At its recent Ubisoft Forward event, Ubisoft pulled back the curtain on Rainbow Six Extraction, providing players with a detailed look at the new squad-based shooter. Formerly titled Rainbow Six QuarantineExtraction sees the series' popular special forces operators fending off an entirely new kind of threat for the franchise. Rather than terrorists or opposing armies, the operators are fighting an extraterrestrial, parasitic incursion.

This new foe constitutes a major departure for the historically realistic Rainbow Six franchise, but makes sense given the gameplay mechanics being explored. For the first time, the series will feature roguelike elements for enhanced re-playability. Having a broader pool of enemies, hazards, and other setting modifications will keep the game fresh, and enable a similarly expanded variety in terms of operator upgrades and load outs. While aliens are uncharted territory for Rainbow Six, they are a familiar presence in gaming, and Extraction's new nemeses, the Archaen, have some common ground with other sci-fi foes.

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The Archaen is described as a mutative parasite, similar to The Last of Us' fictionalized take on the real-world Cordyceps fungus. As an invasive alien that abducts victims, the Archaen also bear similarity to StarCraft's Zerg. That's not to say there is nothing unique about the Archaen, as splitting the difference between these two paradigms results in an antagonist with a unique profile.

Unrolling the Zerg Carpet

Apart from their shared extra-terrestrial origin, the obvious overlap between Extraction's Archaen and StarCraft's Zerg is their similar infestation-as-carpet mechanic. Zerg famously produce a slimy pink field of biomatter known as "creep." Zerg require creep to build new structures, but it also provides Zerg units with certain bonuses, such as faster movement speed, while harming or slowing non-Zerg units. Similarly, Rainbow Six Extraction's Archaen generate a black, sinuous tar-like substance called "sprawl." At the Ubisoft Forward event, developers said the sprawl will also slow operators and speed up Archaen enemies.

As biological membranes, both creep and sprawl can be cleansed from the environment in various ways. In StarCraft, buildings that extend the creep's radius must be destroyed, whereas a simple pistol shot to sprawl-infected terrain will make the substance temporarily recede in Extraction. Furthermore, the Archaen Sprawl only expands in response to irritants like operators poking around, making it more like dendrites of a core organism. Zerg creep is clearly structural and ever-expanding, similar to a biological wasp nest.

While the Sprawl may not be the most original concept, Ubisoft is borrowing from the best. Creep is a great mechanical, aesthetic, and narrative vehicle for conveying the idea of a caustic infection.

Other similarities include Zerg swarms being known for abducting and experimenting on enemy combatants to steal potentially useful genetic traits, or transform them into hosts. The Archaen abduct downed human operators who must then be rescued, hence the titular Extraction, but so far it is unclear what happens to operators while they are under enemy control. The Archaen are referred to as parasites, and given the number of humanoid enemy units, it seems likely humans who remain under Archaen control for too long eventually become hosts for the alien.

Mutation Infestation

The Cordyceps outbreak from The Last of Us

The Last of Us' signature enemies, zombies created by a mutation of the cordyceps virus, have an entire ecology and mutative life-cycle that spans several different enemy classes. Similarly, Archaen enemies come in various permutations that are mechanically comparable to The Last of Us' Runners, Clickers, Stalkers, Bloaters, and so on. The Ubisoft Forward footage shows grunts, which seem comparable to Runners; suicide-bombing Breachers; projectile-spewing Spikers; and a vaguely Lovecraftian enemy type known as an Apex.

In terms of lore, the aliens seem to diverge from the Cordyceps. Rather than going through a complex, Pokemon-esque cycle of evolutionary mutations, driven by progressive stages of infection, Archaens seem more like ants in that they are seemingly "purpose-built," and beholden to a single form. It is possible that these progressions all stem from Grunt enemies, and later differentiate based on purpose-driven mutations.

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The precise relationship between the parasites and enemy units is unclear, as humans can be abducted, at least briefly, without being "turned." It is also unclear if every enemy unit is the result of an infected human, or if certain Archaen are grown from nothing. The most mysterious thing about the Archaen, however, is their intelligence.

Alien Intelligence or Blind Plague?

rainbow-six-extraction

Like the Zerg and the Cordyceps, the Archaen are never observed wielding any technology or incorporating mechanized parts into their infection. It is possible that Ubisoft simply does not want to spoil the surprise, but it seems more likely that they are a strictly bio-organic threat. Despite not leveraging inorganic technology, it must be said that the Zerg swarm was highly intelligent, and possessed enough of a culture for fragmentation within the Swarm. Entities like Abathur were even capable of advanced sciences, such as genetic manipulation.

The Last of Us' Cordyceps, on the other hand, are a more realistic infection in that they disable their hosts' higher brain functions and turn them into frenzied monsters that act on instinct. As such, they have no real agenda beyond propagation.

It will be interesting to see where the Archaen fall in this spectrum of possessive, parasitic foes, and the answer likely lies somewhere between those two poles. It seems unlikely that Rainbow Six will make its parasitic enemy extraterrestrial without a narrative goal in mind. However, powerful Archaen enemies, like the Apex, seem to have a capacity for thought, coordination, and domination, if not actual sentience.

Rainbow Six Extraction is in development for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a planned release on September 16, 2021.

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