The Comeback of Rainbow Six Siege

Well, hello there, dear reader! Today I will speak about how Rainbow Six Siege went from rags to riches, from a disaster to a masterpiece.

I need to mention that Rainbow Six Siege came to be because Rainbow Six Patriots ("kiss wife" simulator) was scrapped while in development, and I would like to personally thank the person responsible for this decision. After this cancellation, everyone thought that the series was dead, but in 2014, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Ubisoft unveiled Siege (through a pre-rendered "gameplay" demo, but still), showcasing the destruction of the environment (apparently, the team at Ubisoft Montreal responsible for the game was hard at work perfecting this aspect), and the siege mechanics, like the rappel and the breaching. Everyone thought that it was amazing, but when the game came out it was a disaster.

The netcode was a joke, and a really bad one at that, cheating was rampant, bugs were plentiful, and, of course, it looked nothing like the "demo", which was to be expected. The sad state of the game made people abandon it pretty fast, and in a state like this, most games go to the graveyard, but not Siege. Apparently, there are still people passionate about what they are doing, even at soulless developers like Ubisoft, people who genuinely care and they launched operation after operation (the free DLC expansions of the game), introducing new operators and maps, fixing bugs and exploits, introducing the BattlEye anti-cheat system, and many, many other improvements. This continued support, apart from showing that games as a service could work in the hands of passionate people, attracted old players and new players alike.

Now, why could the game make this comeback, you might ask? The answer is pretty simple: the gameplay. Rainbow Six Siege brought destruction physics to the table, but not as a gimmick, like the Battlefield series, but as the core of the game. At the beginning of each round, the defender set up barricades and reinforce walls and, sometimes, floors/ceilings, while the attackers race through the maps with their drones, in hopes of identifying the enemies and finding the objective. After this short preparation phase, the attackers have to breach the objective room/rooms and the defenders must quench their attempts. The breaching of the room is realised by blowing up walls, floors, ceilings, either to create distractions or to create entry points for the attackers. This objective-based action is accompanied by the tight controls, which give the gameplay a weighty feel, making every weapon feel just heavy enough, every step like a calculated risk. And this game balances risks and rewards. You can breach a wall and start a coordinated pincer attack with your team, but that leaves the breachers exposed to retaliation, for example.

The maps, what they lack in size, they gain through density. They feel expansive, intricate, but, most importantly, believeable and they promote tactical experimentation.Each expansion brought with it a new map, and that may seem like a really tiny amount of content, but you should think of each map as a puzzle, which both teams race to solve, in their own way.

I should also mention the microtransactions. There are two versions of the game: the 15 Euros Starter Edition, which has all the in-game prices ramped up, and the 60 Euros Standard Edition. In both editions, you can choose to either buy operators, one by one, at a pretty steady pace, with in-game money, or buy them with real money to expedite the process. Then, there are the cosmetics, which follow the same logic, and the oh, so dreadful, loot boxes. This may seem bad at first, but the masterful balance through which those hated systems are weaved in the game actually puts those who fork out money to buy operators at a disadvantage, because someone who acquired them through in-game currency actually had time to train with each one they unlocked. The loot crate system has the percentage to obtain stuff clearly stated, so nothing is hidden from you in this aspect, which is actually pretty refreshing.

Even at this moment, Siege is growing, the devs want to reach 100 operators and add a zombie mode (i know, it sounds generic, but I believe that the tactical gameplay will carry it) and I am really interested in how many ways they can twist the gameplay and still be true to that core of destruction, objectives and, as I called them, puzzles. The continuous support for the last two years has really shown how dedicated these people are to making this game something truly special.

Sources: the cover image comes from forums.shoryuken.com, the "kiss wife" image comes from rockpapershotgun.com, the BattlEye logo comes from Steam, the base game operators image comes from imgur, the loot box image comes from pcgamesn.com.

---

Friends with nice gaming content: @free999enigma @StefaNonsense @ROPname @unacomn