Rainbow Six Siege X Review in Progress

I play a lot of competitive shooters – and I mean a lot A competitive shooter. Are you an unhappy son? Grey Zone Battleflip the card over fragpunkOr crush and grab Finalthis was my default “Game Night with Friends” genre. And even after thousands of hours spreading to Destiny, Call of Duty, Halo Infinite and Valorant, I still stand out and feel right about the action in the Rainbow Six series. Rainbow Six Siege is celebrating its tenth year with a massive new update in the form of the Rainbow Six Siege X, so after 10 years of tweaks, updates and additions, it seems to be the perfect time to reevaluate how this popular tactical shooter stands amongst his peers.

The foundations of the siege are as strong as ever, so it’s great to see. The bomb is in headliner mode. Two teams take turns attacking and defense, strengthening their positions and fighting to protect the bomb or to relieve it. That setup has been around for decades (and is also a core mode for games like Counter Strike), but Siege’s distinctive anchoring and destructive mechanics highlight its version, and both sides of the coin are extremely enjoyable. They love throwing lots of temporary walls, setting up razor wires and other booby traps, and preparing to ambush attackers. And you know that other teams will set up similar defenses and open walls with Thermite to blow the walls off and blow the enemy off and fall on them. With a slower time limit, it has a more position than Twitch Skill. I’m also grateful for the relatively slow AimownSites animations that force you to decide how you want to get involved before a fight. This is a male archer of thinking through and through.

The cast of playable characters is an impressive 75 operators. Each has a different loadout and slightly unique playstyle, half reserved for attackers, while others are only playable while you are defending. They do an amazing job of dealing with a variety of play styles, whether you want to slash your big hammer as a sledge or run around at high speeds as an Orix. It’s amazing that the Siege X update didn’t add any new people to the roster, but I got a Rauora just a few months ago.

In addition to the bomb, the Siege X adds a new 6v6 mode called dual front, but hasn’t grown yet in the amount of time spent so far. Here, both teams have an area to attack, and another team to defend at the same time. There is no limit to the type of character that can be used, but only 37 of the 75 operators are eligible choices. The single maps available are enormous and combined with the fast time of siege means that they tend to spend a small portion of the match period involved in actual actions. Unlike bombs, they can be respawned after death. This seems to be a good mode for new players, but so far I think it’s just taking away the stakes of the surrounding pulse pounds.

Siege X is built around a limited free-to-play model. I say it’s limited. Because you can absolutely play Siege X for free, but that locks some important modes behind the paywall, such as Ranking and Siege Cup. If you want to access them, you’ll need to spend around $20. This seems like a strange choice for those who already have a robust shop and battle pass system to generate money, especially if other popular games like Marvel’s rivals don’t do such segmentation between paid and unpaid players. The community has been getting a little tired of long-term progression slowing and pushing long-term operators to the battle pass that they paid for, but with the improvements to Siege XI, we still need to feel that they feel for better or worse, for better or worse, in order to free up more time.

One of the features of the siege was the way it was constantly breaking down walls, violating barriers, or hitting attacks through the ceiling, but it feels like I could have used this renewal update. For all the walls that can pass through Kool-Aid Man, there are still some amazing invincible barriers, such as thick walls, covering certain windows, and all sorts of furniture that make such a destructive system more flexible than a more modern game. This is especially true on rooftop maps. This limits the options for vertical breach to a small number of given access points. These restrictions really stand out when they allow other games to crush almost anything since they were first paved after being surrounded. The siege doesn’t say it’s literally necessary to take down the house, but the fact that you can’t throw a cermit under the bomb and drop it on the floor so you can do it with the bank in the finals is really sticking out.

A decent audio system, especially headphones, has always been an advantage of siege thanks to its excellent sound design, and the Siege X has significantly improved it. The explosions and gunshots still sound great, but it’s the ability to find the general direction of the sound and really touches me. It’s always been handy to find enemies trying to get drops on you, but the improved soundscape now gives you more details. The most important difference I’ve heard is the footsteps above. Learning to recognize the difference in the boomy noise above will allow you to close your eyes and pinpoint exactly where the threat comes from.

There are some other very situational upgrades that I really like. Rappost is one of the most fun and offensive options in Siege X. It’s very satisfying to hang upside down like a tactical Spider-Man, looking at the enemy and looking at the stairs and doors, but up until now, the actual usefulness in combat has always been somewhat limited. That’s because if the enemy saw you, the rope tended to leave a duck, or pinata, sitting on you. But new options like sprinting along walls and flying around corners mean they’ll be discovered. In addition to that, you can shoot new destructible objects such as gas pipes and fire extinguishers, creating fire and smoke jets. It’s very rare that it’s important in the fight, but it has a very cool cinematic talent with a touch of area control that I really appreciate.

That said, I am not yet ready to go back to the siege and make a final verdict on that new iteration. Siege X can be said to be very fun to play. Mastering all the operators is enough to keep you busy for a long time. I’m a huge fan of most new additions, including improved sound design, more mobile rappelling, and destructible elements, but at this point I’m not sure if the dual front is in destination mode. Overall, I think this is a solid step forward that I want to continue playing and rating, so stay tuned for the full review next week.