Online game "Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege"

Ubisoft is known to gamers around the world mainly for its single-player series of games, such as Assassin's Creed or Far Cry. Although there are a few exceptions with competitive multiplayer. These include Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, which can be called the next step in the development of the genre after Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Here, too, special forces fight with bandits, battles take place inside buildings, and the maps are designed to give both teams equal chances. But in addition to the standard rules, the shooter offers features in the form of destructible environment, choice of characters and tactical gadgets. Perhaps that's why Rainbow remains popular even eight years after its release.

The action of the shooter is dedicated to the characters and events described in Tom Clancy's books, so his name is included in the full title of the game. In 1998, the writer released the novel "Rainbow Six" about the world's best anti-terrorist unit, which was drawn into the fight against a group of scientists who planned to destroy humanity with the help of a virus. The peculiarity of the fictional unit is that it takes anyone who wants to join, regardless of gender, race and nationality - as long as the candidate would be suitable for the level of training. The book became famous, taking the second place in the list of bestsellers in the United States. It also became the basis for a whole series of games, starting with the original action movie Rainbow Six, the script for which Tom Clancy himself created at the request of Red Storm Studios.

After the release of the second installment, Rogue Spear, where Rainbow operatives are challenged by Samed Vezirzad's terrorists, Ubisoft took notice of the shooter series. It was under its auspices that in 2001 a sequel with the subtitle Take Down was released, as well as all the following games of the series, including Siege. In other words, the history of Rainbow Six is very rich - and the multiplayer hit didn't come from nothing. So, what did gamers get in 2015?

The basic rules of the action movie are familiar to anyone who has ever launched Counter-Strike. Two teams of five people appear on the map. One, conventionally speaking, bad, and the other - good. The first ones mine basements and attics, hold hostages, attack government facilities and do other bad things, and the special forces group must storm the building and fulfill the conditions of the match - for example, kill all the terrorists, defuse the bomb or bring civilians to safety. Everything seems simple and familiar, but there is a nuance.

First of all, Rainbow Six Siege offers a choice of operatives. There are almost seventy heroes with different skills and unique pieces of equipment. That is, gamers do not just point a finger at the one who likes the appearance, but make a serious decision. It depends on what weapon you will have, how many health and speed points a fighter will get, what gadgets and traps can be used at the start of the match - and all this ultimately affects the success of your team.

Secondly, the maps in the game are interactive. It is not a set of scenery, as in most similar shooters. Here you can board up windows with plywood, seal doorways, break through walls, floors and ceilings, set up traps and obstacles like barbed wire. In addition, there's a wide range of tactical gear, from a sledgehammer and ballistic shield to a cat hook and a drone equipped with a video camera. With options like these, Siege is radically different from any part of CS and other competitive multiplayer action games.

Just keep in mind that neither guns, gadgets, nor armor give anyone an absolute advantage. After all, Rainbow Six Siege is so dependent on the personal skills of the player that it has long become a cybersport discipline, on which tournaments are held. Therefore, in addition to a successful choice of an operative, you will also need reaction speed, a keen eye, keen hearing and a more or less good mouse and keyboard.

Since there are as many as 69 characters in the game, and with the release of each season new ones are added, sooner or later each user has to study them in detail. Conventionally, the characters are divided into useful in attack and defense. Among the former, Sledge is worthy of attention, although he is clumsy, but he is strong in health, and from the start he uses a cool gun L85A2 and can easily make doors in places not provided by the architect. Another tank, Thatcher, runs with the same assault rifle. In addition, he has a piercing charge, a mine and an electromagnetic grenade, which disables all complex equipment of enemies within the blast radius.

The attacking side often chooses the hero with the call sign Thermite - he is not particularly strong, but he will support the assault like no one else. For this purpose he has smoke bombs, flash-bang grenades and a charge that allows him to quietly and quickly burn a hole anywhere, even on the heads of the enemies to fall through the hatch. It's also worth taking a lady nicknamed Finka into your squad - using zinc nanobots, she sprays substances around her that give her allies a burst of strength, acceleration, recoil mitigation and healing of even the most dangerous wounds. And she's pretty well armed, too. And those who would like to debut with a tactical trick, take another girl in the team - Iana. With the help of a replicator, she creates a doppelganger capable of scouting and confusing enemies. However, this copy can't fight, but it can be used as a ruse.

