Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

Gameplay

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is a first-person tactical shooter, in which players take control of an operator from the Rainbow team, a counter-terrorist unit. Different operators have different nationalities, weapons, and gadgets. The game features an asymmetrical structure whereby the teams are not always balanced in their ability choices. The Counter Terrorism Units (CTUs) available for play include FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, the British SAS, Germany's GSG-9, Russian Spetsnaz and France's GIGN, each of which has four operators per CTU. Canadian operators from Joint Task Force 2, two American operators from the US Navy SEALs, two Brazilian operators from BOPE, two Japanese operators from SAT, as well as two Spanish operators from GEO from the recent update of Velvet Shell are also available for play. Players also have access to a "Recruit" operator who can choose from a more flexible assortment of equipment at the expense of having no unique gadget. Players pick an operator from any unit before a round starts, and are not allowed to change operators during a round. An in-game shop allows players to purchase operators using the in-game currency "Renown", which is earned at the end of matches from actions performed in-game. The different gameplay modes award renown at different rates, with ranked matches offering the most renown multiplier potential per match. Renown can also be affected with the addition of "boosters" which give the player a 100% increase in all renown earned for 24 hours (real time not play time). Renown can also be purchased using real world currency. Each successive operator that is purchased from a single counter-terrorist unit costs an additional 500 Renown, with DLC operators costing 25,000 renown each.

In ranked, when a round begins, the attackers choose one of several spawn points from which to launch their attack. The attackers then are given control over wheeled drones to scout the map in search of enemy operators and targets, while the defenders can fortify and reinforce surfaces and pathways in order to restrict the enemy's team movement and vision, and use security cameras to spot the attackers. Maps in the game are designed to encourage close quarters combat, and players cannot respawn until the end of a round. This is aimed at encouraging players to utilize teamwork and tactics, and to maintain tension throughout a round. Matches generally last only a few short minutes. Teamwork and cooperation is encouraged in Siege, and players need to take advantage of their different abilities in order to complete the objective and defeat the enemy team. Communications between players are also encouraged.

The game features heavy emphasis on environmental destruction. A procedural destruction system is featured in the game. Players can break structures by planting explosives on them, or shoot walls to make bullet holes. The environments of the game feature a layered material system, in which environmental objects of different materials show different reactions to player's attack. Players may gain tactical advantages through environmental destruction, and the system aims at encouraging players to utilize creativity and strategy. In order to create a realistic gameplay, a bullet penetration system is featured, in which bullets deal less damage when they hit enemies through structures. In addition to destruction, players can also set up heavy-duty fortifications on walls and deployable shields around them for protection, but can be destroyed through breaching and utilizing operator specific melee-weapons like sledgehammers. In order to stop attackers' advance, defenders can place traps like barbed-wire and explosive laserwire traps. around the maps. Vertical space is a key gameplay element taken into account when designing the game's maps. Players can destroy ceilings and floors using breach charges and can ambush enemies by rappelling through windows. Powerful weapons like grenades and breach charges are valuable, as only limited numbers can be used in a round.

Modes

At launch, the game featured 11 maps, and 5 different gameplay modes. With the addition of the four maps from season one as well as the first map from season two there are currently 16 maps with three more slated for release by January 2018. The gameplay modes featured include:

Operators

Setting

After three years of Rainbow Program deactivation, the program was recently reactivated by a new leader that is simply known as Six (voiced by Angela Bassett). Players play as special forces operatives of different countries in the Rainbow team, who have to face a new terrorist force called The White Masks, who have unknown goals but are causing chaos across the world. Recruits go through multiple exercises to prepare them for future encounters with the White Masks, training to perform hostage rescue and bomb disposal. Eventually the White Masks launch a chemical attack on a university (called Bartlett University in game), and the recruits are called in to disarm the bombs and eliminate the enemy presence at the university.

Development

Prior to the announcement of Siege, there was another Rainbow Six game called Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots. Midway through Patriots's development, the team wanted to ensure that the game has a long lasting appeal. As a result, the team decided to cancel Patriots, a narrative-driven game, and shift their vision to develop a competitive multiplayer-focused game. The game's original subtitle was "Unbreakable", due to the game's destruction mechanic and "the mindset of 'unbreakable'" for the team to tackle on a dormant franchise like Rainbow Six. The development of Siege began in January 2013. Siege was announced as a successor to the cancelled Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Patriots in June 2014.

