Patriots No More: Rainbow 6 Siege Breaches E3
Destruction powered by Realbast. Realblast!
E3 is a bit like a flashbang. In it comes whoosh kersplode then you're disoriented and confused and struggle to continue whatever it was you were up to. What I'm saying is that Ubisoft announced Rainbow Six Siege during E3 while we were curled up on the floor and armed men shouted at us, so we forgot to actually post about it even though we've discussed it.
The FPS (no third-person at all this time) sees baddies trying to fortify and hold buildings before the goodies smash in to come and get them. Emphasis on the smashing, as it has magnificently destructible environments powered by tech some joker at Ubi named 'Realbast.' Realbast!
Ubi's E3 demo sees terrorists and Rainbow Six fighting in a suburban house to capture a woman-shaped flag. What starts out as quite a nice house becomes riddled with holes over several minutes as players shoot through walls, breach windows, and blow great holes in walls and floors with explosives. Environmental destruction is often a novelty, a spectacle, but here it seems an exciting reconfiguration of space. I'm quite keen to start destroying things.
[As we bicker about who'll write this, Adam suggests compromise by representing Graham's intentions in this note: "(Memories of Vegas, jumpers for siegeposts...coo, corrr, lovely - Graham)"]
Ubi are playing coy but do hint that it may have single-player or co-op bits like Terrorist Hunt mode. Multiplayer is definitely their focus at E3 this year, and also why we're getting Siege instead of Rainbow Six Patriots--that game Ubi announced in 2011 then quickly shut up about.
I'd assumed their silence was because someone made them sit in a corner and think long and hard about their plans to make a game where you would Press Square To Kiss Wife then be kidnapped and strapped with bombs by banker-hating terrorists but no, it's multiplayer.
Patriots had started with the campaign in mind then multiplayer would be spun off from that, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot told CVG this week, but they decided to make MP experience the core and start over from scratch around that. "The mockups were ghastly" would also have been a good reason to scrap Patriots, but I'm especially glad they did it to make this cracking-looking game.
Developed by Ubisoft Montreal on its Anvil-Next engine (as seen in Assassin's Creed from III onwards), Siege is due next year. Though this is a staged performance, do watch the E3 demo: