Ubisoft just released a lengthy gameplay trailer showing off all the ways you’ll be able to pour hours into Extraction. Extraction has been in development for some time now, spawned by the popularity of a limited-time co-op game mode in Siege where players squared off against sort-of-zombie-sort-of-alien mutant enemies. It made headlines previously when it changed its original name, Quarantine, to Extraction in light of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic that still grips the world. Now that the frankly nonsensical outrange surrounding a decision made in good taste has died down, it’s high time the discussion was swayed back to the game itself - something this almost 5 minute gameplay trailer should help with nicely. While we don’t doubt a lot of the trailer is scripted for marketability, what we’re seeing here is legitimate, crisp in-engine gameplay footage. Since we all love numbers, the trailer makes sure to throw a lot of those into our face early on - apparently the game will feature 18 operators, 12 ’ever-evolving maps’, 13 missions, 25 gadgets, 69 weapons, 13 enemy archetypes and 3-player co-op at launch. We suspect several of these numbers will increase with time and post-launch content. Many of the hallmarks of Siege are apparent on Extraction, with a focus on unique operators, tactical gameplay, quite a lot of equipment usage instead of just spraying bullets and interacting with the destructible environment. Many of the operators are returning favorites from Siege, and while the design and technological advancement of weapons and gadgets are somewhat futuristic, they are still squarely grounded in contemporary modernity. The dynamic maps have built-in modifiers that are randomly rolled at the start of each match, so even if you are hitting the same map for the dozenth time, it’ll have various differences to change the overall experience. They’re also huge, about three times as big as most Siege maps, and are divided into multiple sections with saferooms in between a la Left 4 Dead. Between the new locales and new weapons, a huge deal of focus is given to the new progression system wherein you develop the combat capabilities of each operator individually, giving every playable character their own personal progression track. This is a major change from Siege’s account based approach. Extraction is designed with co-op in mind, but is perfectly enjoyable for the solo players as well. Siege is a hugely competitive game with a reputation of being difficult with a steep learning curve, so this solo friendly approach will help Extraction court a whole new audience. Also, apparently Rainbow Six has lore, to which Extraction purports to add entirely new depths to. Since previous Rainbow Six games have been entirely grounded in reality, save for the occasional limited-time event, we’d say that Extract is in a different continuity with its aliens and sci-fi gizmos - but we’d be glad to be wrong, too. Rainbow Six Extraction has no fixed release date yet, but will drop sometime next January.
