Rainbow Six Siege review by Tom Clancy

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is not for casual gamers.

Sure, it’s a fun game, but it also requires a high level of creative strategy with a greater emphasis on teamwork and specialized play. Frankly, it’s intimidating for someone who isn’t up to the challenge.

Thank goodness for the tutorial modes.

Game

Part FPS, part chess and part gun ‘n’ guts, the essence of this game is a match-based game pitting a team of attackers against a team of defensive agents. The goal is simple: the attackers have placed a bomb and the other team must defuse it or kill all the members of the enemy team before the bomb explodes. The teams then switch sides for a competitive best-of-five series. The mode isn’t exactly new, as games like CounterStrike have been doing it for a decade.

Operators

But, in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, instead of starting with a team of typical FPS characters with no tactical or strategic advantages, there are currently 46 special characters called Operators. Players can adorn each Operator with the weapons and equipment of their choice, and each Operator also has some unique skills that can aid them in the challenge.

When acting as defenders, players can choose from a defensive tactician like Echo, whose drone can provide information on the position of the opposing team. When playing as attackers, players can choose offensive specialists like Hibana, who fires explosive bullets that burn through metal. Players can cycle through operators, playing as different throughout matches while adapting to their enemies’ play style.

Most of the operators in this game are unlockable characters, which means new Rainbow Six Siege players have a limited selection. Unless you’re a first day player, you’ll find that the challenge of unlocking new operators is limited to microtransactions or gritty, hardcore gameplay. Not that it’s impossible – this game has a ranked mode precisely because of its niche and dedicated fanbase – but it’s certainly an investment, one that you won’t make in a few hours of play, no matter how well versed you are in the FPS genre. There are so many traders to choose from that it is a tactical advantage to know all their strengths and weaknesses inside and out. And it takes a while to understand all of this.