250 hours in Rainbow Six Seige

250 hours in Rainbow Six Seige – A detailed review

Finding time in a busy schedule

I have already written a review on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, I wanted to point out that after putting 250 hours in Rainbow Six made me change my mind about this game . And I wanted to write a detailed and more refined review that totally reflects what this game has to offer. It may be understood by many that I extremely love this game because I have poured 250 hours into this. It may not look like a huge number but it is a major portion of my daily life.

For starters, I am a full-time employee in the corporate office of a real estate company. Likewise, I work for 8.5hours in my office which consists only of login time and if we factor in 3.5hours of total commute, this sums up to 12hours. I sleep for 7 hours which leaves me with only 5 hours daily. As you can imagine, I am only left with few hours for myself, in which I have to complete blog writing, do regular chores and all the while I have to find time to play video games. With a scarcity of play time, I managed to put in 250hours in Rainbow Six Seige, my console must be frustrated because every day it runs and operates the same game.

Rainbow Six Seige is a first person shooter that literally introduced me to First person gaming. Not only did it introduce but also made me develop a blind infatuation for this genre of gaming. This game was so intense that each time when I played a round, it sent shivers down my back and made my heart beat rise. I remember when I started playing it, I often found myself caving in the corner of the room or crouching right next to the bomb as I feared to step out and explore the environment.

Novelty that was enticing and scary – First ever experience of a First person shooter game

It took me a few days to even realise what the droning phase was; it is hilarious when I think about those times. I played this game without any information on breaching or environment damage or scoping or anything related to FPS games for that matter. I had a million deaths, I killed myself accidentally or even my teammates. I used to destroy friendly gadget because I was under the impression that gadgets does damage to the opposite party and the allies as well. I went about shooting kapkan trap while I was playing the defence and shooting every claymore when I was playing on the attacker’s side.

Despite so many death and repeated failure, I persistently played because I loved the social aspect of the game, the fact you can play as a team with your friends is extremely fun. Every death became a comical story or a gag to be sneered at. With time and effort, I learnt the basics and the art of playing this game. I obsessively consumed videos on youtube posted by top players. Here are few more incredible stuff that I found exciting in Rainbow Six Seige.

1) Well designed destructible environment

There is a total of 16 maps in the game right now and “Coastline” is the latest addition that came in with Operation Velvet shell. After putting 250 hours in Rainbow Six Siege on the play station 4, I have realised that environments are incredibly detailed. Every map has multiple entry points and the attackers have the choice of breaching and infiltrating from any spot. This provides unprecedented freedom and liberty to strategize like it is a real world siege attempt. A team of attacker who understands each other’s play style can quickly adapt to the changing pattern of the defence team or vice versa.

An operator named ‘Thermite’, who is an FBI operator, has the special charge that can breach through a reinforced metal wall. However, the defence can tackle this using the unique ability of a defence operator named ‘Bandit’ who places an electronic device on the metal wall that makes it virtually impossible to breach. However, another attacked named ‘Thatcher’ can counter the electric device by tossing an EMP grenade to shut down and disable electronic devices within the EMP range. Once the electrical device is disabled, thermite can use his special charge to create an entry point for attackers. Therefore a metal reinforced wall could potentially seal a defense or expose them if not strategically defended.

BREACH, BREACH, BREACH!

Another peculiar feature is barricading windows or doors. Every operator is allowed to barricade infinitely. Unlike metal fortification of walls, which is limited to two, an option to barricade is unlimited. Barricades provide the defending team with space to move around without being noticed. For the attackers the barricade is sort of visual block and hence they can either violently tear it down or silently breach it with an operator who specialises in dry breach named ‘Sledge.’

The former approach can lead to giving up on the location to the defenders whereas the latter may be conspicuous in its approach. Sledge’s hammer is extremely useful to make path through walls that helps in cutting down time for the attacking team. For instance if there are two walls separated by a hallway, then it takes just two hammer smashes by sledge to create a path, or alternatively, if the defensive team has not reinforced walls then sledge can tear it down, hence, providing wide angles for the attackers.

USE ENVIRONMENTS LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT

This symbolises true freedom in a game that is executed flawlessly and provides room for strategizing the approach for the both the team. There are camera’s in the environment that the defenders use to detect the attackers, these can be destroyed to lower their width of vision. Strategic peak holes on the window can provide an angle for detecting and killing the attackers without the defender being detected. Alternatively, an attacker can surprise a defender by breaching the ceilings or the floor exposing them from new angles and confusing the defense while killing them if they are found off-guard.

There are walls that cannot be destroyed and floors that are impenetrable. Likewise, certain gadgets work like a charm if combined correctly. For instance, if a Mira places a one-way mirror on the wall that allows the defender to view the other side without the attacker’s knowledge provides an upper hand to the defenders. Mirrors can be integrated with reinforced walls to provide ample shield while shooting through the mirror, however, if placed on a dry wall it can do more harm than good.

