Why Rainbow Six Siege Still Resonates Five Years Later

Why I Still Play Rainbow Six Siege Five Years After Its Release - and why the game remains unique despite numerous releases from other video game franchises.

Photocredit Amazon.com

“LMG mounted and loaded” - Alexsandr Senaviev, a.k.a. Tachanka.

Rainbow Six Siege players have heard this phrase hundreds of times. It’s short, simple, and undoubtedly hilarious for those familiar with the game. Being a physically slow and humongous Russian special ops comrade with muscles the size of Putin’s ego, Tachanka sticks out like a sore thumb. The butt of many jokes, he is also a part of what makes the game great. 

Much like Leonardo DiCaprio in Revenant, Rainbow Six Siege should have died long ago, but thanks to constant development and a die hard playerbase, the game has not only survived, it has thrived. From countless memes to a professional esports league to over thirty character additions, the game has garnered upwards of 60 million players worldwide. 

Ubisoft’s best first person shooter provides the optimal gaming experience for those of us who thrive on winning - and despise losing with a passion. 

Rainbow Six Siege, also known as R6 or Siege within the community, hits its five year anniversary in early December, and the game has evolved from being the underdeveloped black sheep of the Ubisoft family to the seasoned veteran.  

Initially the game was deemed a failure by Ubisoft and gamers alike. The concept of a game without a campaign mode was a relatively new concept when the game was first released in late 2015. This made it hard for many would-be players to rationalize forking over $60 for a game that appeared to be incomplete.

Some players, like a couple of my close college friends, were expecting a game similar to Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The award winning previous installment in the Rainbow Six lineup featured a wide array of single player campaign missions that consisted of hunting terrorists - a perfect scenario for the war-heavy 2000s. 

Instead, Rainbow Six Siege features 5-on-5 multiplayer as the main game mode. For those that haven’t played, this may sound commonplace, and it undoubtedly is. That aspect of the game is not the main attraction. 

R6’s appeal lies not in the format of its primary game mode, but in the creativity, strategy, level interaction, and sheer unforgiving competitive experience. It’s essentially a one-of-a-kind mix of a classic multiplayer shooter and a digital demolition. There are few game maneuvers as satisfying as repelling your way through a closed window by blowing up the window covering with an explosive breach charge (below), and even fewer moments that feel as rewarding as having your fallen teammates watch your every movement when you clutch up for the win. 

Photocredit: Macie Jay

Today, the game stands as an undeniable success, but developers and gamers alike have endured a long road to get here. 

Saying that R6 was clunky and rough around the edges when it was released would be an understatement. The game was borderline broken. Connection issues, in-match glitches, and lighting discrepancies plagued early players who were brave enough to weather the storm. 

Those day-one players, like myself, kept playing because there was unquestionable potential within the foundational aspects on which the game is built. 

First, the one-shot headshot kill mechanic leveled the playing field for relatively unskilled shooters (AKA me) who don’t have the natural ‘gift’ to accurately line up a virtual reticle on a body with ease. Second, the ability to interact with levels by, puncturing or completely destroying windows, walls, and floors provided a unique change of pace for those of us who grew up playing the static levels of Call of Duty. Third, the concept of dying and not instantly respawning raises the stakes and provokes better engagement and performance. Fourth, the ability to actively assist teammates after dying through drone or camera spotting and communication, can make or break a team’s performance and thus makes the internal environment either highly collaborative or toxic depending on performance. The ranking system within competitive Siege also ups the ante for players who seek a greater degree of instant gratification upon winning a match (or insinuates rage upon losing). 

All of these features make for one of the most unique gameplay experiences available. Similar to baseball, games within R6 are tough to win through the stellar performance of one team member. It requires a group effort built on solid communication and advantageous positioning. If you fail in effectively communicating the placement of an opponent, you stand the risk of being called out by gamers who make up one of the most toxic gaming communities in modern history. 

Long time R6 player Max Loree compares the game favorably against other popular franchises due to the realistic nature of the gameplay. “Unlike a lot of other shooters like Call of Duty, Siege takes actual game and map (level) knowledge and creative skills to be good. It also has more realistic body movements,” Loree says. 

