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While previous Rainbow Six games have been geared towards single player or cooperatively fought missions against terrorist AI, Ubisoft are taking the franchise in a brave new direction with a main focus on 5v5 competitive multiplayer. In Rainbow Six Siege you take the role of one of 10 operators, each with a different weapon load out and, more importantly, come armed with some unique special kit for some diverse play styles. The premise is that teams take turns attacking and defending a map objective until an overall winner is decided. Defender operators are equipped with a multitude of defensive gadgets ranging from barricades, barbed wire to a stationary heavy machine gun and entry denial equipment. The attackers are packing remote control drones, flash bangs, breaching charges, cluster grenades and riot shields. Written down it sounds decidedly unfair – however it’s not. The experience is extremely well balanced …as long as you play as a team.

The trick here is complimenting your teammates and offering good communication. Good teamwork is not only watching your mates back, it’s combining operator skills. An example is one player taking the role of “Thatcher” and the other as “Thermite”. Thermite, as the name may suggest, can deploy a powerful breaching charge that can make a hole in even the biggest reinforced wall. The issue is that an enemy player, such as “Blitz” or “Mute”, can deploy a countermeasure to electrify a metal reinforced wall or jam a trigger signal to prevent entry with Thermites explosive device. Along comes Mr. Thatcher who, with one swift EMP grenade, can destroy these devices on the opposite side of the wall. This is then followed by:

*Click* *Boom* *Surprised Faces* *Dead Faces* (hopefully).

Mute’s Jammer beats Thermite breaching charge. Thatcher’s EMP beats Jammer. Rock, paper, scissors. Once you understand what each operator can do and how best to utilise them, then you’re thinking the Siege way. Worried about the approaching heroes coming through a boarded up window to rescue the hostage? The character of “Castle” can deploy a reinforced barrier. It’s this back and forth that clearly has been thought greatly about to create balance. Some operators can run faster, but have lighter armour. On the other hand some are quite literally tanks with large shields but have only a pistol which can only be used when the shield is lowered. Tit-for-tat-tactics and I love it.

It’s also incredibly tactical with regards to it’s toughness. If you approach it like any other yearly mega FPS title (we’ll call it “Advanced-General-Master-Shooter-Of-War 12”) you won’t get very far and become frustrated quickly. No respawns, lots of camping, 1-shot-1-kill with a lot of the weapons – certainly when you take a bullet to the head. Going in full-auto guns blazing may only get you so far (about three feet from the building front door sometimes) so another essential thing is planning. Use a drone to scout ahead, then take out security cameras so the enemy can’t see you coming. Sound then also plays a big part in the game as you can hear the enemy running or clunking around. If they are on the floor above you, little bits of dust fall from the ceiling. You can hear ziplines whizzing at the windows and even the iron clunk or Fuze’s mini-grenade device breaking a window and sticking to the wooden barricade. Things get very atmospheric as you’re hunkered down with the hostage wondering where the attackers are going to come in from.

Multiplayer is spread across three game modes:

• Bomb which sees you planting/preventing a defuser.
• Hostage which must be rescued/protected, and
• Secure Area which is an area that must be ..er.. “occupied” for a certain amount of time.

Each match takes place in one of 10 maps (the 11th is reserved for the AI game mode) which are drastically different in size and layout. The SAS training building at Hereford Base is tight and quite symmetrical, the Presidential Plane is linear or the glitzy Los Angeles set Bank is very large. These can then change from day to night and will include an objective that is constantly changing locations, e.g. one round the bomb is in the top floor bedroom, the next it’s in a corner of the basement. This variety makes for some constant plotting as to the best place to enter the building, while as the defender the best place to protect it from – or try and catch an unaware attacker trying to sneak in. As well as intricate maps featuring narrow corridors and multiple entry points, the game allows for further tactical movement be making it possible to destroy walls and trap doors. Breaching from a wall rather than a window or door really does add to the surprise and “Wow factor” of the game – not to mention adding some already palpable tension. Using verticality is also a great ability as making holes in the floor above an enemy is a big tactical vantage.

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Don’t wish to embroil yourself in competitive PvP gameplay? Rainbow Six Siege features a number of single player “Situations” to conquer. These act like a tutorial for many of the operators and train in the basic and some tactics. In addition you can venture out lone wolf or team up with online folks to conduct some classic AI terrorist hunt.

Playing each type of mode awards you in-game “Renown” credits that can be used to purchase locked operators, weapon gadgets (scopes and silencers for example) and, if you wish, cosmetic gun skins. You also have the ability to purchase (with real world money and only if you wish) credit packs to buy XP boosts and also exclusive weapon skins. These, be rest assured, are purely for show and do not impact the gameplay. The game also bolsters over 30 different weapons of varying caliber and spec, however each operator is locked to only 2-3 – which again makes choice an important factor (such as a shotgun may not be effective when navigating the long halls of the bank, but ideal for wall/bad guy penetration in the narrow close quarters of the house).

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Rainbow Six does warrant a gripe and it isn’t great. The good news is that it’s not caused by any of the in-game playable mechanics. The gripe is of a technical nature: infrastructure bugs. Finding a stable match can be tough at times. Even after an amount of time post launch on Xbox One trying to get into a game was difficult. On PC it was a little better, but not perfect. The game has no server browser to speak of so it’s all about the connection with Ubisoft’s big multiplayer hubs. Too often you’d crash out, get stuck in a “smoke” screen or disconnect during the match. Getting 10 people together and wishing everyone stays when you’ve connected shouldn’t be a thing, but it is. Constant patches and updates from the developers do help, and I’m happy to say that we are getting to a place where problems are less apparent. Despite this I remain positive and feel if the development and fan love for the game continues, Rainbow Six Siege will be the start of a great new FPS franchise.

Overall a tough and fresh approach to multiplayer gaming. Taking elements of the old franchise, adding some great new creative game mechanics whilst maintaining strong team balance. Marred only by some desperate need for behind the scenes tinkering, Rainbow Six Siege was otherwise a hit on target for me.

Go A-Squad.

Rainbow Six Siege is out now on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.

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