‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’ is the thinking gamer’s shooter

 

The aim to appeal to as large a market as possible has, in many ways, dumbed down the modern first-person shooter. When you can heal like Wolverine and the battlefields are reduced to a series of linear corridors, caution, tactics, and the tension that stems from recognizing your own fragility are the first to go out the proverbial window.

 

Perhaps “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” is exactly what the genre needs. This squad-based tactical shooter embraces a realism that’s rarely seen in today’s gunplay-centric games. It isn’t quite the perfect simulation of close-quarters combat; the violence is still outrageous in a Hollywood-blockbuster sense, and some of the in-game tech you’ll be using encroach upon science fiction territory. What you do get is a game where sound strategy is as much a factor in victory as your reaction time, where every bullet counts, and lives can be snuffed out in the blink of an eye.

  

 

 

No one is safe

 

“Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” forgoes a story-driven campaign for a dedicated multiplayer experience. Instead, we get 10 “Situations,” which are solo missions designed to train you how to play.

 

As soon as you drop into the first Situation, it becomes clear how different this game is from your run-of-the-mill shooter. There is no melodramatic orchestral score to pull your emotions in specific directions. The environment, while relatively small, boasts several entry points and intertwining passageways, so that you can approach the scenario in a variety of ways. You can’t sprint like a racehorse. And when you encounter your first foe, you’ll quickly realize how short and decisive firefights are. A few good hits are all it takes to take someone down. More importantly, your health doesn’t regenerate. If you die, you’ll have to start the mission over.

 

Your surroundings provide protection from bullets – to an extent. You can duck behind a wall or a desk, but stay too long, and you may find your cover shredded by enemy fire. Environments have varying degrees of destructibility; guns make short work of wood, but metal obstacles shrug off attacks. While this means you are rarely safe anywhere and at any time, destruction works to your advantage, as well. If your foe won’t budge from his hiding spot, consider tearing a hole through a wall and shooting him through it.

 

Given the reality of your in-game mortality, it pays to plan before plunging into battle. You’ve got a limited supply of remote control camera drones, which you can use to scout ahead for the opposition and traps. Your other tools also improve your survivability and chances of success. Throwing a flash bang in your target’s face before going in for the kill is always a great idea. You can rappel up walls, then smash through a second-story window to bypass an entire floor of foes. Detonating breach charges to completely or partially destroy walls and floors is another quick method of gaining access into hard-to-reach areas.

 

As strong as these features are in the solo missions, it’s in multiplayer where “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” truly shines.

 

 

 

Death squads

 

Multiplayer pits two teams of five against each other as one attacks and the other defends a high-value target. Before the match starts, you select one from 20 characters to play as. Known as “Operators,” these highly skilled members of Team Rainbow hail from real-world counter-terrorism units. Operators come in two varieties – Attacker and Defender – and boast unique abilities, attributes, and backgrounds. Examples are the Attacker Thermite, whose exo-thermic charges can cut through the toughest barriers, and the Defender Pulse, whose cardiac sensor detects heartbeats through walls and other obstacles.

 

As the round starts, both teams are given a brief period of time to prepare for the upcoming conflict. Those on the offensive can use their drones to learn the layout of the environment, while those defending can set up fortifications and lay traps. Then the battle starts proper.

 

As you can expect, the Operators’ gadgets and weapons introduce elements that significantly affect how each match plays out. The competition likes shooting through walls? Have Castle deploy his reinforced barricades to protect your team from harm. Your enemies fond of chucking grenades at you? Jager’s “Magpie” defense system shoots projectiles out of the air. Are they irritating you with their constant use of high-tech gear? Render all electronics within range obsolete with Thatcher’s EMP grenades. There’s ample room for creativity, and it’s interesting to see what new strategies and Operator combinations the community will come up with over time. With the promise of future free DLCs featuring more Operators, maps, and modes, we can be sure the evolution of “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” will be an exciting one.

 

 

 

Here’s the catch. At the moment, “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” doesn’t really have much to offer in terms of content. Sure, the mechanics are rich and the gameplay is amazing. But defusing bombs, extracting hostages, and securing biohazard containers – which are the objectives of multiplayer’s three modes – are sometimes little more than glorified death matches and capture the flag sequences. The game could do with more inventive variations of these modes, such as, perhaps, resolving a hostage crisis involving numerous victims instead of one.

 

Thankfully, the cooperative Terrorist Hunt is a nice change of pace from PvP. This mode tasks players with completing objectives while fending off endless waves of AI opponents. The desperation that comes with trying to disarm bombs while surviving multiple assaults is breathtaking. The payoff if you succeed? An inimitable sense of accomplishment.

 

The maps, which range from a winter chalet to a presidential plane, are replete with confined spaces for pulse-pounding combat. There are only 11 at launch, and while that may seem sparse, it helps that night and day variants exist, and that players can change their spawn locations.

 

You need to reach level 20 before you can access ranked multiplayer, though. And the 20 Operators? You require a unit of currency called “Renown” to unlock them all. Completing the Situations will give you enough Renown to purchase your first 10, but to be able to afford the rest – not to mention the various cosmetic improvements and essential weapon attachments – entails several hours of grinding. You can spend real-world money to facilitate the process, but that’s preposterous, given you’re already paying full price for the game.

 

Your enjoyment of this title also leans on the quality of your internet connection. And, given how victory largely depends on teamwork and the methodical progression towards your shared goal, clear communication with your allies is paramount. A mic and headphones are therefore a must.

 

But there’s another reason to use headphones – the fantastic sound design. Hurried footsteps will draw your enemies’ attention, while their own will help you determine whether they’re above, below, or on the same floor as you. There is nothing more nerve-wracking – and exhilarating – than hearing the approach of explosions and gunfire as you hunker down behind your fortifications. Needless to say, paying close attention to both auditory and visual cues are integral to any team strategy.

 

 

 

It’s not for everyone – and that’s a good thing

 

With a scarcity of PvP multiplayer modes and the inability to use all the Operators and weapon augmentations from the get-go, your first few hours with “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” will seem repetitive. The absence of a story campaign will also disappoint long-time fans of the series.

 

But it also has enormous potential to be one of the most important modern first-person shooters. With a diverse cast of lethal Operators, destructible environments, well-designed maps, spectacular sound design, and, most importantly, combat that emphasizes tactics, technique, and coordination over knee-jerk gunplay, “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege” is one of the most refreshingly unique titles today. All things considered, it is the thinking gamer’s shooter. Which means some people won’t like it. But that’s okay. You can’t achieve greatness by trying to please everyone. — TJD, GMA News

 

Rating – 8/10

Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One