With the removal of one of the Rainbow Six: Siege traditions, the Crimson Robbery led Rainbow Six: Siege into its sixth year. Today, we are familiar with Fuze and hostages, five-speed headless monsters and other "Rainbow Six: Siege" terriers, and we also look forward to the professional teams playing more and more wonderful operations and cooperation at the International Invitational. We are learning more and more about map construction and operator skills, and we are paying more and more attention to our KD and operational level. In a word, Rainbow Six: Siege is now an uncompromising esports game.
However, back in 1998, Rainbow Six, which debuted in front of the world at that time, was still a realistic counter-terrorism simulation game. How dramatic has it changed in the past 20 years that this world-renowned IP has gradually changed from a realistic game to an esports game? You may wish to follow our perspective and review the changes and progress of "Rainbow Six" in the past 20 years. If you haven't played Rainbow Six: Siege yet, this article can also take you through the specifics of the game and help you decide whether to buy the game.
>>> from Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Tom Clancy, real name Thomas Leo Clancy, is a best-selling novelist who specializes in military themes set in the Cold War. In addition to the well-known Rainbow Six, Tom Clancy has written a number of best-selling novels such as Patriot Game, Urgent Crisis, and The Sum of Fear. In his book, the terrifying conspiracy of repression and horror, the gritty and stereotypical heroic characters, and the military knowledge of the real hardcore jump out of the paper. As the number one best-selling writer in the United States in the 80s, Tom Clancy's masterpiece "Urgent Crisis" topped the New York Times best-selling novel list for more than half a year. Although Tom Clancy's novels have often been criticized as "self-contained and uninspired" since the 1990s, military fans and book fans have expressed their support for his series of novels with their wallets.
Rainbow Six is Tom Clancy's bold attempt at counterterrorism after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The book describes the story of American General John Clark and his elite NATO unit Rainbow, which handled terrorist attacks around the globe, with realistic military details that were unanimously praised by military fans. Interestingly, rainbow six fiction mentions games and conspiracies around Ebola by governments and a giant pharmaceutical company, and the authenticity of these conspiracies has even led some lawmakers to openly suspect that the U.S. government is really plotting covert Ebola-related operations.
In 1998, Red Strom Entertainment, the studio Tom Clancy and others founded, was preparing to release a first-person counterterrorism shooter. Originally they named the game Black Ops (yes, the same name as Black Ops), which depicts counterterrorism forces from around the globe resolving crises and rescuing hostages. The studio then learned that Tom Clancy was working on the Rainbow Six novel, and Red Storm Entertainment immediately adapted its game to incorporate the Rainbow Six worldview. In the same year, the "Rainbow Six" video game was officially released. Red Storm Entertainment's movements were so fast that tom Clancy had not yet finished writing the original Rainbow Six novel when the game was released.
Rainbow Six defines a new gameplay of tactical FPS, allowing players to experience for the first time terms commonly used in the U.S. military, such as "one shot one kill" and "tango down." The game also draws heavily on elements of real-world counter-terrorism tactics, such as all characters who will be killed or lose their abilities after being hit by one or two bullets, a very realistic gun and equipment system, and challenging tactical planning gameplay. In an era when games were not based on player experience, but on authenticity and rationality, a difficult and hardcore game like Rainbow Six was a commercial success, selling 220,000 copies in a year and earning nearly $10 million.
>>> from the hardcore immersive experience of Red Storm to the fast-paced commercial FPS of Ubisoft Montreal
After Rainbow Six became a hit, Red Storm Entertainment Studios immediately released Rainbow Six's supplementary package Eagle Watch and sequel Rogue Spear in 2000. In August of the same year, Ubisoft acquired Red Storm Entertainment, which was planning Ghost Recon, which the following year also managed to make Ghost Recon a masterpiece comparable to the hottest game of 2001, Counter-Strike: Operation Lightning.
In the years since, Red Storm has developed several Rainbow Six games, and in that era of piracy, they were introduced by mainland publishers, such as Operation Shield (2003, Xbox, PS2), Urban Crisis (2004, Windows), The Law of Confinement (2006, Xbox, PS2), and a series of expanded expansion packs. Thanks to the hardcore immersive tactical shooting experience, the Rainbow Six series has been generally well received. During this period, Ubisoft's Montreal, Quebec and Milan studios were also involved in the production of the game to varying degrees.
