Description:
Rainbow Six Siege is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. Gamers who want to play the game can purchase it on various gaming platforms like EpicGames, Steam or UPlay. The game is available for purchase at various tiers, and the difference between various tiers are determined by the operators that are unlocked immediately upon purchase. The game is available on PC and Console, and cross platform is not available; separating the console and PC players.

Find out more at: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/rainbow-six/siege

Analysis through Lens #7: Elemental Tetrad

Mechanics:

Match Procedure:
Team-based 5v5, where each team takes turns to play both Attack and Defence on the same map.

Goals:
First to reach the required amount of rounds won wins the Match.

Game Modes:
Multiple game modes to choose from, eg. Hostage, Diffuse the bomb, etc.

Environment:
Unlike mainstream competitive FPS games like CS:GO, Rainbow Six Siege enables a more dimensional approach to outplay through its environment.

By giving players the ability to change the environment, players will have to be quick on their feet and adapt to these changes that can happen anytime during a match.

Physics/Player Actions:
Players are able to choose from a wide plethora of Operators dependent on which side they are currently playing on (Attack or Defence). Operators are divided into these 2 types as they come with abilities specialised in these 2 mentioned areas.

Overall, I feel that Rainbow Six is one of the most mechanically challenging games I have ever played. The developers definitely were successful in making it not just a first person shooter, but a tactical shooter game.

Aesthetics:
Since the game’s concept revolves around the idea of an attacking team infiltrating an area to secure their objective and a defending team trying to prevent the attackers from reaching their objective, all of the playable maps are of buildings of some sort.

Technology:
Powered by AnvilNext2.0, the game also utilizes Ubisoft’s RealBlast technology to create destructible environments.
Due to the game heavily revolving around destructible environments, a graphics card is required to run the game at its minimum. This is a very different case compared to other competitive games like CS:GO and League of Legends where they are way less intensive in terms of graphics processing.

Analysis through Lens #21: The lens of flow

– Players can choose between Casual and Competitive modes.
– Casual allows for different game modes while there’s only one game mode for Competitive play
– Competitive games are matched by the player’s individual Match Making Ratings (MMR)
– The quality of play increases throughout the ranking system. Since we have established that Rainbow Six Siege is way more than a point and click shooter, more experienced players are able to outplay their opponents without even aiming their guns at them.

Like every other competitive game, I do agree with the way they made their ranking system. However as this game is on a whole new level of mechanically intensive games, the problem of smurfing is prevalent as 1 insanely experienced player on a team can easily pull of a 1v5 due to having superior map knowledge and awareness.

Analysis through Lens #21: The lens of skill

– Skill in the form of Operator Mastery: Knowing how to use your operator’s abilities allow you to perform optimally in a game
– Skill in the form of Map Knowledge: Knowing which walls are soft (not bullet proof) / hard (requires a hard breaching device to breach) allows for better rotations and surprise kills on opponents.
– As players rise up in ranks, the possibility of getting outplayed by a more experienced player becomes higher. This presents and opportunity for players to learn new tricks from their kill cams after getting outplayed.
– Spending more time in the game also gives players a better knowledge of the various maps, improving their map rotations and quality of strategies.

In this department, I find the game very rewarding for the time and effort I put into the game. The game has done a good job in raising the importance of map and game knowledge to a point where raw aim is not enough in bringing a player to the highest levels of competitive play.

Analysis through Lens #53: The Lens of Balance:

Every competitive game with different Characters that bring about exclusive abilities to the game experiences the problem of balancing.

Balancing Operators
Rainbow Six Siege brings about balance in the form of counter-play mechanics that players can bring by choosing the right Operators for the job.

Balancing Sides
Apart from balancing Operators, Rainbow Six Siege also have to take into account the balancing of side advantage. Ever heard of the term CT-sided and T-sided? These terms come from the classic CS:GO where certain maps are known to be better for either the Counter-Terrorists or the Terrorists.

Rainbow Six Siege deals with this problem by designing different Operators that specialise in different scenarios so that there can never be a fixed way for anyone to play the game.

“The map is too small and its impossible for attackers to breach! This map is so defence-sided!” – Angry newbie that has less than 5 hours of gameplay

Maybe pick an Operator that can breach hard walls like Thermite? Or pick an Operator that can disable enemy traps with their drone? Or you could just look at the video below!

All in all, Rainbow Six Siege is one of the best tactical shooters I have ever played. With no option to pay to win, the only way to get good at the game is to spend time and effort into learning its mechanics.