Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Extraction comes with game features new and familiar, but one of the best ones is also its most tedious. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction tasks one to three players with eradicating the Archaean parasites across locations worldwide. Picking from 18 specialized operators with varying skills and talents, players will delve into containment zones and complete various objectives to learn more about the Archaeans' origins and how to destroy them. However, not every level is as simple, and some operators will get lost or injured along the way.
Fortunately, the operators aren't lost in Rainbow Six Extraction. Instead, they go MIA and are encased in what the game dubs "stasis foam" to be rescued by players when replaying the mission. Going MIA, while discouraging, urges a cautious playstyle similar to those that benefit certain operators in Extraction's predecessor, Rainbow Six Siege. Operators who survive the containment zone are injured if they pass a point in their health, and are inactive until they heal up, meaning players may be without their favorite operators for lengthy periods of time.
While the MIA and inactive features mix up the gameplay of Rainbow Six Extraction, it becomes more of a nuisance and is counterproductive to the game. The MIA feature is more of an obstacle and hassle than a proper objective in Extraction, which can end up detracting from its gameplay. Moreover, the inactive feature also locks characters and forces players to use other operators. While Rainbow Six Extraction's MIA system and inactive features add an avenue of gameplay, it can be time-consuming and frustrating to navigate.
Rainbow Six Extraction's MIA & Inactive Features Hinder Gameplay
Where games like Dark Souls make it relatively simple to retrieve resources, Rainbow Six Extraction has a longer, more time-consuming style. The objective to rescue the MIA character is randomized and can be stranded on higher levels, making it almost impossible for players to recover them. While the feature adds a level of immersion to the game's narrative, forcing players to treat the Archaen parasites as a real and sinister threat not to be trifled with, it can also hinder the player. Rainbow Six Extraction's dated presentation has been criticized, but the MIA system is arguably more frustrating to deal with.
Similarly, the inactive feature in Rainbow Six Extraction also adds a layer of immersion, but rather than let the player use the character to get better, it locks them out. This forces players to use a character they may be unfamiliar with and have less connection to. When the character does become usable, they are not even at full strength, increasing the likelihood of being downed during a mission and going MIA.
The foundation of Rainbow Six Extraction is solid enough, with the gameplay of Rainbow Six Siege and new mixed-up mechanics working well together. However, the MIA feature doesn't fit in Ubisoft's Rainbow Six Extraction. The same goes with the inactive feature that is eerily similar to the style of mobile gacha games requiring players to use another character or spend points to accelerate their favorite character's recovery. While Rainbow Six Extraction brings a lot of pieces to the PVE cooperative shooter genre, it has a lot to learn whether those pieces fit in the whole game.