To be clear, this is not the "oh no I can't do this event so I hate it" so do not come with this "you noob" "get good" arguments on me. All Studies completed (regular Studies too), Diamond class on Maelstrom event, 196h played so far... I know to play this lovely game.

Anyway, I watched the videos Ubisoft released explaining the Event, I understood how it worked, yet, playing the thing made me see it is challenging alright, but in a really annoying, punishing way. Holding the Nucleus makes the player way too slow, vision darkens too fast, the animation to grab and drop the Nucleus is long; the new gadget is mostly useless since it is only 3 bursts (it would work better as a repulsion field for a limited time), non-rechargeable on its own and virtually impossible to recharge with REACT Tech supply at 2nd subzone and literally impossible at 3rd subzone.
The Amber Spawl is fine in its own, even in 3rd subzone when Enemies generate it when they move, but when enemies like tormentor surfacing literally below the Operator holding the Nucleus, with all its problems I had mentioned, and Smasher and Apex going after that one, it became almost impossible not to be hit by the Amber Sprawl.
1st subzone is essentially a regular objective with simply a more dangerous version of Caustic Sprawl as Mutation. No big deal here.
I must say I actually grew to like the 2nd subzone. Because it is possible to sweep the map clean before grabbing the Nucleus and then actually making a rough optimal route between the Nucleus location and the airlock, putting several traps and diversions to help protect the Operator carrying the Nucleus. And it is really satisfying to see the accomplishment of the tactical planning working!
Then there is the THIRD subzone, which RUINS EVERYTHING. Enemies spawn from the get-go from the whole subzone instead of the surrounding of the Arch Spines, it is much harder to plant traps to protect the routes and since the enemies surround the Operators much more easily it becomes really difficult to carry the Nucleus. And enemies keep spawning as usual even AFTER destroying all 3 Arch Spines, when they could have simply stopped spawning, requiring the Operators to destroy the remaining Archeans, or at least have slowed down the frequency of enemy spawning. Needless to say that the Studies become brutally difficult to complete becausse of these issues I mentioned. In the end, Studies or not, the best I and my teammates (some were game friends) could feel was relief, which is a low bar of accomplishment. "Eclipse" Event was far better than this whole thing, a perfect balance between challenging and frustration!
To those who can say "Ah, just play with friends instead with randoms", first, these friends are not always available. If I need (skilled) friends to make a challenge doable, then it sucks. This reminded me of that infamous "Rapid Fire Review" from AngryJoeShow, where, while Alex made mostly very disproportional and even inaccurate criticism to Rainbow Six Extraction, he said a particular quote that perfectly applies to "After Effect" Event, beginning 6:20: "cleaning out a septic tank could be fun with friends but doesn't mean we give credit to septic tanks for being fun".

No new content. Just a repeat from last year. Ubisoft is a complete failure of a gaming company.

Given the current events of Ukraine, please consider replacing Russian operators Finka, Tachanka and Fuze. Give consideration to making one of the replacements coming from the Ukrainian Special Operation Force. There should be a member from their special forces just because it has a cool emblem 🙂

I must say the lack of new content is greatly disappointing, because this is not what we wanted. Some of us wanted to be able to play Crisis events, assignments, and or maelstrom protocol solo. A lot of us wanted to see new content and gear. Instead we get a repeat of last time with no new gear or any of the changes we asked for.
The problem with Rainbow Six Siege is while they do have solo missions, you can't choose your own operator except in the one where you work in a group, which is not something all of us want or, for those of us who are poor, can't do. I like a lot of the operators they have, but generally speaking they are hard to get if you don't have much money. This is where Rainbow Six Extraction out performs Rainbow Six Siege, but without new content this game and making meaningful updates to the game is not going to do well.
More than anything, a lot of us want new operators and gear. I hope the developers add new content to this game. Also please don't give up on this game. Some of us do prefer Extraction over siege because we can perform more activities on my own without a group and for the most part we have gotten better content from this one.

I will include a video of it happening in SAS station

Nearly every game has done this since the 90's.

Can we autoskip intro videos? I don't understand why we need to hold space bar to skip the intro we've seen a hundred times. Especially true when we reach level 10. There is no value and it only delays the time it takes for us to get into a game.

Make it an option in settings if you need to.

Send me message here and add me in the game if you want to play.

it's been a while since we got any news and just re-having the same events seems extremely strange we are now less than 3days before the current maelstrom gear expires and when writing this the official account didn't post any teaser like they usually do 3 day before the next event.

can we consider this game on life support?