Rainbow Six Siege: The Most Innovative FPS of The Last 10 Years

Have you ever played a shooter where your heart’s racing ten to a dozen, palms are sweating and you’re in a total panic with how to adapt your character to the situation? We all remember our first online experience with Call of Duty Modern Warfare or Battlefield Bad Company; feeling the reward from kills and kill streaks alike, but nothing has given me such gratification as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. In the last ten years of first person shooters experience, this is literally like nothing I have ever played before. 

Preface 

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege offers five Counter-Terrorist Units from different nationalities across the world, with each CTU featuring four Operators, two attackers and two defenders. Only one may be chosen per round, and cannot be changed until the round is over. Each Operator features a selection of different weapons, abilities, and equipment, all of which are limited and must be used wisely. 

Immersion 

Everyone likes a gripping story; at some point playing Tomb Raider you’ve held onto to your pants as Lara scales a 100-foot cliff face with just her fingertips. Yet, as exciting as this can be, nothing compares to R6 Siege. Picking an operator, each with an individual role, makes your skillset vital. As a defensive operator Rook supplies the rest of the team with an armour pack. Thermite, an attacker, has exothermic charges that can breach reinforced walls. You must not die before you have breached that wall, otherwise you’re really no use to your team, and they’ll have to go about it the long way. No FPS has ever made me feel that my role is so vital for victory. This ensures that each round you go into you’re at full attention as you only get one shot, no respawns. This envelops you into concentration like no other; every corner and every shot matters, each round is your time to shine.  

Reward 

The Call of Duty titles are known for their kill streak rewards. Yes, it was extremely satisfying when you could end-game after a 25 kill streak on MW2 with a nuke - you were the MVP without a doubt - however, this is where R6 Siege differs. With only 5 kills/deaths per round, every shot counts.  

Similar to Call of Duty’s search and destroy mode, you kill the team one by one giving you the advantage and making placing that defuser a hell of a lot easier, or on the flipside, making defence easier as the opposing team’s numbers dwindle. This is the reward within Siege, using tactics and playing smart to win out is absolutely satisfying. With your heart in your mouth each round there’s no doubt that when all your team mates have died, leaving with you in a 1v5 situation, snatching victory from the jaws of defeat feels incredible. It’s a very unnerving situation to be in, but when you pull it off flawlessly there’s no doubt that you feel like King Kong. 

Destruction 

Destruction is always cool in a shooter, undoubtedly it’s great when you blow enemies out of a tower in Battlefield 3 with a tank, and it helps create a living, breathing experience. Yet, no tactical shooter has ever really focused on the type of destruction that leads to an advantage for the player beyond pure aesthetic carnage, until now. There are significant benefits of this in Siege, hence the title. The objective: locked down in a reinforced room. Attackers: it’s your job to get to it, by whatever means necessary. The almost fully destructible environment, combined with the ability to sledgehammer through a wall, rappel through windows or use drones to scout out the way adds a whole new human dynamic, meaning that tactics can outwit firepower.  

Team Play 

Sure, it’s fun to play with friends, but I feel unlike other games where communication ends up being perfunctory, it becomes absolutely essential and core to the R6 Siege experience. Mostly I play in a 5-man team where each team mate takes their specific role, and so communication helps towards success in so many ways: call outs if your team-mate has been cropped up by a Kapkan trap, or if Thatcher is needed before Thermite can breach a reinforced wall. This game puts friends and strangers alike into a team and forces them to work together in order to win, there’s no one-man-armies or heroes, the only way to prevail in this game is teamwork, and that’s definitely something that’s different and unique.  

Replay Value 

Siege ensures every game is different. No matter what map you spawn on or character you choose, there is always a variable to each objective played meaning that no round is ever the same. There are three game modes: Secure Area, Hostage and Bomb. Although it seems there are only a few options, these modes never grow tiresome. The destructibility of maps opens up many different ways you can obtain each objective. The enemy will never be in that same old camping spot, and attacking or defending any objective can never really be the same each time around. 

Overall, R6 Siege is an innovative shooter which has broken the conventional FPS rhythm, allowing for a blood pumping, close quarters team based experience. 300+ hours served and I am still not bored of this one. If you’re looking for a new tactical FPS experience then go grab a copy of the game today, I promise you won’t be disappointed!

If you want a better look at the game check out our video filled with Best Bits, Clutches and Aces! 

Nick Barlow / @nickybarlow