Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is the latest outing in a long line of solid tactical first person shooters that fall under the Tom Clancy brand. As a 5 vs 5 team tactical shooter, I didn’t go into Rainbow Six Siege thinking there would be a single player portion of the game unlike other FPS games. So I was pleasantly surprised that there was a section to the game called Situations where you get to hone your skills in 10 single player missions. Whilst these aren’t exactly story driven missions that sweep you away in their epic scale – the are there for training and challenges – it certainly feels like a more solid single player option that a recent FPS game offered.

Bit Rainbow Six Siege is all about online, and this is where the game shines. After completing the first single player Situation, the first online mode (casual) is unlocked. At level 20 you unlock ranked play, if that’s your thing.

The game is pretty simple. You play 3 – 5 rounds at the same location, alternating between attackers and defenders. Your job is to find or protect either a hostage or a bomb.. Pay attention to the loading screen so you know what type of mission, because if it’s a hostage rescue you don’t want to be throwing frag grenades around. If you have to ask why, you’re playing the wrong game.

When you first start the game you’ll be playing a recruit, but as you unlock renown (the games currency) you can unlock different operators, and equipment. Each operator comes with a unique set of skills, and fall into two categories, defender or attacker.

Defenders have to, well, defend. This means they come with equipment to reinforce walls and entry points, set traps and basically make the attackers job hard. Defenders also have an option of a dedicated medic. The attackers have options for breaking through defenses, and evening bringing bullet proof shields (as their primary weapon). The hard part is choosing your operator as you don’t know the make up of the enemy team is going to be, so your counter measures might be useless.

The big thing with Rainbow Six Siege is that there is no health regeneration. You can’t run and hide till your health goes back to 100%. If you’re really unlucky you’ll be the first on your team to die, and you literally won’t know what hit you (until the kill cam kicks in). This is a standard feature with the Rainbow Six games, and as such, you tend not to get dickheads who wanna just run around shooting everything. Because once you’re dead, you’re dead. No re-spawning.

This is good because it makes you want to play as a team, it makes you play more cautiously, and it ramps up the tension like no other FPS game ever could. The nature of 5 man teams in small urban environments is that even if you die first, it’s not long till the next round.

Despite sounding like a game that punishes you (c’mon, no respawns!) Rainbow Six Siege is a fun and addictive game. It’s one where you must have a mic to communicate with, as team work is essential to winning.

Rainbow Six Siege does have a few shortfalls however. The servers can be a bit iffy, and getting on them for your frist game can be a bit of a frustrating experience. Once you get into the game, and have unlocked a fair bit of stuff, you’ll realise that there isn’t a lot more to unlock. Hopefully UbiSoft release regular free content over the next 12 months to keep the game fresh.

Despite these minor gripes, Rainbow Six Siege is a fun and relentless game, and in my opinion is the best First Person Shooter of 2015.

Reviewed on: XBox One

Rating: R16 Violence and offensive language.

Reviewed by: Jonathan

GAMEGUIDE rating:

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