Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege‘s Closed Alpha is underway. It arrives nearly a year after its E3 2014 debut where it sent a surge of excitement through first-person shooter culture.
Now that I’ve gotten my hands on the latest build of Rainbow Six Siege, I’ve decided to share my thoughts. I am a competitive Counter-Strike player, so you can say that this is a game that directly targets me and my tastes. This is what I think is good, bad, and ugly about the game in its current state.
The Good
Hostage Rescue is a solid game mode. This might only be one of many game modes that the final product will come packaged with, but at the very least I’m convinced that it’ll be a great way to enjoy the game. At first, the offensive team searches the locale for intelligence using remote controlled camera robots. Then, they siege the defending team in an attempt to rescue a hostage.
It can be exciting. In Hostage Rescue when the offensive team strikes the location where the hostage is, it’s absolute chaos. There are bullets flying everywhere, gadgets deployed, walls blown up, and people screaming over voice communication. It’s adrenaline-pumping unlike anything most first-person shooters ever see.
The teamwork dynamics are stellar. If you’re on a team with three to five people who are willing to co-operate, this game gives you everything you need to execute amazing team-oriented strategies.
Destructible environments are game-defining. The fact that walls and doors can be brought down through various means results in a dynamic environment where no round is the same as another. The map layouts may be built a certain way, but players can carve their own paths. You never know where someone is going to infiltrate your location from.
Rappelling works well. It’s as easy as tapping a button next to an exterior wall and then climbing up. You can then change your orientation for a particular view angle and smash through windows.
You can feel like a hero. Similar to Counter-Strike you only have one life per round in Hostage Rescue. If your teammates die they will be spectating you as you attempt to clutch the round. No matter how calm-mannered you are you’re going to be nervous the first few times when you’re alone in a tense situation with a win on the line.
Great gadget selection. At first learning the ins and outs of all the gadgets is overwhelming. Eventually, it becomes a key ingredient in being successful. There are gas grenades, traps, barbed wire, and a ton of other equipment options that can be effective in the right situation.
The weapony is well-selected. Primary weapons include the P90, Famas G”, G36C, 591A1, and K33 NATO. These are weapons that are well-known in the world of counter-terrorism, meaning that this game does aim for realism to some degree.
The Bad
The engine could be better. While the game already looks good visually, the gun-play is far from perfect. It feels like an earlier Battlefield game, meaning that it isn’t as cohesive as I hoped for.
The audio needs work. There’s a distinct lack of atmosphere within the game levels. The game would benefit greatly from the audio delivery of games like Battlefield 3.
Sidearms are weak. In real life a counter-terrorist can do a lot with a FN Five-seven or MK25. In this virtual world you’re better off throwing rocks at your enemies.
More settings, please. Being unable to turn on push to talk for voice communication among other things is a pain.
The default controls aren’t great. Ctrl for prone and C for crouch? What is this, 1998?
Related: Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Debut Trailer
Game crashes break up the fun. Nothing is quite as disheartening as having your game close in the middle of a firefight. Hopefully your teammates are understanding.
It’s Uplay exclusive on PC. If it were on Steam I’d be 10 times as excited as I already am.
The Ugly
Loading times are horrendous. I am convinced that I’ve spent more time loading between rounds and matches than actually playing the game. We’re talking about loading screens that border on two minutes in length at times, even on a SSD. It’s so bad that I am not interested in playing the game again until it’s addressed.
Overall, I’m sold on Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, going as far as to say that it’s my most anticipated first-person shooter of 2015.