In November 2006, a special Rainbow Six series was officially released. It was the first Rainbow Six not to be made by Red Storm, and the beginning of a radical transformation of the Rainbow Six series — it was the rainbow six: Vegas we're familiar with. Ubisoft's Montreal studio brought comprehensive changes to Rainbow Six: Vegas, such as changing the two-shot blood bar to the Gasping Blood Law and adding a Gears of War-style third-person bunker system. Overall, Rainbow Six: Vegas is more paced and market-oriented than its predecessors, catering to the appetites of the vast majority of players. Despite being ridiculed by some veteran players, Rainbow Six: Vegas was a commercial success.
Two years later, in 2008, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was released. Also directed by Ubisoft Montreal, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 doesn't drastically improve the game mechanics, just adding cool-looking ideas like the xbox 360 allowing the Xbox360 to scan their faces to make a model of the face of the in-game secret service operator. The game was also a commercial success — and it was around this time that Ubisoft finally got a taste of the assembly line game.
>>> from "Patriot", which collapsed in the middle of the middle of entrepreneurship, to the new idea of the rebirth of the series "Siege"
Just when Ubisoft's multiple IPs are working at the same time and showing their grand plans, the new work "Patriot" in the "Rainbow Six" series is in a huge predicament.
It was conceived that Rainbow Six: Patriot would be the same narrative-based tactical shooter as its predecessor, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, and would mimic the popular Call of Duty: Black Ops to add multiple storylines. But not long after rainbow six: Patriots was released in 2011, Ubisoft's Montreal studio suffered a massive personnel change. On top of that, there are quite a few employees complaining about the obsolescence of the series engines — outdated engines that limit them to adding more cool ideas. After the release of the eighth-generation consoleS4 and Xbox One, Ubisoft completely canceled the development of Rainbow Six: Patriot, leaving only 25 staff members at the Ubisoft Montreal studio to plan the next Rainbow Six.
After the dust settled on the personnel changes at Ubisoft's Montreal studio, the developers finally defined the game as a reboot of the series and determined that they would only retain the multiplayer elements of the previous game. Adapting a single-player FPS into an online game is not an easy task, because the development team must meet the realism as much as possible while taking into account the balance and rationality of multiplayer battles. The development team devoted all their resources to the design of the game mode and named the game Rainbow Six: Unbreakable. In January 2013, the game was officially renamed Rainbow Six: Siege and entered the research and development stage, and in the same year, Tom Clancy himself unfortunately passed away.
At the 2014 E3 Game Show, Ubisoft Montreal Studio unveiled a promotional video for Rainbow Six: Siege, in which 5v5 hostage rescue gameplay and rather exaggerated wall destruction techniques made the game look pretty good. At that time, players were complaining that Battlefield: Hardcight lacked the authenticity of police confrontation, so Rainbow Six: Siege made many FPS fans shine. Although brand director Alexander Remy admits that "old players will be disappointed by the transformation of the game", more and more people are also looking forward to the official release of Rainbow Six: Siege.
>>> from catastrophic PVP shooters to unique competitive confrontation experiences
In December 2015, Rainbow Six: Siege was officially released in the spotlight. At this time, Ubisoft is experiencing their own glory, such as Assassin's Creed: The Owl, Far Cry 4, Watchdog, Children of Light and other works that seem to be pushing Ubisoft to the top of the super-first-tier manufacturers, and "Rainbow Six: Siege" seems to be their new test of waters - but don't forget, this is the first time Ubisoft has run a confrontational multiplayer online game.
The sight crosshairs deviate from the actual ballistic trajectory, and the gun backstaule is also quite outrageous, resulting in the player's shooting feel is extremely poor; the player's imaginary police confrontation has also been modified into the internal training of swat officers, and terrorists can only live in PVE mode; the gods bypass the anti-cheat system that is about equal to non-existent, and act arbitrarily in the game; the complex map destruction and skill item interaction system brings countless bugs... The sheer number of questions, combined with a pretty good gameplay design, makes the original Rainbow Six Siege look like a lump of diamond-dotted vomit.