A whole bunch of heroes are responsible for defense, but let's discuss the most useful ones. Both of them are easy to control, but the first one has a bit more health. He also uses a bulletproof camera to scout enemy movements, sets traps with explosives and jamming generators. Smoke, in turn, can uncoil barbed wire in the path of the enemy, put a stationary shield and slightly suffocate the attackers with gas. Fans of exoticism take a Russian fighter with the caressing call sign Tachankin. This tough guy is armed with a hand-held machine gun, puts proximity sensors and gives a light from a grenade launcher "Shumikha". In general, there are a lot of options - everyone can choose a character to his liking.

But even here not everything is so simple. The thing is that the whole set is unavailable to a newcomer - heroes have to be unlocked for participation in matches. During the battle, especially if you manage to kill someone, you get glory points. Once you've accumulated enough of them, you can choose any operative from the navigators or defenders and unlock him. Taking into account the number of characters, it's not a quick job, and the number of heroes is constantly growing. That's why the developers have provided another way. You can get some rare fighters for real money by converting them into R6 credits, although Siege is paid as it is. To Ubisoft's credit, this is the only purchase that has tactical weight. The rest, like experience boosters, costumes or weapon skins, have no effect on the combat situation.

The game is generous not only for the choice of operatives - it also has twenty-four maps. Naturally, all of them involve fights inside corridors and rooms, but the architecture features are different. Some, such as "Tower" and "Board Number One", are not particularly loved by gamers for the small space for tactics, and others - like "Consulate", "Yacht", "Coast", "Villa", "Oregon", "Club" and "Skyscraper" - are on good account for the balance, giving equal chances to both teams. At any of the locations there are places to develop both attack and defense, as well as one or even two bypasses and a wide field for experimenting with ambushes.

Each match can be divided into two phases - preparatory and active. During the first phase, one side probes the enemy's defenses, conducts reconnaissance using drones and other gadgets, and plans actions according to the situation. For example, the team decides who will carry the demining device, where to throw the "smoke" and where to plant the sniper. Meanwhile, the other side is putting up shields, laying barbed wire in the corridors, setting up traps, boarding up windows and doors. This stage takes literally a minute, but requires coherence and knowledge of the map, especially if the squad needs to quickly regroup after being "illuminated" by drones. And then the fight begins.

Newcomers are not thrown into the meat grinder right away. First the game offers to pass the story mode "Operations", where you can go alone or with a friend to fulfill a series of tasks in battles with bots. The training doesn't end there - no one prevents you from going to the shooting range or training camp at any time to try out some guns or just stretch your arms before a match. The fact that the training is created with the participation of the authors of the famous Aim Lab contributes a lot to the marksmanship training, so it will be useful when preparing for a competition in any shooter. The other modes are divided in the menu into tactical and quick modes.

The standard set of "Capture Position", "Hostage" and "Charge" is supplemented by Weapon Roulette, "Scuffle", where the main goal is to kill enemies, not to fulfill any special condition, fights using only sniper rifles, as well as Golden Gun. The latter resembles a team fight to the death, but all ten participants from two squads have nothing but D50 pistols, aka Desert Eagle. Starting from level 50, ranked matches are available, which gather only experienced players, and Rainbow Six Siege authors constantly shuffle events - temporary activities where you can earn glory points.

What exactly the game offers you to participate in depends on the season. Not only does each season kick off a battle pass, but it also contains balance tweaks, new operatives, changes to locations, and temporary modes that are brought to the public. To make the scale clear, the developers have released 31 seasons, and if at the release there were only fourteen operatives and several maps in the game, now the choice is much wider. Minor changes are also a pond. For example, in the first season of the eighth year, along with the heroine nicknamed Brava, a realistic weapon reloading animation was added. It seems like a small thing, but it's nice.

In addition, access to certain competitions is limited by reputation level. It is affected by the user's honesty - how polite he or she is, whether he or she leaves the battle before it is over, whether he or she shoots at allies, and so on. Of course, no one is immune to mistakes, and it can be frustrating to get a penalty for an interrupted internet connection. But this system will keep you and your team away from those who take the game lightly and constantly disturb everyone around them.

Usually, competitive shooters that have become cybersport disciplines are either ruthless to newcomers or have low variation. Rainbow Six Siege is different. On the one hand, the game impresses with its variety of heroes, locations, modes, and guns, and on the other hand, it gives those who have not yet gained experience a break. Add tactics with destructible environment and a whole arsenal of gadgets for every taste and you get a unique game. Which, however, costs money. But for a true connoisseur of the genre it is not a hindrance.

Zarium. October 2023