gamescom 2015: Rainbow Six Siege Rewards Team Players and Destroys Everyone Else

There are elements of the Rainbow Six series that set it apart from other games. The quickness in which you die; the tense, twitchy, almost trigger-happy feeling when someone turns a corner in your sights; the reliance on a team to support you, and the fear of letting them down. Rainbow Six Siege brings all of that back to the series, hitting all the notes of a game that is shaping up to be an amazing tactical shooter.

At gamescom 2015, we got the chance to play a few rounds of Terrorist Hunt (or TerroHunt if you will), experiencing both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.

Terrorist Hunt pits you and four other teammates against another team of five – with the two teams alternating between the holed-up, base-defending terrorists and the Special Forces team tasked with taking down. As the defending team, you have to barricade entrances, set traps, and take out anyone who tries to get in. The attacking team has to outwit and outmaneuver the other team by either taking them all out, or gaining entry into the room that they’re protecting.

Rainbow Six Siege boasts plenty of realism… and challenge. The slogan “one shot, one kill” accurately describes how easy it is to pay for a single mistake. This is definitely a game where you need to talk to your team, and they’d better talk back. Relaying info about where enemies are, what entrances are not barricaded, and which rooms have traps is essential – not only for taking out enemies, but for not killing your teammates (full disclosure: We sort of screwed up on that last part, and killed the Ubisoft Montreal dev who was demoing the game for us… but in our defense, he came charging up the stairs and we panicked!).

What makes Rainbow Six Siege particularly fun, even in a demo limited to one map, is that each round plays out completely differently. Players could pick from nine different characters (and still more to come!), each with different weapons and skills. A selection of French, American, and British operators are at the player’s command. Go for the giant, shield-bearing Montagne to protect your team from fire, choose the creepy-but-cool Smoke and lay deadly gas traps… or maybe go team USA, pick Ash, and use her to blow open doors from a distance with her weapon-mounted breach charge. Every character plays differently, and lends themselves more toward certain maps.

The defending team chooses what room they want to defend, changing up the strategy for how the other team has to attack. The building we were in had three stories: the ground floor, second floor, and basement. Depending on where the defending team is stationed, you’ll need to plot out a unique entry plan. This can involve rappelling in from the roof, busting down doors with a sledgehammer, or even finding an open window (which usually sets you up for a trap, or a waiting gunman).

We’re getting increasingly more excited for Rainbow Six Siege, and can’t wait for its October 13 release on Xbox One and Windows PC. But this is just one mode, out of multiple multiplayer modes. And that doesn’t even begin to touch on the single-player campaign, which features an epic, pulse-pounding story starring Hollywood legend Angela Bassett. Oh, and did we mention that the Xbox One version of Rainbow Six Siege comes with Rainbow Six Vegas & Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for free? So, yeah, get psyched – because October is going to be intense.