Xbox Addict

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege is a new sight for sore Ubi-fan eyes

From Xbox Wire:

Tom Clancy’s enduring tactical shooter franchise returns after a six-year hiatus with "Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege," scheduled for release in 2015. Based on the pre-alpha footage screened at Ubisoft’s E3 press conference on Monday, it looks like the wait has been more than worth it.

The five-minute demo – looking staggeringly impressive and polished for pre-alpha code – centered on a strike team that is helicoptered in to extract and rescue a hostage. Here are four features we observed that should make any shooter fan stand up and take notice.

Heavy-Duty Strategy

The calmest moments you’ll have are in the helicopter above your mission. You have to chat it up to figure out what you’re going to do and how you’re going to go about it. Talk to your comrades and you’ll be able to effectively improvise and respond to your surroundings. From the moment you rappel in to the moment you get saved by one of your buddies, your allies are your most important tool and asset. Use them.

Strongholds and Sieges

Like survivors of a zombie apocalypse, "Siege" players can dig in and fortify a position with things like barbed wire, reinforced doors, and mines. Of course, that means their opponents have the tools to breach those fortifications. This wouldn’t be a Tom Clancy game if it didn’t give players access to some amazing, almost-plausible gadgets. Just one example: As the team hunted down the captors in the demo, they deployed a flat drone under a door to scope out the position of the enemy and the hostage.

Destructible Environments

Other games have boasted about you being able to blow their worlds apart, but in "Rainbow Six: Siege," this is of utmost strategic importance. This is an intense game where you have to claw your way towards progress without alerting the captors. As firefights inevitably break out, you can use the bullet holes and blast damage to peek – and shoot – through walls. (The damage, Ubisoft says, will be based on such minute details as the caliber of bullets.) Of course, this means your enemies have that advantage, too.

A Minimalist Interface 

And you’ll need those peepholes, as well as your full arsenal of gadgets, if you plan to survive; a minimalist heads-up display seems careful not to give too much away. You’ll be alerted when one of your wing men is killed or one of your opponents is tagged – it will pop up onscreen, when the tides start to turn one way or another, but other than that (and knowing which team has the hostage), you’re pretty much on your own. See the bullet points above for how you’ll have to earn your progress. Stay focused, stay honest, and stay true. That’s how you stay alive in "Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege."