Rainbow Six Extraction: Everything We Know About Ubisoft Montreal's Tactical Shooter

Rainbow Six Extraction is an online squad-based tactical shooter that's a spin-off of Rainbow Six Siege. Extraction sees Siege's Operators called in to respond to a parasite-like alien threat called the Archaeans. Originally announced as Rainbow Six Quarantine at E3 2019, the game was renamed and delayed a handful of times, but is now finally out.

Despite Ubisoft Montreal leading development on both Siege and Extraction, different teams are behind each game. Additionally, Rainbow Six Extraction creative director Patrik Methé told GameSpot that although they share similarities, Ubisoft Montreal isn't worried about Siege and Extraction cannibalizing each other's audiences.

In GameSpot's Rainbow Six Extraction review, Jordan Ramée writes, "I had a wonderful time with Extraction, working alongside my teammates so that we all could complete challenges at a steady pace without completely ignoring the objective. That communication served us well when it came time to decide whether to push onward or extract, reinforcing that compelling teamwork-based hook that made me want to drop into incursions again and again. Though the story is weak and the design of the game favors certain characters, Extraction is a good Rainbow Six game that rewards you and your team's ability to adapt to deliver a compelling gameplay loop."

Release date

Rainbow Six Extraction is now out. If you're curious as to what critics think about the game, check out our Rainbow Six Extraction review round-up. The game supports both cross-play and cross-progression support, so you can carry your progress between hardware and squad-up with your friends no matter where you or they choose to play.

What we know

Rainbow Six Extraction is a cooperative shooter featuring many of the operatives originally seen in Rainbow Six Siege. Here, though, the focus isn't on fighting another team in PvP, but sneaking into Archaean-infested combat zones in hopes of gathering information and samples about the threat and escaping with it; hence, the Extraction name.

Weapons and gadgets have been tweaked to be more useful for larger PvE levels, and your goal in each mission is to use stealth and team tactics to destroy enemy Archaeans, avoid being overwhelmed, and seek out and complete objectives. Those objectives are randomized with every playthrough of each map, and the maps themselves will shift between sessions--so while you'll see certain facilities and locations more than once, how you approach them and what you have to do can change.

Every map is divided into individual incursions, and each incursion is made up of three "subzones." Those zones are linked by airlocks, so once you've completed the objective on the first zone, you can choose to continue on to the next, where the challenge and rewards will ramp up, or extract your team. You can extract at any time during a mission to cut your losses, but the farther you go, the more you can earn in terms of overall character progression and experience points. You must extract your character from an incursion in order to keep using them, and your Operators retain the damage they receive. If your Operator is left behind or goes down, they'll be captured by the aliens, and you'll need to rescue them when you play the incursion again.

The enemies and objectives you'll face are pretty varied. Humans infected by the alien parasite come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including slow, dopey melee fighters, ranged attackers who shoot spikes, explosive foes who will try to get close to you and blow up, and powerful, floating creatures with seemingly telekinetic powers. There are also nests all over the map that, if triggered when you break stealth, can create more Archaean enemies. Thus, moving carefully, maintaining the element of surprise, and paying attention to your surroundings are essential to staying alive, as is smart use of your Operator's specific abilities.

Not all of Siege's 60+ Operators are making the jump to Extraction--in fact, most aren't. Ubisoft Montreal is bringing over 18 that feel most ideally suited for PvE first, but more Operators are scheduled to arrive post-launch.

Every Operator confirmed for Rainbow Six: Extraction

• Alibi
• Capitão
• Doc
• Ela
• Finka
• Fuze
• Gridlock
• Hibana
• IQ
• Jäger
• Lion
• Nomad
• Pulse
• Rook
• Sledge
• Smoke
• Tachanka
• Vigil

Platforms

Rainbow Six Extraction is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC, Stadia, and Luna.

PC system specs

Ubisoft Montreal has released the official PC specs for Rainbow Six Extraction.

Trailers

Ubisoft has released a ton of trailers for Rainbow Six Extraction. To keep this article from becoming too long, we're only going to list the ones that we think are most relevant. That said, if you want to see even more of Extraction, Ubisoft has individual breakdowns of the Operators' abilities on its YouTube channel.

After the name had already been leaked, Ubisoft officially revealed Extraction's new name with a trailer. Extraction was previously called Quarantine--a name that probably sounded a lot better in 2019 before 2020's COVID-induced worldwide quarantine.

Following the reveal of the new name, Ubisoft released a new cinematic trailer for Extraction. The trailer teased the story for the upcoming game and showcased the importance of needing to extract MIA Operators.

In the months to follow, Ubisoft would continue to release new gameplay trailers for Extraction, each of which would further detail aspects of the online shooter and how it differed from Siege. All of those details were then rounded up in a gameplay overview trailer.

Multiplayer details and buddy pass

Though you can play Extraction alone, the game is designed to be played in a squad of three players. To help in that regard, every copy of Extraction comes with two buddy passes that you can give to your friends--each pass includes a free 14-day trial for Extraction, so you can play up to two weeks with your friends before having to convince them to buy the game themselves.

DLC/microtransaction details

Like Siege, Extraction is a live-service game, with content rolling out across multiple seasons. That means seasonal battle passes where you can earn cosmetic items, as well as new maps, limited-time events, and playable Operators coming post-launch.

Preorder details

As it has already launched, Extraction is now available for purchase through a variety of retailers. If you don't have a current-generation console yet and plan on upgrading after January, don't worry--the Xbox One and PS4 versions of Extraction will upgrade to the Xbox Series X|S and PS5 versions of the game, respectively, for free.

There are two editions of Extraction: standard, which will run you $40 USD, and Deluxe, which comes in at $50. Preordering either edition gets you the Orbital Decay bundle of in-game cosmetics. Going for the Deluxe edition nets you three additional sets of cosmetics: the Noxious Touch pack, the Obscura pack, and the React Strike pack. That last pack includes XP boosters for post-launch content and a 10% discount on items from the in-game store.

Rainbow Six Extraction is also available for Xbox Game Pass.