Picking up where Outbreak (a limited-time event in Rainbow Six Siege) dropped off, the story tracks the eruption of the Chimera parasite, which has broken out all over the US - yikes, that sounds depressingly familiar - and yes, it's spreading.

Once called Rainbow Six Quarantine - you know, back in those halcyon days before any of us had ever really thought about what being in quarantine might feel like, let alone experienced one firsthand - Extraction's story is light-touch but perfectly satisfactory, delivered without a singleplayer or 'main' campaign. Watch on YouTube Here's a deep-dive explainer of Extraction's operators, gadgets and the rest.

Though the gunplay and stealthy tactics will feel wonderfully familiar to those who've spent time in Rainbow Six's annals - as will its roster of series stalwarts - Extraction is just different enough to stand out not only from its predecessors, but from the FPS genre more generally, too. And that's what makes Rainbow Six Extraction so thrilling, I guess. Sometimes taking an alternate road or looking at something through a new lens helps, of course particularly when it comes to a twenty-something-year-old franchise in one of the most oversaturated genres in gaming. Not that being different is wrong, of course.

Availability: Out now on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox (Game Pass), Stadia, and Luna.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Extraction review It's almost as if those differences stand out a touch sharper - a little starker - when you're thigh-deep in the warm waters of familiarity.

but, well, you can't help but notice the differences more than the parallels. Here is a game where things pretty much look to be the same - hey, there's the destructible environments we know so well, and over there you can see the usual smorgasbord of tech-savvy operators - and yes, there are similarities between Extraction and the R6 games that have come before it. Rainbow Six Extraction is a little like going to your parents home and finding an entirely different family living there amongst your parents' floral furnishings. Rainbow Six Extraction's tactical PvE is good, punchy fun with a squad, and has a couple of nice little twists - but that's about it.

Rainbow six by tom clancy