2) DLC’s, Map’s and Operator’s

In a time when most of the AAA game titles massively capitalise on additional content or simply extension of the game, Ubisoft has been tremendously generous in its approach for their loyal fans. Rainbow Six Seige released on December 1st, 2015, and originally offered only Counter Terrorism Unit from five countries namely FBI from the USA, SAS from Britain, GSG-9 from Germany, Spetsnaz from Russia and GIGN from France. Each country represented four operators, two as attackers and two as defenders, essentially offering 20 vanilla operators. These operators are locked at the start of the game and can be unlocked once you earn in-game currency called Renown’s. Operators cost around 500 renown and every subsequent purchase incrementally adds 500 renown to the base cost that maxes to 2500 renown per operator.

30 OPERATORS AS OF DATE

20 operators at the launch of the game are a good starter kit for gamers, Ubisoft has been kind enough to provide 11 maps as the launch of the game which is pretty fun to play. Gradually, Ubisoft introduced first season pass that offers a quarterly release of two operators and one map. For season pass owners, they have 1-week early access to the operators. This makes the game a value for both the regular and season pass owners as well.

For a regular owner, the new operators cost 25000 Renown each or can be purchased by paying in real world currency. The interesting fact to note is that there is option to grind within the game and unlock these operators. Same is the case with weapon skin and customization, along with operator’s uniform or accessories. Barring a few customization, every modification is available to the base game owners. This practice of allowing everybody access to DLC content is a rare phenomenon and we commend the step that Ubisoft took to bring about such a change.

OPERATION HEALTH IS ALL ABOUT REINVIGORATING THE GAME

We have had 6 major updates since the release of the game; however, 1 of the update i.e Operation Health was an update to tackle all the major bugs or glitches in the game and its server. After considering the content that was released along with every update, we now have a full line-up of 30 operators along with 16 playable maps.

3) Super realistic gun fights

There is no game that comes close to realism as depicted in Rainbow Six Seige. A defender who hides in the corner of a room, awaiting an attacker from the main entrance can get shot from below the floor. Just when you think that you are safe behind the metal shield, it gets blown by a projectile breach and you are exposed to the enemies.

KILL OR GET KILLED – DOG EAT DOG WORLD

There is an element of ultra-high risk but equally rewarding instance by strategically using a peek hole. You can create a bullet sized hole in a wall that can be breached and use your scope to detect enemies. You have an angle on the enemy whereas you are hidden from his sight. Therefore, there are infinite methods to play this game and truly imagination is the limit.

I remember playing a match where we were playing as attackers and we practically roasted the defenders by strategizing our match. We chose breach charges as available with selected operators and I played Buck “The Skeleton key” speciality operator. We breached the floor just above the bomb room which exposed the defender and we had plenty angles on them from the top.

Also, Buck is a breach expert who can create holes on the floor or walls big enough for a person to pass through. The map was chalet and the floors here are typically wood which is an excellent environment for ‘Buck.’ Three of the attackers breached key spaces on the floor from above the defenders which gave us a quick 3 kills to vastly weigh the odds in our favour, which we eventually won.

4) Well balanced operators and unique gadgets

In a game with 30 operators with each offering a unique playstyle, Rainbow manages to balance the game despite this stark variety of ability. For example, Kapkan is a defence operator who has a unique gadget that is placed at any type of entrance such a door and windows. It is a bomb that activates when any attacking operator steps into a door or window without paying heed to their movement. It results in instant death and can potentially be a game changer where the attackers underestimate the defence rush to the core objective blindly driven by their superiority.

To counter Kapkan’s trap, there is an equally strong attacking operator Twitch who is equipped with a drone that shoots electric taser. Kapkan trap is an electronic equipment and twitch’s drone can destroy the trap remotely by operating her drone. Every operator has a strong gadget that can be destroyed by a counter operator. However, Blackbeard is an attacking Navy seal operator who has a shield mounted on his rifle.

OPERATORS ARE THE REAL GEM AND WE NEED MORE

This provides much-needed defence against defending operator when he peeks through a minute crack or murder holes made on barricade windows. A murder hole can be detected easily on a window hence the defender who takes a shot at the hole ends up destroying the rifle shield which gives an opportunity for Blackbeard land a head shot on the countering defender. The glass shield shatters which protects Blackbeard from a shot that could otherwise be fatal to any other operator.

This game has spawned a new generation of competitive sports that is highly celebrated in North America and Eastern Europe. Do let me know you favourite person shooter?

I have already given my review earlier and the ranking was lower because of the frustrating matchmaking errors. With Operation health, most of the annoying bugs have been fixed and matchmaking has become quicker. So I re-rate this game to a solid 9/10. This game is a must play, highly recommended for first person shooter game lovers.