Rainbow Six Siege

By: Robert Murphy

An enemy group is hold up tight in a securely fortified room, but then the door gets ripped down and out go the flashbangs and systematically your enemies get dropped one by one and your team stands over them victorious. That's how a good match goes anyways but this is the extremely invigorating feeling that comes from playing Rainbow Six Siege. The reboot to the long standing Rainbow Six franchise now pits players against an unknown terrorist threat that has every nation in the world coming together in order to combat them. The world's top agents are at your fingers tips, all you have to do is put them to work.

Siege is no joke when it comes to gameplay as it puts players into environments meant to make you aware of anything and everything that could possibly happen to them because it most likely will. Outside of the regular attack and defense style objectives, teams of five must attempt to keep every shred of themselves intact as they maneuver through various scenarios. If you think you are safe in a certain spot then you're dead wrong; walls, windows, floors, rooftops, it can all be taken down in an instant with any number of the gadgets players have at their disposal. This is all the thrill however as it is just as invigorating to destroy as it is to try and hunker down with a group and stop yourself from becoming a red blood smear on the side of the wall. It is an indescribable rush and one that I haven't felt from a shooter in so long since so many modern shooters are going the fast paced route, Siege wants you to go slow, to think tactically and strike hard.

What adds to this tactical way of playing is the attention to detail surrounding the games audio tracks, and no I don't mean some epic level song, I'm talking about the sounds of the players. Every level features some sort of scenario or interesting aspect to it but what players will be paying most attention to is those footsteps made by an enemy climbing up the staircase or the sound of glass shattering from an unknown window. Paying close attention to these details can lead players through a successful match or spell their certain demise. 

The chaos though comes from the variety of "Operators" that Siege has brought together from around the world in these matches of attack and defense. There are twenty characters in total and each of them brings their own unique skills to the table for the variety of game modes and they're even divided into the categories they would best serve players in such as Doc for defense and Sledge for attack. Digging further into these two characters and why they're suited for these tasks; Doc carries a handy revive gun that launches needles into your fallen allies which is a handy tool in a game where life can be taken away so easily and Sledge makes for an excellent offense operator with his sledgehammer that can be used to knock down any wall that isn't specially barricaded. The list goes on just like this and each operator is uniquely fun to play as with all their little gadgets to test out, the only problem being getting to your favorite operator before someone else picks them first. 

The maps you will be treading across are just as diverse as the characters that will be running through them, Oregon is a personal favorite of mine where you travel through a half constructed group of apartment buildings that looks like a drug den. But, the missions themselves do lack a bit of diversity to them, like when it comes to attacker missions that boil down to finding a certain objective and either retrieving or destroying it. The defender missions do shake things up a bit by causing pure paranoia as you defend against all avenues of danger but even still you're just playing the same game mode from a different perspective. And then the solution doesn't always wind down to whoever complete the objective but rather whoever eliminated who first. 

The fan favorite Terrorist Hunt mode however proves to bring back the true nostalgia players out there who remember taking down a series of AI controlled enemies throughout a map without them eliminating you first. While the game mode is definitely a welcomed blast from the past the difficulty settings could do with some altering considering Normal mode can almost be completely all by yourself. The AI won't take advantage of the features that make Siege the exceptional shooter that it is so players will need to bump it up a notch to Hard mode for a more satisfying challenge and then of course Realistic mode proves to be just what you would expect, one bullet and you're ready to drop.

As for the rest of the game, there isn't much to say when it comes to the single player element and that's not a bad thing considering it was never the main focus for it to begin with. The ten single player training missions serves as a way to ingratiate players into the various game types, tools and challenges that they will end up facing throughout their collective game play experience. The challenges are relatively quick and painless to get through and doing all of them earns you a fair amount of Renown, the in-game currency that unlocks weapons, characters, skins and more. There is also a hidden eleventh mission that puts all your skills into action but it's underline message to the audience will leave fans second guessing the lack of an interesting single player story or a cooperative one for that matter. 

Despite these minor few short comings, Rainbow Six Siege is the type of shooter that I have been missing for years now. The raw game play is simply fantastic as it blends realistic or as realistic as you would want it to be without you pulling out your hair or throwing your controller across the room. The shear chaos of destructible environments; shooting through walls, up through floor boards, thermiting through barricades, it's all a mixture for success as it couples with the tactical game play elements of stealthily moving through a level trying to take out enemies without awakening a hornets nest. In the end, what more could you really ask for?

Good:

- Paranoia inducing and chaotic gameplay action

- Massive amount of destructible environments

- Variety of Operators and their toys

- Beautiful maps

Bad:

- A single player element that hints that there could have been much more here

- Diversity in the game modes

Scully Rating: 9.0 out of 10