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Preview: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege

The last time Stevivor had the chance to check out Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege was at this year’s E3; Steve got his hands on the terrorist hunt mode, where you team up with some friends and go after computer controlled baddies. Last week, we had the opportunity to play local multiplayer with 10 people at a preview event in Sydney. The group was split in half to form two teams that would be going head to head in a series of rounds. Each round the teams switched between either defending or attacking the Hereford Base, the level we were playing on.

At the start of each round, each player selects their loadout from a variety of characters that all have their own specific tools. This varies from characters with breaching capabilities, defensives shields, gadgets, solid firepower and so on.

The next stage is to plan your attack or defense. Both teams are shown a floor layout of the area with the defending team selecting what room they want to keep secured, while the attacking team determines where they want their spawning location to be. The primary goal of the attacking team is to get in and find the room the defending team are trying to secure and then hold it for a few seconds – the others have to stop this from happening.

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Once you’re loaded into the map both teams get some time to prepare before the round starts. The defenders setup their room by reinforcing the walls, windows and doors to make it harder for the enemies to get in. As well as laying down any gadgets they’ve got in their load out that will give them an advantage when things get crazy. While this is happening the attackers get to control little remote car drones with surveillance cameras attached to them. With these drones you need to find the enemy team and scout out what it is they are up to while staying out of sight. If you’re spotted, the defending team will shoot out your drone and you’ll end up standing in the dark.

Once preparation has been completed, the round kicks off as both teams try to complete their objective without getting wiped out. It’s hard to explain what can occur from here on because for us it seemed like every round something more and more crazy just kept happening with teams using different tactics. It really is a game that relies heavily on communication, planning and execution. I feel it’s taken the approach that made games like Counter-Strike so successful, but it has taken it to a new level of depth. This is mainly thanks to the variety of load outs you can use in each round, but also the fact the map has a lot of destructibility. Like that wall you were standing behind to use as cover, it’s now been knocked over by someone’s sledgehammer, or that ceiling above you – it’s gone, the enemy blew a hole in it with a breaching charge to make a new entry point.

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Every time each team thought they had locked down an area the other team found a new way to get in and cause disruption. One round we tried slowly manoeuvring straight in the front door with shields covering the guys at the rear, ultimately turtling through the room and taking out one person after the other. The next we rappelled up the building, entering from side windows to surprise them. After that we used heart beat sensors to find the best ways to go in and then we simultaneously breached two walls on each side of the room to cause distractions. Our plan B was asking ourselves, ‘what if we rushed in and threw flash and smoke grenades to blind the opponent?’ We just kept on going through different gadgets and strategies — it’s like an R-rated Home Alone game.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there are limitless possibilities, but there sure is more variety in the approach than what is generally seen in shooters like Counter-Strike and Call of Duty.

Not only is Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege a lot of fun to play, it could potentially be a fantastic competitive game in the Esports scene if the online is handled well. The things I’ve seen from the game so far are great and have left me wanting to play more, which is convenient because a closed beta starts this week (You can get beta keys right here from Stevivor!). Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege is definitely one to keep an eye out for when it releases later this year.


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About the author

Luke Lawrie

Writing and producing content about video games for over a decade. Host of Australia's longest running video game podcast The GAP found at TheGAPodcast.com. Find me on Twitter at @lukelawrie