Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege is hands down one of the best multiplayer games to both play and watch.
Thanks to it recently going on sale on the Xbox, PS4 and PC, with a stint of the game being free, a host of new players have been attracted to the fast-paced FPS.
If you’ve been in two minds about giving R6 a try, now’s the perfect time.
That’s because a horde of new combatants are flooding the servers, so if you’re worried about getting destroyed, you may fare better than you think.
Venture away from the casual crowd and Siege is far from easy, though.
It takes a lot of patience, practice and tactical thinking to make headway in a game full of veterans.
Taking your time and watching the pros play is a great way to pick up some good habits and learn what Operator (character class) suit your style.
What makes Rainbow Six Siege unique?
Siege isn’t your typical first-person shooter.
Unlike Call of Duty or Battlefield there is only one game mode, which plays similarly to Call of Duty’s Search and Destroy.
Matches consist of two teams of five fighting to the death in various scenarios – be that protecting a hostage or disarming a number of bombs.
Rounds last a few minutes or so, kicking off with a preparation phase where teams select what operators they want to use (all have different strengths and weaknesses) before choosing where to deploy.
At the start of each round, the attacking team will send small camera drones into the enemies’ location to locate either the hostage or the bomb.
Meanwhile, the defending team will put up barricades, lay traps and get into killing position.
An action phase then follows, usually ending in a shootout that sees the floor and walls covered in blood. What’s left of them, that is – environments are almost entirely destructible.
This destruction completely changes the round, the map and the strategies teams use.
Players can remove sections of walls, doors and windows in order to create vantage point not previously there.
We spoke to the Ubisoft esports directer, FX-Daniele at the Six Major Paris event earlier this month about getting gamers to play Siege.
“What we need to work on is the onboarding of the game,” he said.
“The fact we need to bring people from classic FPS to understand that we are not so far removed from it, such as introducing more intro videos to explain who is this operator and why you need to pick them.
“We then need to create an ecosystem for the new players to learn together and not put them in front of the pro players too early.”
Why you should give it a go
You can’t just blindly run into a building, a room, a corridor or anywhere without first thinking ‘what if there’s a trap/person/camera/hole there’.
Every move must be thought out, with the game rewarding you for clever plays and tactical thinking.
Lobbies in Siege are also friendly, with a fair matchmaking system and the ability to kick players who ‘team kill’.
A ton of the maps have been redone since the game’s launch in 2015, with new updates coming regularly.
Ubisoft also recently announced the coming year will see the introduction of eight new operators increasing the number of playable specialists in the game to 48.
It may be a few years old, but Siege looks set to be a stable pillar in the world of first-person shooters for some time yet.
Check out some of the highlights from the Six Major Paris grand finals earlier this month below.