The map knowledge Loree refers to can only be acquired after hours of gameplay, much like a craft such as painting or playing the guitar. Given that the maps can be manipulated and blown apart in thousands of ways, there is a lot of trial and error involved in figuring out the optimal way to attack a certain enemy position, and this is only exacerbated by the growing multitudes of unique operators. In this regard it takes more effort to be good at than Halo for instance, in which the maps are static and are merely boundaries instead of interactive obstacles. Only one player per team can choose a given operator, and in many instances your duties within the match are delegated depending on the operator chosen.

Attacking Operators in R6 as of July 2020

There is also the matter of the characters, or operators as the game calls them. Only one person per team can pick an attacking or defending operator, and these operators are given unique catchphrases and deeply detailed biographies. Their unique abilities are signifiers of their personality traits by which they become more human rather than simply video game characters. Given the amount of time I’ve put into the game it's no wonder why I know more about Tachanka’s backstory than the background of my local politicians. 

One of the reasons the R6 gaming community remains so harsh is the level of competitiveness. Every round feels like a life or death battle, and will raise your blood pressure to the levels of a steroid-fueled bodybuilder. 

Aside from the brutal competitiveness of Siege, there’s also an element of creativity that other first person shooters lack. Just look up popular streamers Macie Jay or KingGeorge and you’ll see out-of-the-box tactics that even developers likely never thought would be viable. From shooting underneath floors or bouncing a grenade through a rooftop vent, R6 provides almost endless opportunities when it comes to devising new ways to kill your opponents. 

Yes, R6 provides a convenient and productive way for me to stay in close communication with friends from college, but more importantly its a competitive outlet on par with that of organized sports. 

I must admit that, prior to playing Siege, I hadn’t experienced a level of joy due to winning a game since my high school baseball days. The effort needed to win in competitive R6 matches comes up just a hair short of blood, sweat and tears. 

The game also continues to reinvent itself from within, while its competitors like Call of Duty or Fortnite have adapted a rinse and repeat formula. Just last week, a new Halloween game mode features the operators vying for supremacy in a candyland arena. The mode is only available for roughly two weeks, and has been subject to much criticism; However, somewhere deep in their caffeine fueled hearts, gamers appreciate the effort Ubisoft exerts to spice up the gaming experience despite the developers swing-and-misses. 

Photo credit Daily Express

The Sugar Fright Event, as it's called, features the operator Frost waking up from a candy induced slumber to find herself and her fellow special ops soldiers looking awfully similar to muppets, and, naturally, start shooting one another. 

The mode follows a tradition of new game modes surrounding Halloween. Some have been successful, some haven’t, but players know that they can always go back to good ol competitive matches when they grow bored of the gimmick. It's just a small example of the unique culture Ubisoft has created with the game - one that is open to small changes but essentially doesn’t want to venture too far from its own niche because anything that isn’t immediately gratifying and competitive won’t last long. 

Ubisoft listens to its community and has performed updates to the game directly based on suggestions that gamers and popular streamers have made. For a company that gets roasted by its consumers continuously, Ubisoft is uniquely humble in the way it alters its strategy in an attempt to please the masses. 

Five years later, I can undoubtedly say that this game, by itself, has not only kept me engaged in the video game community, but has changed the entire first person shooter landscape.  

It didn’t matter that the game lacked a true campaign mode. It didn’t matter that there was a roughly 50% chance of you being disconnected from the game for the first few months after its release. Lastly, it didn’t matter that once you died in a round you were done, finished, nonexistent. Aside from the social camaraderie provided, R6 has created a realistic sense of accomplishment that feels like more than a game. 

It’s been a long road, but R6 inadvertently created an ultra competitive yet simultaneously creative niche for itself within a game genre that was becoming repetitive, and somehow it still finds a way to be unique to this day. I fully intend on playing this game until it's no longer supported - or Ubisoft runs out of operator ideas.

With any luck I’ll be writing a new post about Siege at the ten year mark. Until then, you can find me ecstatically busting open walls with Sledge.