Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege Isn’t What It Used to Be

December 8th, 2021

By: Andrew Tsai

Rating: 7

Nearly six years after its initial release, Rainbow Six Siege continues to churn out
updates. However, despite hitting an all-time peak of 199,830 concurrent players this
March, a quick look at its player count in recent months seems to indicate a decline in
interest in the game. A massive decline in viewership can also be seen across videos on
YouTube, where videos garner much less attention than they did just a couple of months
ago.
While updates exist to improve the game, the development team’s direction shows an
apparent disconnect with the wants of players and has had a noticeable negative impact
on the state of the game. It seems as if the team is putting in less effort into the game
every season, and interest in the game seems to be the lowest in years. The development
team has been following a 10-year roadmap, but the game’s current state calls into
question if it will even last that long.
When Rainbow Six Siege first made its debut in late 2015, it was met with lukewarm
reviews. While gameplay was new and interesting, the game was riddled with technical
issues and lacked the content that other games had at launch. In order to address the
lack of content, the development team has since been seasonally updating the game.
Every three months, there would be free DLC in the form of two new operators,
weapons, maps, cosmetics, and special game modes. Players would have something new
to look forward to every three months, but many technical issues were left unaddressed
and more seemed to pop up with every update.

Siege’s Year Two Roadmap

Among many others, matchmaking and server issues left players frustrated with the
game. Siege’s Operation Health aimed to fix some of these issues in lieu of new content
and was necessary for the future of the game. After technical issues were addressed,
Siege saw a boom in player count towards the end of its second year, which has stayed
consistent until recent months. While the lack of new content during the season was
disappointing to many, players are now calling for Operation Health 2.0 to fix current
issues with the game.
Rainbow Six Siege is a competitive game at its core. In a game with a low average time to
kill, every millisecond counts. Its iconic one-shot headshot mechanic makes it so that
even the weakest weapon can kill the heaviest operator in one shot. With no respawns,
missing one shot or making one careless oversight can instantly take you out of the
game for the rest of the round. With competitiveness present at all levels of play, the
balance of the game becomes extremely important.
In any game with multiple maps and characters, there will always be some that stand
above the rest. Some maps in siege have been known to favor one side over the other.
Even within every map, there are certain sites that are always picked first to defend
because they are nearly impenetrable if played right. Certain operators are nearly always
picked because they possess an amazing weapon or ability.
As such, game balancing has always been a big part of new patches, but the development
team has put too large of a priority on it in recent updates, disregarding long persisting
problems and not considering other factors that draw players to the game. Issues such
as the game’s rampant cheating problem and toxicity across every level of play continue
to persist to this day. The development team also continues to go through with changes
that many players disagree with in the name of balance, indicating a disconnect between
the values of the team and players.
While these new reworks may help greatly in balancing the game, each one seems to
chip away at a piece of Siege’s identity. Map reworks used to only take away broken
spawn peeks and angles, making minor but effective improvements towards a better
experience. Now they completely alter the map, making it almost unrecognizable and
completely changing how it is played. To players who have learned to love the old maps,
having them be replaced due to an unwanted rework is extremely disappointing.
Reworks to operators have a similar problem and have become much more drastic in
recent seasons.
Tachanka, a fan favorite, no longer has the same charm after his rework. Although he
may be slightly more viable now, he’s lost something that set him apart from all the
other operators. Some changes like the removal of Zofia and Ela’s DBNO abilities were
unnecessary for most players and completely removed something that made certain
operators unique. The development team has also opted to implement drastic recoil
changes to nerf operators, making weapons uncontrollable and not fun to use in order to
bring down pick rates.

Siege’s Year 6 Road Map (Note: amount of new content drastically reduced from Year 2 pictured above)
However, the largest issue with these reworks is that they replace new content. While
Siege used to release two operators a season, it has now been released to one and a new
map hasn’t been released since 2019. In addition, many recent operators wield recycled
weapons, bringing nothing new to the table but their abilities. Between continuous nerfs
to the same few operators, unwanted/unnecessary changes, and the lack of new content,
there seems to be less and less to be excited for each season.
As of now, there aren’t any overpowered or outright broken operators, and the game is
undoubtedly the most balanced it’s ever been. However, many of the changes made to
achieve this balance have taken away from the personality of the game and gameplay is
noticeably blander than it used to be. This issue largely impacts the casual Siege
community that makes up a large portion of the game’s player base.

All 62 Operators Currently in The Game

With Siege prioritizing its competitive player base, new players also take a hit. The game
is notorious for its steep learning curve and becomes more and more difficult to learn as
it expands. Siege’s tutorial hasn’t changed since its release and remains outdated to this
day, and the newcomer mode the development team introduced is riddled with
experienced players curb-stomping newbies on alt accounts. Additionally, progression
can be extremely grindy, and it can take an extremely long time just to unlock all 62
operators the game now has to offer.
This post lists current key issues plaguing the game, many of which I have included in
this review. This review from Push Square points out issues regarding cheating and
toxicity prevalent in the player base. Players in discussion boards such as Reddit and the
Ubisoft forum, along with content creators on YouTube, also seem to share the same
frustrations and sentiments with the direction the game is taking.
All this said, there is still a lot to love about Siege. As Mat Paget says, “Siege has not only
become Ubisoft's crown jewel of multiplayer action but also one of the best first-person
shooters ever made.” The game offers gameplay unlike any other fps on the market.
While it’s initially frustrating to learn as a new player, the game offers incredible depth
between a unique destruction system, 62 operators, a variety of weapons and gadgets,
satisfying team play, and strategy. Technical issues have mostly been ironed out and the
game feels smoother than ever.
The game at its core offers something that no other game does and there’s a reason that
it has lasted for six years. However, in order for the game to fulfill its 10-year roadmap,
the development team may have to reconsider the direction in which they are taking the
game and find a middle ground between balance and fun.
 Works Cited

“Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege: Ubisoft (US).” Ubisoft, https://www.ubisoft.com/en-

us/game/rainbow-six/siege.

“Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege - Steam Charts.” Steam Charts,

https://steamcharts.com/app/359550#1y.

“YouTube”, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/.

“Reddit” Reddit, https://www.reddit.com/.

“Forums: Rainbow Six: Siege.” Ubisoft Forums RSS,

https://forums.ubisoft.com/forumdisplay.php/64-Rainbow-Six-Siege.

Banas, Graham. “Review: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (PS5) - Multiplayer Fps Is Only Let

down by Its Community.” Push Square, Push Square, 9 Dec. 2020,

https://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps5/tom_clancys_rainbow_six_siege.

Cooke, Hunter. “'Rainbow Six Siege' Keeps Getting New Content. Will It Keep Getting New

Players?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Feb. 2021,

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video-games/esports/2021/02/21/rainbow-six-siege-

update/.

Gies, Arthur. “Rainbow Six Siege Review.” Polygon, 11 Dec. 2015,

https://www.polygon.com/2015/12/10/9888126/rainbow-six-siege-review.

My Opinion/Critique on the Direction and State of Rainbow ...

https://gamestoday.info/pc/tom-clancys-rainbow-six-siege/my-opinion-critique-on-the-

direction-and-state-of-rainbow-six-siege/.
Paget, Mat. “Rainbow Six Siege Review (2020) - Breaches and Cream.” GameSpot,

https://www.gamespot.com/reviews/rainbow-six-siege-review-2020-breaches-and-

cream/1900-6417459/.

Purslow, Matt. “Saving Siege: Ubisoft's Hard Fought Victory.” IGN, IGN, 28 Oct. 2020,

https://www.ign.com/articles/saving-siege-ubisofts-hard-fought-victory.