My friends and I have been with this game from the beginning and I can tell you that it is one of my favourite games and no doubt my favourite multiplayer game. We play every night or almost every night, we take things very seriously, we only play casual as a joke nothing but ranked, we have incredible amounts of fun playing but at the same time take it deadly serious. Therefore I feel I have some authority to talk about something we all care about.
When we started playing the game it was a good but there was so much polish that was needed, it's not like Ubisoft shipped a broken game like they did with The Division, it was merely a game in need of some care. There were your usual game glitches, certain characters were rather overpowered, etc. Well, care is what it got and continues to get and it isn't just big things that matter it is even small details that the Rainbow Six team takes into account. Most companies roll out patches to fix glaring issues, they rolled out a patch to get rid of an ACOG gun-sight on two Defender characters (Jager & Bandit) because it made their guns ridiculous for playing against due to the zoom increase. Then when they do roll out big patches, it is almost an entirely new game when you boot it up for the first time. Their new maps aren't locked behind season passes like in other shooters, the new map is part of the new "operation" and everyone gets it; it's that maps operators that are locked behind the season pass though they can be earned with renown. That's what has made Rainbow Six Siege one of the companies most successful games in recent years. I've never seen a semi-popular game surge in popularity the way R6 has THREE YEARS after it was released to become massively successful. It is a perfect example of what Ubisoft plans to build there new business model on: games as a service. Create one game and support it for a long time. Do I agree with games as a service ?? Not really at all because I find that it will stifle the games industry only having a small handful of games and have them run long term. I think that select games can pull it off if it is a unique niche like an MMORPG or a niche shooter title that becomes competitive like an Overwatch or Rainbow 6 Siege though Ubisoft has considered it for titles like Assassin's Creed as well and I find that would fall flat on audiences.
The Siege team takes the community into account, not just the e-sports players though they do have a lot of sway, it is one thing that has lengthened the life of this game. When other developers and publishers say they take community input they either ignore it or do the bare minimum so it looks like they did, the Siege team you can tell honestly pays attention to their forums, to the Reddit threads, to anything mentioned about Siege, and they try to incorporate it or fix it. Thatcher doesn't have a shotgun like in his photo: fixed. Why do Valkyrie and Hibana look disgusting character model wise while their pictures present them as both tough as nails but attractive: fixed. Why does Ela's gun have a huge clip with no recoil and fires so fast: fixed.
If there's a problem it gets looked at.
The gameplay is fun and realistic, there is no Call of Duty run and gun, no giant map realistic Battlefield, it is confined maps where you have to take into careful consideration where and how you move, how much noise you make, you need to constantly stay in communication with your team. You need to learn the maps, when you know the maps you need to learn short forms for the rooms people can potentially be in, you need to be able to find your way around quickly, maneuver and do the unexpected because the expected gets you gunned down. Like I said, it is a game me and friends take seriously yet at the same time find so much fun.
If you look back at the launch of this game you wouldn't expect it to have any lasting power whatsoever, now, not only are they are on their Year 3 with almost 18 more operators added they have stated that they plan to have a 10 year life span on Rainbow Six Siege and hope to incorporate at least 100 operators total to the mix. That is true ambition. Considering it looked like a flop and now it has picked up massive steam in sales and on the e-sports circuit to me I consider Rainbow Six Siege to be the little engine that could.
And will continue to do so.........
And here's some cool Siege videos: some operator introductions and some cool user content. And also.....I'm so glad that the Outbreak event is almost over, get your scrubby zombie modes out of good games.....