There are few first person shooters or FPS games that are as realistic or as adrenaline-fueling as Rainbow Six Siege. Any Rainbow Six veteran will agree that there is no better feeling in a game than wiping out the entire enemy team by yourself, earning the coveted achievement of an “ace.”

The Rainbow Six series of games is based off of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six novels, and features a hyper-realistic, tactical, first person shooter style of game in which teams must work in harmony in order to complete objectives in the most efficient manner possible.

The first of the series, Rainbow Six, was released back in 1998 on several platforms such as: Mac OS, Gameboy Color, and the Playstation. The original Rainbow Six created the groundwork for the current 2015 edition we see today, as many of the game’s aspects remain the same, such as choosing which equipment to use for the objective. For example, the breaching charges and flash bang grenades used to aggressively enter rooms back in 98’ are two of the same types of equipment that players can equip their operators with nowadays.

Nowadays the game is a strictly 5v5 player v. player online multiplayer FPS in which two teams take turns attacking or defending an objective. You win the match by either eliminating the entire enemy team or completing the objective. The objective can be anything from planting a bomb to rescuing a hostage. You can either play a casual match, in which first to 3 wins or a ranked match in which first to 5 wins. 

Don’t let the straightforward game mechanics fool you into thinking this game is boring and repetitive. The game makes up for its lack of game modes in other ways. Before loading into a round players have 30 seconds to quickly choose their offensive or defensive operator, specific to what you’re doing for that round, and their operator’s respective and unique equipment or ‘ability’. One of the more unique ops in the game is the attacker, Maverick. Maverick has the unique capability of stealthily burning through reinforced walls with his souped-up blowtorch to create peepholes into defender occupied rooms from which he can fire his heavily modified AR-15 rifle, outfitted with a .50 caliber receiver. He can even decide to burn small entry holes into rooms if given the time and opportunity. There are currently 42 operators, half being attackers and half being defenders in the game, with more being added on a regular basis.

Rainbow 6 Siege takes this style of FPS game to the absolute limit in terms of realism. From being able to eliminate enemy players with a single round from your weapon, to blowing holes through walls or roofs using explosives to gain a tactical advantage, to even repelling face-forward off roofs, nothing is off the table when it comes to how you want to attack or defend your objective. Even the layout of the maps on which you play adds to the realism. The map is usually a building of some sort like a bank or a skyscraper with 3 levels and roughly 10 rooms on each level. This gives the game a very SWAT raid type of feel and adds more to the authenticity of it all.

The game by far takes the cake in terms of how true it feels to real life compared to other FPS games like the Call of Duty and Battlefield series. Now, that’s not to say that the game is better than its competition or perfect by any means. Each game has its own strengths and weaknesses that attract different fan bases. For example, Call of Duty is orientated towards the casual gamer and gives the player a more fast paced fun style of play compared to Siege, which gives the player a slower, yet more satisfying style of play and is orientated towards people who are looking for something a bit more competitive than what’s offered in similar games.

The game itself has continued its success despite being released 5 year ago. Not only has it succeeded financially but also when it comes to the Rainbow 6 community. Over 55 million players are still logging in daily. Part of this is due to its fairly recent introduction into the Esports community on the world stage and big shot streamers like Dr. Disrespect on platforms such as Twitch and Mixer. 

Despite its success and everything Siege does right, it’s still not perfect as it could be. From frustration with finicky bugs with equipment and weapons resulting in premature or unfair deaths, like getting headshotted through a ballistic shield that’s supposed to cover your head, and ban-returning toxic team members, there’s plenty of room for improvement. However, R6: Siege’s tactical mechanics are second to none in first person shooter titles and provides an extremely satisfying experience that can’t be beat for those who are hungry for competitive gameplay.