Although focusing heavily on team play and realism, similar to previous titles in the Rainbow Six franchise, Siege introduced a new heavy multiplayer focus and destructible environments. A trailer shown at E3 2014 demonstrated a hostage rescue scenario, and the game initially received positive reactions.

On March 12, 2015, Ubisoft announced that a closed alpha was in development, scheduled to be released exclusively for Microsoft Windows. A closed beta of the game was also announced for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Ubisoft revealed that guaranteed access to the beta would be available for those who pre-ordered the game on any of the platforms. Players could also gain access to the beta by donating money to a charity organization called Extra Life. The beta of the game began on September 24, 2015. On March 31, 2015, a Collector's Edition of the game, titled Art of Siege Edition was announced.

On June 15, 2015, during the Ubisoft press conference at E3, Ubisoft released multiple new trailers for the game. The trailers, which were also uploaded to the Ubisoft YouTube channel, showed some of the environments and gameplay elements found in Rainbow Six Siege. Ubisoft also announced that Terrorist Hunt, a co-operative multiplayer mode introduced in the previous Rainbow Six games, would return in Siege. It was also announced that players who purchased Siege for the Xbox One could download Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas and its sequel, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 for free.

Release

On May 12, 2015, Ubisoft announced that the game would be released during the third quarter of 2015. The release date of the game was later confirmed to be October 13, 2015. On August 18, 2015, Ubisoft announced the game would be delayed to December 1, 2015 to increase the time spent on developing the game. A season pass was announced on November 12, 2015. Players who bought this version of the game could gain early access to operators offered in DLC and receive several weapon skins.

The game featured 11 maps at launch, with more added to the game as free downloadable content. These DLC also add new operators, weapons and CTUs. According to Ubisoft, the decision was made as they wanted to extend the game's longevity. The game supports microtransactions for players who want to speed up their progress. However, items bought by players using real-life currency are designed to not affect or change the gameplay. The first of the four expansion packs planned so far, titled Operation Black Ice, which is set in Canada with the JTF2 operators, was released on February 2, 2016, while the second expansion, titled Operation Dust Line, which is set in the Middle East with the Navy Seals operators, was released on May 11, 2016. The third DLC, Operation Skull Rain, which is set in Brazil with the BOPE operators, was released on August 2, 2016, while the fourth and final DLC, titled Operation Red Crow, which is set in Japan, was released on November 17 2016. Ubisoft Blue Byte served as a co-developer of these downloadable content. Another year of DLC has been planned to contain Spain, Hong Kong, Poland, and South Korea. The first of these DLCs, Operation Velvet Shell, was released on February 7, 2017, and contains one new map - "Coastline", set in Ibiza, Spain - two new Spanish G.E.O. operators, and various graphical and U.I. improvements and bug fixes.

A Starter Edition was released on PC in June 2016. It features all the maps, modes and weapons of the standard edition. It includes 2 operators plus enough Rainbow 6 Credits to purchase two more of the player's choice, though players can still purchase the rest of the operators with Renown or Rainbow 6 Credits. The starter edition version of the game is cheaper than the main game, and was available for a limited time. In September 2016 the Starter Edition became available again on PC for a period of time. Another version of the game has been released, called the "Complete Edition",which contains the season passes of year 1 and year 2.

Critical reception

The pre-release reception of the game was positive, with critics praising the game's design and tensions created during matches. The game received four nominations from Game Critics Awards, which are Best of Show, Best PC Game, Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer Game. The game eventually became the winner of the Best PC Game category.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege received positive reviews. Aggregating review website Metacritic gave the Microsoft Windows version 78/100 based on 36 reviews, the PlayStation 4 version 73/100 based on 39 reviews and the Xbox One version 74/100 based on 23 reviews.

Sales

On May 15, 2015, Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, announced that Ubisoft expects Rainbow Six Siege to outsell Far Cry 4's 7 million sales over the course of its lifetime because of post-launch support, saying: "This game will continue to live for a long time as we update with content for a long time."

At the game's launch, it debuted at number 6 in UK Software Charts, selling 76,000 retail copies across all three platforms.