Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

As an online-shooter this is my dream come true: It rewards careful progress instead of a quick rush. Positioning is more important than reaction time and teamwork is a must. This is tactically challenging and straightforward action at its best.

Rainbow Six: Siege is a smart, truly unique action game.

The Rainbow Six Siege core experience lies in its destruction engine which dynamically modifies the world around you. The matches might take some time to take off as the game rewards patience and strategic thinking. A solid pick for FPS enthusiasts that crave something different than gun and run.

An excellent and innovative breath of fresh air. The more I play, the more I like. I hope this is new role model for shooters to come. [Jan 2016]

For me, the game does all the right things. It might not be the return of Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, and it might have more than a few bugs to iron out before it's competition ready, but it's exactly what I expected -- competitive SWAT 4 -- and Ubisoft keep saying the right things about their post-release plans. Only time will tell though.

The system does not feel oppressive, and Ubisoft clearly hopes that most gamers will spend actual currency at some point during their career, but for some fans, its very existence is a problem, given that they already have to pay full price for the core package.

A real tactical shooter at last. Rainbow Six: Siege offers great and hard multiplayer battles, but it needs more content.

Multiplayer is the key word for this game, because you will gain nothing from Siege if you are looking for a single player experience.

Unfortunately, there aren’t that many maps available, but each one of them has lots of details and alternate routes, like basements and balconies. Even the airplane is much more complex than the archetypical “long tube with seats.” [Issue#205, p.48]

It’s not that anything Siege does is particularly new—tactical play (Counter-Strike, Arma, et cetera) mixed with a bit of destruction physics (Battlefield, Red Faction). But by taking these two aspects and expanding them to a scope supported by current hardware, Ubisoft has created a compelling game that feels unique.

Tense and exciting team shooter easily covers there is nothing else except a pure multiplayer mode. To put it simple, there is no story, no campaign. But who cares, in Siege you wipe the terrorists out like never before!

Despite its departure from Rainbow Six’s story driven roots, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege provides the means for an array of new multiplayer focused features ranging from unique weapon modifications, to several new specialists.

Despite retailing as a full-price game, Siege contains microtransactions which can speed up the levelling process and unlock cosmetic items, which on top of the ‘season pass’ (for future DLC) feels more than a little mean. Counter-Strike GO looms large in the background of much of what Siege does, and that game supports a miniature economy of skins and other items – but also built a following for a dozen years over several entries before this. Ubisoft has actively harmed this game’s chances of success by pushing such stuff when what it should be focusing on is building a player base.

The gadgets and the fully destructible environments allow for a non-linear experience, giving the gamers a chance to plan their movements prior to rushing – often slowly - into combat. And although I found the multiplayer modes often finished in a flurry of bullets, the fact that teams benefit from working together is to be encouraged.

It might not have the gunplay that many shooter fans look for, but each time a wall is breached excitement galvanizes the senses, providing something unlike any other game on the market.

I give Rainbow Six: Siege a Hold on my Buy/Hold/Sell scale. It’s a great multiplayer game and well worth playing, but it certainly won’t hurt to wait a bit until the price comes down. Better still, if you wait you can go and buy two or three copies with friends and play it the way it’s meant to be played: As a team.

Everything from the strength of your internet connection to the makeup of your team can impact your enjoyment of Siege, but importantly, Siege itself does everything it can to ensure you're able to enjoy the game in spite of these variables.

Although the single-player side of the game is weak, Rainbow Six: Siege's multiplayer modes are a huge amount of fun. Tense, thoughtful, and tactical, they play very differently to most run-and-gun shooters. While the game's content does feel a little slim at launch, there's no denying it's highly enjoyable to play - especially when you have a team of players working together.

A brilliant online experience that is tense and strategic, but one that really needs to be played with friends to get the full experience.

Rainbow Six has enough assets to claim a spot in the tactical FPS Hierarchy with nice gameplay and the addition of a destroyable environment. It's not yet ready to shake off the leaders like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Rainbow Six Siege is far from offering unlimited entertainment because of its short numbers, but its collaborative gameplay mechanics and destructive environments are truly interesting.

My time with Siege leaves me feeling like this Rainbow Six revival is a skeleton with not a lot of meat on its bones.

With an approach full of tension and -more importantly- freshness, Rainbow Six Siege unveils itself as a great option for multiplayer action lovers. However, it needs a lot more content to compete in the same league as the "big ones".

Among the endless ocean of multiplayer twitch shooter games, it was about time we got a slow-paced, tactical FPS where team-work is everything. Well optimized, well balanced and the fact that future maps and operators aren't locked behind a pay-wall but will be accessible to all, make for great value. Here's hoping that Ubisoft will be fast enough to deploy a proper fix for its main aspect though, the netcode, before frustration kicks in.

A game that brings lots of new tactical options to the FPS genre but might not thrill the fans of the older Rainbow Six games with its faster pace.

Rainbow Six Siege delivers on its promise of tension, tactics and teamwork, but it might not be worth AU$70; there are bugs both big and small that need squashing, there's no server browser, and connection errors are too common. There's something else to consider, too: PC players have been abandoning multiplayer-only titles in record time this year.

I have a love-hate relationship with Rainbow Six: Siege. The game has some policemen shooting at each other and the famous Rainbow team is nowhere to be seen. There's no storyline (except one short but great mission) and the terrorists appear only during training. It's weird but still every dynamic encounter with the enemy provides tons of fun and satisfaction.

The biggest problem is its Rainbow Six Siege alarming shortage of initial content. Right now it looks more like a demo of itself.

Siege’s multiplayer mode with its hectic pace and unpredictability seems to have a huge e-sport potential but with random teammates is often unplayable. [01/2016, p.52]

Quotation forthcoming.

Rainbow Six: Siege is one of the better tactical FPS experiences of the year, even with a smaller content offering than most. Microtransactions and limited custom options can muddy it up, but if you enjoy the core gameplay loop, there’s a lot to enjoy here for the multiplayer-minded player.

The tactical demands Siege puts on players is unlike anything else on the console market today, and may prove enough for those seeking this flavor of first-person shooter. However, Siege doesn’t do enough to unite players who understand the importance of communication or provide variation in rest of the package.

Rainbow Six Siege is a game with a couple of good ideas and a lot of fun if the players play with their friends. However, its few maps are a danger for the game that can be forgotten in a few months.

There's no doubt that Rainbow Six Siege tries to offer something new in the competitive FPS genre, and that's something that deserves praise. On the other hand, whatever mode you play in PVE or PVP, what you get is basically the same experience, over and over. The tactics may be interesting, but it's not enough, neither when it comes to unlockables. On top of that, the netcode isn't even nearly refined as the gameplay formula would require.

While lone players are left cold, and hit detection can be inconsistent, the new tactical environmental destruction and tense atmosphere make for a fierce and focused multiplayer experience.