Rainbow Six Siege Beta Impressions

Thanks to Ubisoft UK and Gfinity, I was finally able to get my hands onto the latest instalment of the iconic Rainbow Six franchise. Here are my first impressions of the beta.

Ubisoft’s upcoming title offered two options for the beta, a taste of two multiplayer modes, TDM Bomb and TDM Secure Area, as well as a Terrorist Hunt mode which allows you to act as a lone wolf or team up against AI enemies.

Despite the initial frustration and flaws around the beta, I actually had a lot of fun with Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. Unfortunately, due to the multiplayer connection issues, I never had to opportunity to play Secure Area, however, I was able to test the TDM Bomb game mode and I loved it.

As an avid fan of the Call of Duty franchise and the iconic game mode Search and Destroy, I naturally enjoyed Rainbow Six Siege’s TDM Bomb, which slightly resembles SnD. In TDM Bomb players are presented with two bomb sites, however, instead of simply attacking and defending a site, one must breach a building to locate and defuse the bomb. Rounds switch from attacking and defending, with players only gaining one life per round.

The additional tactical and stealth elements added to TDM Bomb makes the game mode thoroughly entertaining and will undoubtedly become a hit amongst fans of first-person shooters.

Within Terrorist Hunt, again, fans will need to adopt a more cautious and strategic game plan if they are to take on the AI terrorists as a lone wolf, while with a team of friends, the game is even more fun and tests communication and teamwork skills.

Each character has a special skill and a specific weapon loadout and you’re not allowed two of the same character loadouts in a match. One teammate can use a drone to roll into a building to scan and tag enemies while another breaches with a sledgehammer or explosive charge. You can choose characters with fast movement and low armour or heavy riot gear with limited mobility. However you chose to approach the buildings, you will meet interiors littered with explosives and barbed wire traps as you seek out the terrorists.

As much as I enjoyed Terrorist Hunt, I found the levels of difficulty to be unbalanced. Normal difficulty offered super easy enemies that usually didn’t fire back in conflicts and would often be found facing the corners of rooms completely oblivious to your attacks. While Normal felt very rookie, Hard difficulty was indeed hard. Personally, I didn’t feel like there was any middle ground for a true Normal difficulty.

Nevertheless, I did appreciate all the character options, at least two of which were female, but I hated the fact that we were forced to use their premade loadouts. It was hard to find a character that had a perfect combination of gun, armour, and ability.

Characters also have to be unlocked via the point system as “Renown points”, however, if your unlocked character gets picked by someone else in the match, you’re stuck with the default class.

Within the first few nights of the beta I had a lot of fun rappelling up the buildings, busting through doors, and swinging in through the windows to sweep the floors for terrorists. The suicide bombers added panic and chaos, as well as laughs with friends.

However, as recently announced by Ubisoft, with no campaign to bolster Rainbow Six Siege’s repertoire, I do worry that the game will quickly become repetitive and stale. Although I do enjoy the game mechanics and overall concept of Rainbow Six Siege, the upcoming first-person shooter still feels slightly empty. While the beta is just a piece of the full game, my main concern is that the rest of the game will simply be more of the same.

Hopefully I’m wrong.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is scheduled for release on December 1st, 2015.

What were your first impressions of Rainbow Six Siege? Let us know in the comments below!

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