Rainbow Six Extraction: Game Pass details, review round-up, PC release date and time - and Metacritic score

The new cooperative multiplayer game allows crossplay between platforms, and even a Buddy Pass system
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Rainbow Six Extraction is arguably the first ‘big’ gaming release of 2022.

It’s a spin-off from 2015’s Rainbow Six Siege, which revitalised the Rainbow Six franchise of shooters with a more slow-paced, tactical approach to the genre that still has online multiplayer fans hooked more than six years on.

That game’s success perhaps explains why developers Ubisoft have chosen to take a slightly different approach.

Rather than opt for the more expected announcement of a ‘Rainbow Six Siege 2’, that original game has been kept fresh with regular content updates, and is almost incomparable to the game it was in 2015.

So instead, fans are getting a brand new game, one which will likely be similarly improved and expanded upon in the years to come.

Here is everything you need to know about Rainbow Six Extraction.

What happens in Rainbow Six Extraction?

Rainbow Six Extraction takes the foundations laid down by Siege, and transplants them to a sci-fi setting.

Working solo, or with up to two other players, you look to take down the threat posed by an incursion of parasitic aliens – the Archæans.

Playing as an operator of the military organisation REACT - a team made up of ‘Operators’ from Rainbow Six Siege, each with unique weapons and gadgets - you seek to eradicate and collect more information about this evil foe.

Thanks to a host of varied objective game types, within large maps pinned across America, Extraction feels fresh, well-rounded and its story has much more progression than might be expected.

(Image: Ubisoft)(Image: Ubisoft)
(Image: Ubisoft)

The location of the objectives and the placement of enemies are procedurally generated, meaning they are randomised for each game, and no two playthroughs are the same.

The Archæans are varied with special variants, such as spikers that can shoot sharp projectiles from their body, and rooters that can slow the player down significantly.

They quickly wise-up to the strategy you employ, thereby requiring you to mix it up and, perhaps, be more stealth-focused than in the previous Siege.

When can I play it?

Rainbow Six Extraction is available to play right now, having been released on Thursday 20 January 2022.

It is available on PC, PS4 and PS5, Amazon’s cloud-gaming platform ‘Luna’, Google Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Players on PC or any of Microsoft’s Xbox line of consoles get the added bonus of the game being made available on the day of release on Game Pass.

That’s the company’s subscription service that lets you pick and choose, Netflix style, from a regularly updated library of games for a monthly fee.

When is it on Game Pass?

The game launched at midnight local time, meaning wherever you are in the world, Rainbow Six Extraction will have been playable since 12am.

That’s the time the game also dropped on Game Pass, so you should find it there ready to install right now!

The game is also available through cloud streaming, meaning you can boot it up right away and don’t have to wait on a potentially lengthy download.

Bear in mind you will need a strong internet connection to get the best experience from cloud streaming though.

Is it any good?

Reviews for the game have been coming in steadily from critics, and the game seems to be averaging around 75 on Metacritic, a website that pools together reviews from across the web.

“Rainbow Six Extraction is an excellent retooling of a lot of the things that made the multiplayer-focused Rainbow Six Siege work so well”, said NME, while Gamespot called it “a good Rainbow Six game that rewards you and your team's ability to adapt to deliver a compelling gameplay loop."

It’s worth bearing in mind that the game was designed for cooperative play between two or more players with an online connection.

“We can’t recommend Rainbow Six Extraction if you’re planning on playing alone,” says Video Games Chronicle.

“But if your regular gaming group is bored of the game you play every night, and they all have Game Pass, Extraction will provide laughs.”

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