The terror and triumph in Rainbow Six Siege

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It’s a good game

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[Soulbow’s ongoing inside joke is that he likes Rainbow Six Siege and some of the community sandbag his favorite game. So this is me officially breaking the sandbag, if at least for just a day. Because here, he describes a typical game so well. ~ Marcel]

Just like that, I watched my teammates’ lives end before my eyes. I observed from outside, on a rappel line, as they stacked up on the objective doorway. “Don’t stack up, you’re easy pickings” I grumbled out through my mic. They didn’t listen, they never do.

Gunfire erupts from inside the room. A parade of bullets echo throughout my headset as I watch the heads of one, two, three of my teammates snap back as they slumped to the ground. Suddenly this had become 2v5, all in a split second. My other teammate, bless his heart; thought he could catch them reloading as he cover swapped to the other side of the doorway. Peeking in I watched as his head vaporized like the numbers in my bank account after payday.

“Fuck.”

In any other competitive game this would of been a death sentence, one where you to simply rush in and admit defeat at the hands of superior gamers. This isn’t one of those games. This is Siege.

I steadied myself, swapped to the other side of the window and peered in. From my angle I could see the east wall, unenforced and with a murder hole in it. My teammates were gunned down from the south door, so I knew that it was possible I could see the other team.  Sure enough, a quick flicker of movement passed by the hole. I steadied my 100-round LMG and tracked to where I thought they might be. Letting off one red hot round through the thin ply-wall separating us, somehow it connected with his dome. Four to go.

I knew his teammates had heard the round, and they knew where I was. Leveling my gun through the window, I aimed at the door that currently had four slumped, probably still warm, bodies laying in front of it. Right on time; the enemy began to pour out. I started to unload. A barrage of lead cutting through them as they fell, one after another, in the face of my onslaught. One, two, three; they stopped coming. Hot white smoke was still coming off the tip of my gun as I rappelled in. I saw a flick of movement out of the right side of my eye as I swung in. “There you are, asshole.”

Scrambling to the wall I throw myself up against it, turning around and laying flat on my back as I trained the barrel of my rifle at the corner that the enemy was sure to come around. I didn’t wait, I still had 60 rounds. The sharp, loud pops echoing in my headset as I finally relented. I waited, a count going in my head. One… Two… Three… Four. There he is.  Little bastard thought I was reloading and that he could catch me. Surprise motherfucker.  Like John-fucking-Rambo himself I gritted my teeth, looked into the whites of his eyes and proceeded to blow them straight out the back of his head. “Round won” crossed my screen.

This is Siege.

What the fuck is up everyone? As some of you may know, I’m Soulbow. I’m here to talk about a game that holds a very dear place in my heart. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.  People say they haven’t played it ’cause the “last good Rainbow Six game they played was Vegas 2.” Hey, fuck trombone. That was the last one.

But I digress, I’m not here to talk negatively. There’s enough of that in this game that I’m not even going to begin to touch on. I’m here to talk about one thing and one thing only.  This is the main reason Siege is set apart from its peers and the one mechanic that REALLY makes it feel different than any other game.

That would be the one-shot headshot.

With the exception of one Operator, (one of which I’m not even going to touch on in this blog because I consider it an absolute asinine amount of bullshit that he’s even in the game at all), there is one universal rule that all Operators fall under. If you get shot in the head, even one hot piece of booyah, by any gun, you die. Instantly. No down-but-not-out, no double chances, you’re done, son. This allows Siege to be a game of insane amounts of skill and stress, but also one where a lucky round is just around the next corner.

In this regard, this is why Siege is so special to me. Siege is a horror game for the beginning of every round. You’re desperately listening in on your headset for any set of footsteps, a wall being broken, even a drone whirring. It’s tense, to say the least. Every single round gets my blood flowing as you stay hunkered down, all your well-thought-out plans in the preparation phase instilling (maybe) just a small bit of confidence that you could possibly survive. This all goes right out the window the second you hear gunfire, or a wall gets blasted open right beside you. Every logical thought exits your mind and is replaced by a primal survival instinct of “this fucker needs to get got before he gets me.” It’s unbelievably exhilarating, and a feeling I’ve never once even come close to experiencing in any other game.

Funny thing is, it also feels this way when you’re attacking. Every corner, every footstep, is a new challenge. You usually never know (unless you’re actually really good.) what the enemy has in store for you, as you round a corner, iron sights trained to detect even the slightest amount of movement. Gunfights are over in a split second, so you have to be on the top of your game Every. Single. Fucking. Second.

I’m not going to write an absurdly long blog about this game, I could go on for pages and pages. Just know this, Siege may be slow at first. It may require you getting shot in the face by some shit waffle who knows the maps better than you ever will, peeking through a murder-hole past three walls. However, every single round is unique. You never know exactly what angle the enemy team is planning, and the tension, unknowingness, and sheer adrenaline when you finally get to the shooty-shooty bang-bang helps keep Siege fresh and exciting for every damn second you decide to devote your life to it.

Thanks for reading, now, who’s ready to Siege my rectum?


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