“Rainbow Six Siege is a triumphant return for the series.”
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is a new take on the classic squad-based, highly tactical shooter series from Ubisoft. You are part of a squad made up of the world’s best special-ops soldiers. A new, borderless threat has emerged, prompting the re-formation of this unit, and your task is to engage and neutralise this threat. This is the main premise of the game’s story, but as ever there are a number of different ways to play, from the classic Terrorist Hunt mode to various head-to-head multiplayer missions. Here is what I thought of it.
The game is set out into three main sections; Multiplayer, Terrorist Hunt and Situations. These are played across a variety of ten maps using twenty specialist Operators, each with their own unique abilities and roles in the team. The Operators themselves play a big role in the game and how you play it. These are set out into Attackers and Defenders, and naturally which one you use depends on which side of a match you are on. Choosing an Operator that suits your play style is important, and understanding how they will fit into a team alongside the others is perhaps just as key to winning a match. Fortunately, with such a variety to choose from it is not hard to find someone who suits your needs.
Every operator has been carefully put together using input from real-life professionals, meaning that the way that they behave is informed and realistic. This comes across in the carefully constructed gameplay of Siege as well. Everything from the way that characters move, communicate and hold themselves to the mechanics of aiming, shooting and reacting to the goings on around them appears spot on and heavily supports the immersion of the game. Alongside the realistic damage to the environment and the effects that the destruction has on the map as a whole means that when you play the game, you feel like you are there. It seems like the developers thought of everything when it came down to creating a realistic spec-ops experience.
To prepare you for the action you will experience in the field, you can play through the game’s story-based Situations, which are essentially tutorials and challenges to help you learn the ropes and the more complex elements of the game. Modelled around real-life training scenarios with attention paid to what you are training for, Siege gives its tutorial missions purpose and context. Whilst the story is not one of incredible depth, it applies background to the rest of the game which is important in keeping the player interested and focussed. Whilst it is not the best written story of the year then, it serves its purpose well.
Situations are certainly not the main draw of the game, which falls to the other two game modes. Taking multiplayer into consideration first, there are three variants to be played here; Secure Area, Bomb and Hostage. The first two of these are quite similar, involving one team attempting to capture or destroy a target location whilst the opposing team defends it. There is certainly an even chance for both teams winning the game, and it largely comes down to who has the best squad dynamic as to who becomes the victor. Hostage is a little more technical, with one team trying to keep hold of a hostage whilst the other team attempts to rescue them. Neither team can afford for the hostage to die, which changes up the nature of play drastically. Whilst the objective side of Secure Area and Bomb can largely be ignored in favour of wiping out the enemy team, doing this is a much more precise objective to achieve in Hostage mode due to the potential collateral. This makes Hostage arguably the most interesting game variant of the three.
The main problem with Multiplayer in Rainbow Six Siege is that many players do not communicate. If your team will not talk to you and the other team are chatting away, you are at a very distinct disadvantage in planning your attack or defence strategy. Unfortunately this is not a side of the game that the developers can help, and it is largely down to the players to make the experience what it was intended to be in this way. What the developers can fix however is the ongoing server issues the game is facing, with difficulties getting into matches still being an issue for some even after this being identified as a key issue during the beta period.
Terrorist Hunt is the final way to play Siege, and it is a far greater tactical experience than it has ever been before. The premise of this mode is to clear out a predetermined number of enemies on the map before they can take out you and your squad. This is not as simple as camping and shooting however, with some enemies being suicide bombers who will rush to take out the unsuspecting shooter. Others carry shields or move as groups, meaning the challenge is persistent and difficult. On top of these known details, there are other elements which come into play. Terrorist Hunt takes on board the multiplayer game mode variants and utilises them to create fuller experiences. This mode also utilises the different maps and time of day to create a great number of variable for your squad to consider before going in. The way the enemy fortifies itself and behaves also varies, and the different difficulty settings which go up as far as “Realistic” ensure that you can always find yourself a challenge. In short, Terrorist Hunt has been perfected for Siege, and is certainly a prime example of why this is a shooter worth owning.
Rainbow Six Siege is a triumphant return for the series. It has a wealth of gameplay experiences to offer, with dynamics in a shooter that have never been seen before. Gameplay is awe inspiring, and both the audio and visual factors of the game have been designed down to a tee. The developers have given it their all to make an all-round superb tactical shooter experience. There is room for perfecting some elements however. The multiplayer game mode objectives are easily ignored in favour of a shoot out. There is also little to encourage players to communicate other than the implication it will help, which might help push the multiplayer experience along. Most of all, the persisting server issues still need some work to encourage gamers that the game is not only great to play, but ready for them to do so. Fix these elements of the game, and you are looking at one of the best squad-based shooters on the market.
The Good:
- 20 informed, uniquely-built and perfected Operators to choose from.
- A solid variety of 10 different maps to play across, both at day and night.
- Immersive realism in operators, maps, effects and gameplay mechanics.
- Situations built around back story help teach you the ropes and more technical elements of the game well.
- Multiplayer is a highly tactical and ever changing experience across all three of its game modes.
- The Hostage multiplayer variant creates a unique tactical shooter challenge.
- Terrorist Hunt has been perfected for this Rainbow Six game with every aspect of the game mode having been considered and carefully built.
The Bad:
- It is easy to ignore multiplayer objectives in favour of shooting the other team.
- Many gamers playing the multiplayer side of the game do not communicate, leaving others at a disadvantage and lessening the immersion.
- Some persisting server issues are losing some would-be players of Siege.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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