Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was one of my first authentic co-op experiences. Back in 2008 Ubisoft Montreal brought their tactical shooter to gamers and to great success. Fast forward to early 2014 and I was craving another great co-op tactical shooter; however I would have never guessed that last year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) would bring to light a trailer for their new game Rainbow Six Siege.
Take a look at the trailer below for their multiplayer game demo.
Now that you have watched the trailer, look at it from a very simple perspective. What did you see going on? Well, for starters, you saw two groups of players playing offense and defense, respectively. Before we dissect this gameplay demo we have to address the fact that the teams consist of players that have practiced this multiplayer situation beforehand. This is a full-on scripted demo with the façade of a real multiplayer situation. Keep that in mind. This is scripted so the viewers can see the gameplay mechanics that want to be highlighted by the developers. If a real situation were to occur at the expo live, too many variables would be in play to allow for a fair representation to be seen of what the game has to offer. To see some unscripted footage check out this half hour of coverage from IGN. Knowing this process about “live” gameplay demos is crucial to understanding how games are represented when developers go to these expos and conferences.
What makes this gameplay demo very promising?
Gamers notice verticality, plain and simple. The two floors and basement of the home were a tight, enclosed playable area; when a game offers multiple planes of playable area, that is already an attention grabber. Now, when a game features verticality and destructible environments that is especially captivating. The Rainbow Six franchise gained popularity as a tactical shooter and while other of its entries featured rappelling, Siege brings it one step further as you saw in the video. Another great part of this demo is the fact that every player has a different class which shows the game’s diversity to the viewer. The importance of showing what classes will be offered in the game is important because often times a game will showcase different classes, but not show off how each one serves a purpose in multiplayer. As a matter of fact, most games offer different classes and then in live multiplayer the team-working aspect falls flat and one class is predominant. Siege, by including destructibility and a small team-tactical approach to multiplayer, enforces a specialization process when organizing teams, i.e. one person has a riot shield to protect the hostage, one person has a shotgun to blast locked doors open, etc. Rainbow Six Siege is going to, hopefully, deliver a great team-tactical approach to multiplayer first-person shooters.
How do you feel about a new team-tactical first person shooter? Have you played the other entries in the franchise? What jumped out at you after watching the gameplay demo?
For someone who’s not a serious gamer, can you elaborate on the concept of verticality? What makes a multi-floor playing area so much better than a large, wide one?
Once again, another very nice article. That whole idea of one dominant class is something that bugs me in most games; one class always seems to overpower the rest, which pretty much ruins the developer’s attempt at versatility. I haven’t been keeping an eye out for this game in particular, but this newly enforced team-based multiplayer seems pretty dope, so I might just have to keep track of this.
And Tamar, to answer your question, verticality gives gamers a whole new axis to take into consideration when playing. It enforces different strategies when playing, seeing as now you must look up and down as opposed to just left and right. It also allows for some of the greatest moments in games; whether it be driving a plane over a forest or scaling down a mountain, it adds insane immersion and depth that we weren’t able to see in video games a while ago!
Thank you both for the comments and the constant support!! Nik I agree with you that the one class focus is not helping games out these days and hopefully it will change. I personally think that we are in that transition period now.
Tamar, if you think of this gameplay footage in relation to other games that allow movement in 3 dimensions then it’s refreshing to see more verticality because usually you can jump on ledges in games or the game pushes you in a linear fashion through its environments. Allowing for extended movement into other dimensions gives more freedom to the player when they have to decide how to approach a situation, like breaching into a home that has been boarded up.
ur effort is really amazing.. share more about game review..