Rainbow Six Siege Preview

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While covering E3, I began to hear rumblings of a new Rainbow Six game. Rainbow Six: Patriots? I thought that game was cancelled. Then came the announcement trailer for Rainbow Six Siege. Destructible environments, endless ways to tackle an objective, nail biting co-op gameplay. While rubbing my hands together I could hear myself mumbling “very interesting” in my villain voice. Interesting indeed this was. Ubisoft later announced a beta for Rainbow Six would be released prior to launch. According to Ubisoft there would be no traditional “Campaign” in this game. This closed beta was released on September 24th and to gain access you had to preorder the game or sign up for closed beta access.

I love it when a plan comes together!

Two modes were released with this closed beta, TDM – Bomb which is PVP and Terrorist Hunt which is Co-op vs AI. Both of these modes are fun to play. However, when you have a team that communicates, they’re a blast. If you’ve watched the trailers and followed along with the news, you can guess that Rainbow Six is a game that plays incredibly well with friends and players that communicate. While you can “run and gun” on the easier difficulties in Terrorist hunt, “Realistic” mode and PVP require a bit more tactical play if you want to come out on top. In both these modes there is no respawn. Once you’re dead, you’re dead. In the event you get wounded you can be picked up by a teammate before bleeding out. There are three short tutorials to watch to get players up to speed on things like breaching, barricades and game modes. Watching these will provide “renown” points, which is the in game currency you use to unlock new operators, weapons and attachments.

In TDM – Bomb, one team is assigned to attack and disarm two bomb sites while the other is tasked with defending them. Attackers are given 1 minute of time to scout the enemy location with a driven ground drone and mark bomb sites and enemy player locations before the start of the match. Likewise defenders are given 1 minute to set up barricades and other defences such as C4 and razor wire to stop the enemy team. During this time the defenders also have the ability to spot and destroy the attackers’ drones limiting their ability to locate the bomb sites prior to the start of the match. With the destructive environments and various gadgets this mode can play out so many different ways. On one occasion I found 3 enemy players advancing through my barricaded doorway by breaking it down with a sledgehammer followed by throwing a flash bang then entering the room guns blazing to clear it. On another I found myself puzzled as to what caused the small hole that had just appeared in my barricaded window only to have my teammate yell, “Watch out cluster charge” as the room lit up with several bangs and turned white. While watching the killcam just after this incident I was able to see that just after the cluster charge had gone off, another enemy player had breached the wall behind me and decided to redecorate the room with my body using his semi-automatic shotgun.

This might be loud!

In Terrorist Hunt you will face up to 30 terrorists (depending on the difficulty level) in an already fortified location. You will also face some incredibly annoying suicide bombers, troves of razor wire and enemy placed C4. While you can lone wolf this mode, success is further ensured with team communication. You again have the ability to attack the fortified enemy location in a variety of ways, including breaching through doors and windows or rappelling up to the roof and then coming down through the ceiling. There are random resupply crates through the level to refill ammo.

While Rainbow Six is fun, it’s not without its problems. When first starting out you may have only unlocked one operator, if someone else in your squad picks that operator before you do, you will be forced to go with the generic “recruit”. Any attachments you have purchased for your weapons assigned to a particular operator will not be usable unless you play as that operator. You will be forced to use all stock options for every weapon with every class. There is also no current way to unlock operators or attachments between matches during matchmaking. If you’re playing with a squad and have accumulated enough “renown” points to purchase new operators or attachments, you will have to back all the way out to the main menu with everyone to do this. Some players have made a complaint for not being able to change the knife option from pushing in the right analog stick to another input option. Others have complained about the shields being overpowered. I personally do not think this is the case, it is more of a case that the pistol deals too much damage and you’re essentially just shooting over the shield in the enemy’s general direction, managing to wipe them out with a shot or two. There have been complaints that the Shotgun is too powerful but I personally don’t mind this. Shotguns are, and should be, powerful weapons, they should not be nerfed to the point where I have to practically barrel tap you to get a kill. I would like to see an addition of different ammo types in particular, such as slugs. During a few matches I was able to auto lock on an enemy through barricades and walls before that cover was even destroyed. I also think the time for defenders to set up before a match should be extended in some way. Ultimately with the time available it ends up coming down to only two or three rooms being defended.

All in all, the Rainbow Six Beta was some pretty solid fun. Due to the issues with matchmaking and code distribution the beta has been extended an additional 3 days until October 1st. In addition to some of the issues listed I always remind myself, this is a beta. There are going to be issues and for those involved in the beta it is our job, or to say in our best interest, to bring these issues to the attention of Ubisoft. I personally will be picking this up come December.