Rainbow Six Siege Review

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Review

 

If you have ever wondered what it must be like to be part of an elite counter terrorist unit like the SAS or GSG9 then wonder no more, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege brings the heart pounding adrenaline pumping experience right into your Living Room. From the second you “go loud” with your explosive entry until the last terrorist hits the floor, or the hostages are rescued and secure, your heart will be in your mouth and your head will be on a swivel.

Rainbow Six Siege takes the player into the pressure cooker world of counter terrorism, operate as one of the world’s tier one units from the UK, USA, Germany, France or Russia. Hunt for terrorists, disarm ‘Dirty Bombs’ rescue or protect hostages, all while trying to stay alive. From the world famous ‘Killing House’ at Hereford to a hijacked Jet at Heathrow, warehouses, Embassy’s even a Bank Vault, all offering a unique set of challenges for the player to overcome. Elevated ambush points, reinforced walls, barricaded doors and windows and more choke points than you can shake a stick at, all build to the realism of this game.

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege gives the player a host of weapons and specialist equipment like variety of breaching charges for the attackers, and motion detectors and active defence system for the defenders. Combine this with stunning graphics and phenomenal sound effects and you have the most realistic and unforgiving game on the market, the only thing missing from the real thing is the smell of cordite and plaster dust in the air.

My only criticism of Rainbow Six Siege is the unreliability of the servers, actually they are not unreliable, they are appalling; from the launch there is not a single session where I have not had connection problems. Not only does the server connection fail, but it also disconnects the party chat. While this was acceptable on the closed and the open beta, it is not fair for it to still be continuing when the gamers have paid in excess of £40.00 for the game. It can take over an hour to get a connection which as a gamer you will understand is frustrating to say the least, and ruins what is a near perfect game experience.

The Menu system on Rainbow Six Siege is simple to understand and easy to navigate, and has a multitude of customisable options for your weapons and loadouts. Sound and Video are also easy to navigate and adjust from the Menu system, all helping you set up the game and Operators exactly as you want them to be.

The controls are smooth and easy to get to grips with; sensitivity can be adjusted to accommodate your own preferences and style of play. Make sure you are comfortable with slow movement and check that fast moving for aiming and such meets your needs, you will need to do both during your game play.

Rainbow Six Siege has a totally immersive feel that sucks you right into the centre of the game, you feel every heart pounding moment of the experience, many times I have caught myself holding my breath just before the attack launches. Then there is the gut wrenching moments as you hear the enemy moving through the building you are defending, followed by the adrenalin pumping 30 – 40 seconds as they enter the room to kill the hostage you are defending.

I was once told that counter terrorist operations were hours of boredom followed by seconds of sheer terror, Rainbow Six Siege has managed to encapsulate all of that experience into the game.

The graphics in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege can only be described as amazing; they are not the stunningly beautiful environment of Far Cry 4, however the environments are expertly constructed and textured to perfection. From the opulent Embassy’s to the functional Hereford Killing House, or the seedy Bikers Bar to the classic Boeing 747 everything looks exactly right. Bare plasterboard walls which can be breached are easily identifiable, and reinforcement on walls is a tell-tale sign the room has been fortified, and is well worth an investigation, all adding to the authenticity of the environment.

“The only thing missing from the real thing is the smell of cordite and plaster dust in the air”

Lighting is excellently thought out in Rainbow Six Siege making it difficult to see enemies lurking in the shadows waiting to ambush you, and shadows thrown by enemy are a good way of receiving early warning of an enemy’s movement, or an impending attack.

One feature that I must highlight is when your character takes damage, as your health drops the colour drains from the image. This is not noticeable at first but as the health drops below 15 percent you suddenly realise you are viewing in black and white, this is accompanied by the sound becoming more muffled, although the sound clears after a few seconds the image does not return to colour.

Rainbow Six Siege is not for the faint hearted or the squeamish, and the blood spatters from downed enemies although not quite perfect in colour, is very graphic on the environment which all adds to the atmosphere and realism of the game. Even the way the enemy go down when they are hit by an explosion or by a burst from your assault rifle is excellent, the bullet impact will throw them off there feet if you hit the torso, they will buckle if you hit them in the legs and a headshot will see them drop like liquid, which is exactly what I would expect to see. There has been a massive amount of work gone into making this game look and feel right, and it works to perfection.

It can be a distinct advantage in the real world to know what weapon is being fired at you, is it a handgun, assault rifle, heavy machine gun or a shotgun it may just be the difference between life and death. Video games seldom get it right, until now, Rainbow Six Siege has got it spot on to the point that different weapons in the same category have different sounds, for example the G36C sounds different from the AK-12 yet both are assault rifles.

When a real weapon is fired inside a building there is a slight metallic ring after the bang is heard, Rainbow Six Siege has managed to capture this sound to near perfection. Even a dropped magazine will be heard hitting the floor, and you can hear the weapon being re-cocked, all helping you time your attack and overpowering the enemy. Equip your weapon with a silencer and anyone who has ever fired a suppressed weapon will be instantly reliving that memory.

The sound in Rainbow Six Siege is directional, you can hear the enemy’s voices or hear the footsteps of people running, you have a very good idea what direction it is coming from and as you become more familiar with the maps, you can even tell which rooms they are in or attacking from, which all adds to the realism of the game.

As you are stealthily moving through buildings searching for the enemy, be mindful of your surroundings, explosive booby-traps emit a sound, and moving through barbed wire will give off a rustling sound so check your route and be careful not to bump into things as you don’t want to alert the enemy of your presence.

“You feel every heart pounding moment of the experience”

Although there is no campaign in Rainbow Six Siege, there is something for everyone no matter how you like to play. From the single player Situations to the unforgiving Multiplayer, everyone will find a game mode that they like.

There are 2 attack and 2 defence Operatives from 5 of the world’s elite anti-terrorist units to choose from; the British SAS, the American SWAT, the German GSG9, the Russian Spetsnaz and the French GIGN. Each operator needs to be unlocked and their equipment needs to be upgraded individually, each operator has a specialist weapon or equipment which will assist the team.

The team consists of up to 5 Operators and no 2 players can select the same Operator which means teamwork is essential in Rainbow Six Siege; it is also very beneficial if the whole team are on a mic and talking to each other as is staying together as a team. If you get downed and you are separated from your team, your Operator will die and you will only be able to spectate for the rest of the game, although if there are still cameras or drones active, you can observe, spot and tag the enemy, so you may be down but not necessarily out.

The player has a choice of 3 types of game play, each of them unique yet remarkably similar; Situations, Terrorist Hunt and Multiplayer.

Situation:

This is a single player mode, which takes the player through 10 different Situations each one teaching a new technique and introducing us to a different Operator. Each situation is played on a different map and has 3 requirements to complete to score the maximum points.

Terrorist Hunt:

This can be played solo or with a squad of up to 5, the enemy are all AI and the maps and objectives are selected randomly by the system and you will find yourself as an attacker or defender, each map and objective has a different requirement, so be prepared to be adaptable.

Situation and Terrorist hunt have the option of being played on any one of 3 settings, Normal, Hard and Realistic. Although Normal in Rainbow Six Siege is more like hard on any other game, while hard is more like legendary and Realistic is as the name would suggest, take one round and you are down.

Multiplayer:

Multiplayer can be played as Ranked or Casual and is a 5 v 5 version of the previous 2 modes, there are no AI to contend with but you now have the human element, and the outcome of each match will be determined by the skill of the players involved.  In the multiplayer mode it is best if you can play with 4 friends all on mike as the team element of this mode is recommended for the win.