Fortunately, Ubisoft did not sit still, because they had already said that "Rainbow Six: Siege will have a long life cycle".
In August 2016, Ubisoft entered into a cooperation agreement with the well-known anti-cheat software Battleye, introducing one of the world's strongest anti-cheat software for Rainbow Six: Siege (interestingly, the popular PUBG two years later also used Battleye, and hackers' siege of PUBG "handily" cracked Rainbow Six: Siege's anti-cheat system). The game is also updated every three months with a season frequency, each bringing new cadres from new units, as well as new maps. In March 2018, the production team brought the PVE cooperation model "outbreak" and continued to redo the old unbalanced map after the second half of 2019.
In addition, Ubisoft has partnered with ESL, the host of the well-known esports event, to make Rainbow Six: Siege the second phenomenal confrontational shooter after Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. In this very unique style of esports competition, countless imaginative professional players have contributed a lot of exciting matches and shots to us, and led the player community of Rainbow Six: Siege.
From today's point of view, the original definition of "Rainbow Six: Siege" as a series of rebirths is quite far-sighted and profound. In the process of a series of competitive changes, many old irrational designs, problems and bugs have been removed one by one, and the game's confrontation and playability have been greatly improved. Today, Rainbow Six: Siege has become a world-renowned PVP shooter with its worldview design and powerful wall destruction system, and sales have reached the 100 million mark.
>>> 20 years of old IP changes are lamentable, and the new season of Siege Y6S1 ushered in large-scale changes
From the early years of super-hardcore immersive shooters to highly commercially sustainable e-sports products, the changes in the Rainbow Six series over the past 20 years truly reflect the maturity and marketization of the game industry. In contrast, the entire game market, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, Dota 2 and other online games that have been operating for many years are committed to creating their own ecological environment, without exception. Rainbow Six: Siege must create its own territory if it wants to join the ranks of these successful games, and in the process, it is bound to give up some of the bloodline inherited from 20 years ago. While we're touched by the emotions of older games, we can't forget to embrace new game designs with open arms – after all, it's a rapidly changing world.
Just two days ago, Rainbow Six: Siege had just updated the first season of the sixth year, Crimson Robbery. Argentine operator Flores joined the Rainbow Squad with his self-detonating trolley, enhancing the attacker's ability to suppress defensive props and positions; the players' long-cherished video replay system has also been launched, which can be reviewed after qualifying; and a new secondary weapon, the Gonne-6 Hand Cannon, and a large number of balance adjustments have been launched, making Rainbow Six: Siege continue to develop in the direction of fair play in the sixth year. In addition, the Season Pass mode has been cancelled, while the Y6S1 Pass will last for 70 days and a total of 100 levels, and the purchase of a Premium Pass will unlock the right to use Flores for 14 days in advance and other privileges, as well as other exclusive skin rewards to claim.
To celebrate the new season, Ubisoft also opened Rainbow Six: Siege Free Week, allowing Newcomers who have not yet experienced the game to get started. At the same time, the game also opened promotions at retailers such as Steam and Shanguo, allowing newcomer players to spend dozens of yuan to enter the pit.
If you're confused about the four versions of the game currently available, you can refer to the table below.
Standard Edition | Original price was ¥88 | Discounted price ¥35 | The game itself
Deluxe Edition | Original price was ¥120 | Discounted price ¥38 | Standard Edition + 16 First and Second Year Cadres
Cadre Edition | Original price was ¥308 | Discounted price ¥154 | Deluxe Edition + 22th Year 345 Cadres
Ultimate Edition | Original price was ¥48 | The discounted price is ¥238 | Cadre Edition + "King of Destruction" supply pack
Here's a reminder that the King of Destruction supply pack doesn't contain Y6 Operators and Premium Passes, only a few exclusive skins and outfits, which are not cost-effective for novices. Compared with the standard version, the deluxe version only costs 3 yuan more to get 16 cadres, how to see how to think it is a good deal. If you want to get into the pit, this is definitely the most affordable choice.