The newest member of the Rainbow Six series was released on December 1, giving a whole new meaning to “Breach and Clear.” Those who followed along with the Rainbow Six series can remember being teased with the trailer of a Rainbow Six Patriots, but not being delivered a game, and then not hearing anything about Team Rainbow for a while. Then in June of 2014, it was announced during E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) that the next installment of the series would be based on siege warfare and given the name “Siege.”

While most of us enjoyed the campaign story lines of the last Rainbow Six games, this installment did not include the typical story mode. Siege does include a bit of a substitute to the campaign mode, called “Situations.” In this mode the player is dropped into a specified area given certain equipment of a specific character class, hence the name Situations. Then based upon what is given to them, the player has to complete the objective which usually consists of eliminating all of the enemy threat in some way. There are, however, only 10 of these missions, not giving much of an in-depth look into each character, which Ubisoft probably intended when making this new mode.

There are two other modes included alongside Situations: versus mode and terrorist hunt. These are the same game modes from the previous games with the same basic idea behind them. In versus mode players connect online to compete against each other. In this mode there are various different objectives to play such as Hostage Rescue, where one team of players fortifies the building they’re placed in to protect their hostage asset while the other team assaults the building to try and rescue the hostage, and Bomb Defuser, where again one team fortifies their surroundings to defend the bomb while the other team breaches the building with a disarming device to disarm the bomb. The other mode, terrorist hunt, is most like a typical shooter game’s private match. Here, players, either by themselves or with a team if they choose, are placed just outside of a fortified building or home that is filled with enemies. The players have to use all their equipment to their ability, decide on the best possible way to breach into the building and eliminate the enemy threat. Depending on who is on the team, playe’s have virtually endless options of how they want to go about this. It can be either full assault guns blazing, quiet and stealthy or pretty much anywhere in between. Some characters are better for certain strategies in this, however.

Another new addition to this game is the new Operator characters. These operators are fictionalized renditions of actual anti-terrorist organizations all around the globe. The organizations picked for this game include Britain’s SAS (Special Air Service) , Los Angeles’ FBI SWAT (Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Weapons And Tactics), France’s GIGN (Groupe d’Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale – National Gendarme Intervention Group), Russia’s Spetsnaz (an umbrella term for Russia’s special forces) groups and Germany’s GSG 9 (Grenzschutzgruppe 9 der Bundespolizei – Border Protection Group 9 of the Federal Police). Each group comes with two attack operators for when the player is on the attacking team, and two defense operators for when the player lands on the defensive team, each specialized for specific jobs require to complete their objectives in game. However, players must buy these operators with experience gained from playing the game, when not using a specific operator, player’s are given a basic operator deemed “Recruit.” This recruit can use many different weapon and gadget combinations from across the five organizations, but the Recruit is not specialized in any way; this operator sort of acts like the “jack of all trades” for the player.

I give this title a 7/10. While Rainbow Six has been one of my favorite series over the years, I feel like this game does not completely satisfy. Like I previously mentioned, this one does not include a full length campaign mode like the previous installments did in the past; I believe this is a big thing Ubisoft missed out with. Also the operators could use some more customization for the player so their in-game use could be a little higher. And of course the game’s servers could run a little better, but that doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue. However, no game is perfect and there will always be flaws. This one is still fun. I find myself having  a good time playing it with friends and see myself playing it for a while. I just hope the next one may be a little more in-depth than this one.