Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction is the latest entry in the long-running tactical shooter series. However, unlike its previous entries, this will mark a first for the series with the inclusion of an extraterrestrial threat. Now, with an enemy that relies more on brute strength rather than their own tactical expertise, it's up to a squad of four players to survive through missions and eliminate the threats. The cooperative multiplayer strategies used in the game are very similar to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege.
Siege was another first-of-its-kind shooter when it was released back in 2015. The game itself features no story mode but offers players various operators to play as and maps with set objectives. Rather than focus on those objectives sequentially, Siege leaves it up to the player and their squad to coordinate the best course of action to finish the level quickly and efficiently. Because of its unique gameplay style, Siege has continued with multiple updates and characters that keep the experience alive. Now, it looks like Extraction could recapture that same success for a new generation of gamers.
One aspect that makes Rainbow Six such a successful franchise is its separation from the other shooters in the genre. Where Call of Duty and Battlefield focus more on the action and excitement of combat, Rainbow Six spends more time perfecting its stealth and realistic tactics. As a result, it gives a unique experience on how tactical operators work and how important it is to strategize when a player is stuck in a hostile environment. But by being more realistic, the game also distances itself from uninterested players in that style of combat.
Extraction is the perfect game to bridge that gap by taking the stealth tactics of the franchise and having players use it against sci-fi threats. With the inclusion of aliens, a long-established game series becomes something entirely new as no game in the past has ever made real-world combat strategy a foundation to combat an extraterrestrial threat in a game. Suddenly, the franchise becomes a mixture of Left 4 Dead and James Cameron's Aliens without losing its Tom Clancy flair. With enemy types and various objectives such as saving teammates and tracking alien nests, this game has massive potential to spike in popularity even more than Siege did.
Helping even more with Siege is the rise of cooperative games in the medium. Local co-op games began to focus more on online multiplayer, with games like Call of Duty and Halo focusing on competitive games like Team Deathmatch. However, cooperative levels were on a decline for some time, and players worked with each other less and against one another more frequently. However, thanks to live service titles like Destiny and, of course, Rainbow Six: Siege, that began to change.
Now, with titles like Marvel's Avengers, It Takes Two, A Way Out and even Rainbow Six: Extraction, there is a wider appeal for players to work together to complete objectives rather than working together against other players. While Extraction offers similar gameplay styles to its predecessor, the inclusion of aliens offers even more pulse-pounding combat scenarios. The game has the potential to be the most cinematic Rainbow Six experience yet, without compromising its realistic and stealth roots. There is no denying that after almost six years of content, Rainbow Six: Siege proves that co-op games are in demand. With Extraction, that demand could potentially spread to players who never explored the genre, thanks to its new premise. If the game itself can hold up against Seige and its competition, Rainbow Six: Extraction could capture the same success as its predecessor.