate when the situation is badly on board, but not yet hopeless.

Constable tactics

The missions are fairly common - area defense, point attack, mark target, capture enemy, stealth elimination - and are of quite variable interest, with perfectly tasteless and silly boss fights at the very end of the list. The variety offered at least has the merit of highlighting the capabilities specific to each operator. We have for example the possibility of rushing headlong, to succeed in his mission before the enemy has had time to alert his fellow men, but also to methodically clean the map in order to quietly accomplish his objective at the end. A strong and heavily armed agent will do for the first solution, while a more mobile operator, for example with a scanner and stun grenades, will be perfect for the second.

Between the two, a myriad of possibilities that depend on the many randomized elements mentioned above. Things rarely go the way you want to initially, and it's these crisis situations that give all the salt of Rainbow Six: Extraction. The pace can get carried away in a few seconds once the alert has been given, and it's a real alien army that will fall on the unfortunate squad that will not have been able to quickly correct its error, for example by destroying the many nests in sleep likely to give life to new monsters once awakened by a cry. The scan grenades then have much less interest, just like the agent with the poisoned crossbow bolts.

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The bigger it is, the higher it falls

Extraction cooperation isn't so much about synergy as it is about preparing for the worst. One thus constitutes his team according to the series of objectives which are announced, while trying to prevent the maximum of the potential dangers. We'll feel like we're underutilizing the potential of our enforcer if the alarm is never triggered, but then we'll be on the front line with our automatic turrets when we have to defend a bread of C4 which automatically alerts the enemies. After all, the less you use your character's abilities and equipment, the better the mission goes. Hard to spit on a little easy xp.

Elaborate level design… but redundant

Another good idea: the presence of a viscous substance called Emergence adds further complexity to each situation. Present on the base floor and sometimes spread by certain enemies, it drastically slows down operators in addition to making a bit of noise when walking on it. It can be annihilated by shooting it, or using a special lamp unlocked at level 25 (so after a big twenty hours of play), but this consumes time and ammunition which can then end up running out as you go. as the mission progresses.

Subject to mutations - it can become toxic or be generated by the movements of enemies - it sometimes covers an entire area, which becomes de facto much more difficult to apprehend. If the level design has benefited from a certain care, between destructible walls, entanglements of small rooms and large interior or exterior spaces, it must be recognized that the lack of verticality prevents Extraction from reaching the tactical heights of Siege. The only card that plays a minimum on the height, Missile Silo, is not far from being the best as finding your bearings and moving around is more complicated than usual.

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Welcome to Alaska (or to the industrial zone of Quetigny, near Dijon)

It is clearly a choice of Ubi Montreal, which in any case did not authorize its operators to trudge on the rope or even to climb structures at eye level. This would have been an opportunity to create real synergies between the agents, which this stubbornness at ground level definitely prevents. Despite the theoretical exoticism of the environments (New York, San Francisco, Alaska, New Mexico), we invariably end up finding the same series of corridors and rooms. We have the impression that the levels on Mars or in Joinville-le-Pont would not have been so different in the end.

Controlled and efficient gameplay

This lack of visual and playful variety plays a lot on the repetitiveness of the title, which despite its efforts to renew each excursion invariably ends up establishing a certain routine. Neither the randomization of elements, nor the secondary objectives, nor the mutators are ultimately enough to make each outing exciting and unique, and it's not the altogether limited arsenal or certain redundant gadgets that will change anything at all. the case. As we'll see, Extraction remains fun thanks to its excellent gameplay loop and plenty of ideas to trip players up, but it's unclear if the majority extend the experience beyond the excellent first few hours, at unlock all levels and operators until you reach the endgame.

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Apart from a sometimes intrusive HUD, the gameplay of Extraction is quite clear

Thanks to the expertise acquired with Siege, the Canadian studio delivers a very good gameplay copy. The movements are quite heavy, the enemies hurt, but the weapons are very effective when you make good use of them. Efficiency is the watchword, and it's worth taking a few seconds to think before storming a room full of enemies: a good grenade to paralyze and execute the most dangerous enemy is better than a full auto potato that waters the room in the wind. The one shots are extremely satisfying and can be linked together when the enemies are well placed, and it's even better if you're behind a wall. Historically tactically oriented, the Rainbow Six license does not deny its heritage despite the alien invasion at the heart of the Extraction lore, and that's a very good thing.

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A second before the extreme satisfaction of sticking one between his eyes

Technical faultless

Another satisfaction: the realization of Rainbow Six Extraction is a model of its kind. The futuristic-realistic aesthetic does offer some flashes, but it is above all the excellent performance of the engine that commands respect. Technically solid while being perfectly stable and fluid, Extraction delivers an impeccable copy which should also run on a maximum of different PC configurations. Crucial for identifying threats and objectives in each area, the sound dimension has not been neglected either with precise, perfectly localized sound effects and a few remarkable soundtracks that perfectly wrap the action, while leaving all the space necessary for communication. between players.

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Some places are as eerie as they are beautiful

Perfectly playable alone, Extraction obviously takes another turn with friends, Game Pass subscribers or guests thanks to a welcome Buddy Pass allowing two people to join the party for two weeks, cross-platform if necessary. Matchmaking is incidental, as it seems impossible to comply with the demands of the game with randomly drawn strangers. The difficulty is well calibrated although quite exponential with three players, which often does not forgive the slightest inconsiderate initiative. Ditto for the high level content, in Assignments mode and its successive hordes of ever stronger enemies like in Maelstrom. This last mode invites the squad to go through up to nine successive levels. We already let you succeed in three in the highest levels of difficulty before putting even a toe there: you will have to have previously perfectly mastered all the problems posed by the game before trying your luck.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Extraction, the opinion of JVFR

Rainbow Six: Extraction is a pleasant surprise. Between the accessibility of Back 4 Blood and the radicalism of GTFO, Ubisoft's cooperative tactical FPS finds its place in a genre that we thought was rather well marked out. Extraction remains repetitive in essence, and we would have liked a bit of diversity and madness in terms of objectives and level design, but the basic loop and the skilful action/infiltration mix are more than enough for us to look into it with pleasure, especially between people of good company. Kudos to Ubisoft which allows as many people as possible to access the game, between the Game Pass and the Buddy Pass.

Rainbow six extraction

Very solid technically and carried by an attractive gameplay loop, Rainbow Six Extraction is essential thanks to good ideas which renew the genre very well as the license, despite a repetitive concept in essence and a certain lack of exoticism in its level design. . A good pick to discover with friends!