Rainbow Six: Siege, Once more unto the breach, dear friends

If a terrorist has taken someone hostage inside a white picket fence, suburban house in North America, it turns out your best option isn’t to blow down the walls, doors and ceiling and go in all guns blazing.  Because then everyone including the poor civilian hostage dies. Rainbow Six: Siege is all about planning ahead and workingwith your team to fulfil your objectives. The reason we’re so fixated on the walls is because Ubisoft’s Anvil-Next engine makes destructible environments even more key to the Rainbow Six experience than anything we saw in Vegas or (the now cancelled) Patriots.

To defend your quarry, or reinforce your advancing entrenchments, you’ll have to build on top of weak spots in your structures. Don’t think just because you’re in a bedroom, aimed at the door, you’re safe… anyone could bust in through the drywall behind you. But it’s not just architectural redesigning you’ll have to do to stay alive, oh no… we looked at some other important lessons to be learned during Siege’s current alpha…

Ubisoft’s own take on Counter-Strike brings the terrorists-versus-police battle to consoles, and focuses on tactics, teamwork and takedowns…

HOPE ON A ROPE
Rappelling was one of the best bits in the old Rainbow Six: Vegas games, and gave the levels a dynamic and vertical property that you find lacking in a lot of the more ‘serious’ shooters. Inching down a window frame until you can peer into a room and pop a few headshots remains as satisfying as ever, and luckily all the houses in Rainbow Six: Siege appear to have purpose-built railings installed, so you can hoist yourself down to any opening on any level. Handy, that.

SMOOTH OPERATORS
Each playable character in Siege is called an ‘Operator’ and will have a unique set of abilities and skills that will support your allies. The way the game is balanced with each operator’s skillset forces you to work as a team. Siege is apparently based more closely on the original Tom Clancy books, hence why each Operator has its own personality, rather than being designated a ‘Class’.

THINK BEFORE DOING
The overhead tactical maps make a return to the series during the ‘briefing’ section of each match. This means that, as you’re selecting your loadout, you can discuss your plan of action. For us, it goes like this: ‘We’ll smash the door in, you grenade the window, and you with the mask you send your drone in to scout’. We just like smashing doors in with a sledgehammer. Satisfying. Credit to the sound design team for that one.