Many lament the loss of Patriots, Ubisoft’s dark controversial installment in the long running Rainbow Six franchise. Leaked concept footage and a CG trailer shown at the 2011 VGA’s were all that was shown, yet it’d been enough to surprise when Siege was demoed at E3 2014 instead of Patriots. Unable to maintain a worthwhile vision for the game, it was announced that Patriots was scrapped, and replaced with Ubisoft’s multiplayer focused tactical shooter.
Watching Ubisoft over the last five years, the disappointment with Patriots has evolved into doubt. Following Watch Dogs, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, and Far Cry 4; Ubisoft has obtained a record of pseudo-controversy. The appearance of tackling harsh real world problems, only to back out just before it enters the territory of discomfort. Ubisoft’s creativity has clashed with its conservative business of yearly Assassin’s Creed games, lazy ports on every platform, and distrust of their on consumers
______________________________
“While it may not feature a planning phase, squad commands, or mission briefings; Siege is much closer to its earlier entries rather than the blockbuster setting and mechanics of Rainbow Six: Vegas.”
What’s unique about Rainbow Six: Siege, is that it’s the first big budget Ubisoft game in a while to not sell itself on controversy or vaguely interesting concepts; it sells itself on gameplay. While it may not feature a planning phase, squad commands, or mission briefings; Siege is much closer to its earlier entries rather than the blockbuster setting and mechanics of Rainbow Six: Vegas. There is no cover system, regenerating health is out of the picture, and player counts have been dropped in favor of classic squad vs squad gameplay.
Rainbow Six: Siege isn’t a retro shooter, and it’s not following modern trends; it’s all about making a small scale infiltration boil your blood. Just as with the Rainbow Six games of Redstorm’s development, Siege presents violence as sudden, brief, and ferocious, not an indulgence in fantasy.
Neither the graphics, nor sound are top notch, neither is the weapon handling, hit detection, or even balance (which I will discuss); Siege’s greatest achievement from the multiple hours I’ve played during this “Closed” Beta, is turning a five minute round into an adrenaline fueled roller coaster. Whether you blitz the enemy with a perfectly timed breach, or are peaking around corners with the eyes of your fallen allies depending on your victory; there is always so much that can go wrong, and so much satisfaction when it doesn’t. But that’s my melodrama talking, now it’s time to discuss objectively.
Based the four maps I’ve played in both the Alpha and Beta of this game, Siege has a unique verticality that is not seen in other shooters. Each map has multiple floors, featuring a plethora of ways to invade, and there’s always just a few more entrances than defenders on the team. Previous games often gave attackers the disadvantage, that is what formed the basis for single-player in the original; yet in Siege, it has been flipped for one reason.
I’ve seen people defend shields on forums, and I understand why; Tom Clancy titles are supposed to have an authenticity due to Red Storm’s founders. That realism has become increasingly… absent over the years, but Siege holds back on some of the more questionable devices seen in Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell.
______________________________
“This design is consistent, but when it comes to firefights, no matter which weapon you’re using, you always have a chance to take down your opponent… excluding the shield.”
Shields are often employed in the real world of SWAT invasions, but the issue with shields in this game isn’t about authenticity, it’s about keeping the game’s intensity. Siege is very much based on a rock, paper, scissors approach in terms of abilities.
Defenders can reinforce walls so that regular explosives can’t destroy them, but Thermite can use special detonators to counter these. Characters can place C4, but Twitch can scout out electronics with her shock drone and destroy them. Enemy players can be downed by gunfire, but Doc can revive them. This design is consistent, but when it comes to firefights, no matter which weapon you’re using, you always have a chance to take down your opponent… excluding the shield.
At all ranges of combat, the shield excels. In every battle, a shield can survive unless flanked or caught directly in a Nitro Cell blast. During intense 1v1 battles between attackers and defenders, nine times out of ten, a shield user will win. The shield in Rainbow Six: Siege is not in the same category of overpowered as Call of Duty 4’s M16, or World at War’s MP40, or… fuck it, MW2’s Danger Close grenade launcher, Javelin glitch, one man army tubes, and akimbo 1887’s.
It doesn’t break the game as the defenders on forums will tell you, but it hurts the game. When you’re caught in a small room with a shield in front of you, nothing can be done. No matter what weapon, operator, or skill level, you will only survive when contesting against the most brain-dead of shield users. The disproportionate skill level between a shield user, and a non-shield user to be victorious is off the charts, and it results in the logical assumption that if you want to win as the attackers, there is no reason not to use the shield, it’s a moving wall with a gun. Whether or not this error will be corrected in the game’s release will only be told with time, but I’m hoping that Ubisoft do, because apart from shields, spotty hit-detection, and Ubisoft’s laughable mess of a Closed Beta, Siege has converted me.
As someone who doubted its amount of content, depth of gameplay, and intensity of matches, spending the last few days with a full team of friends on this game has been a blast, and no matter how frustrating it sometimes gets, I always come back for more. Siege is a game that I cannot recommend to solo players, as playing with disorganized teams is far too demoralizing. I can’t necessarily recommend it to old school Rainbow Six fans, or Vegas fans. But if you are looking for a squad based game to replace your hours spent on Counter Strike, keep an eye on Siege.
