Rainbow Six Siege Multiplayer Fails to Impress, But Delivers More Realism

If you’re a fan of Tom Clancy games, then you’re probably excited about the upcoming release of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. If that’s the case, you’re in luck because at PAX Prime 2015, we were able to demo the multiplayer mode and you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s pretty sweet.

For starters, the core dynamic of the multiplayer mode is a five versus five elimination team deathmatch. There are six rounds and the team with the most points at the end emerges victorious. Each team has their own specific goals; one is composed of attackers, while the other defends. The defending objective is to protect their starting location while the attackers must overrun that location and take over.

Before the start of the match, the player has the option to choose between characters with different weapon load outs as we have seen many times before. But when the match starts, the defense team is equipped with items specifically suited for the task like remote charges, heartbeat monitors, and motion sensors. And conversely, the attack team is equipped with things like hammers, gas grenades, breaching charges. Ultimately, the team left standing is the team that wins the points for the round.

The competition is incredibly fast-paced and intense since there are no respawns. Every decision and shot fired is high stakes, forcing players to heavily consider their actions before engaging the enemy. Communication is key for success in this game. If you’re not able to coordinate well, then it will be almost impossible to beat a team who is able to work together efficiently. Every decision must be made in a split-second and minutes of preparation can easily turn into your entire team wiped out in seconds if you are not careful.

This isn’t a game where it’s easy for one player to act as a lone wolf and carry the rest of his team. While it’s not impossible, it’s clear that the mechanics of the game are geared toward pushing five players to act as a singular unit, almost as if all controlled by a superior hive mind. In this way, the game captures some of the realism that actual soldiers probably face when engaging in combat. It also makes this game a prime candidate for being a popular eSports title.

However, while this game definitely delivers to expectations in many categories, it appears that there isn’t much new content that we haven’t seen in previous Rainbow Six games or in other similar titles, such as Call of Duty. Giving people more of what they love is never a bad thing, but players who were expecting to be wowed by something that they have never seen before may end up feeling disappointed.

Though, to be fair, we’ve yet to see the single player mode for this game, and it’s possible that there are a whole bunch of new goodies in there that will impress even long-time fans of the franchise. For now, we’ll just have to wait and see on that front.