Recent reviews by dexii

Hard recommend if you like tactical shooters or anything SWAT/police.

In a landscape being increasingly overrun by twitchy hero shooters, it's good to see something this grounded pulled off so well and to such acclaim.

RoN nails the atmosphere and tension. I've never played a shooter where I've been so terrified by something as simple as an open space or a room with lots of doors. It's striking that actual SWAT tactics are probably the most effective way to play the game (in contrast to other military/police themed shooters ).

The deliberate movement mechanics and sharp AI punish sloppy play. This often leads to tense, methodical play, but RoN's harder scenarios also force you to move efficiently on a time crunch, which is equally thrilling.

My only complaints are a hyperactive enemy AI that can at times be unfair, and some performance issues sending GPU usage through the roof before disappearing.

This game sits squarely at an intersection.

On one side, you have the incompetence of DICE. Having hemorrhaged its most talented developers over the years, what is left is an incomplete husk of a game with far fewer features than titles from a decade ago despite an extended development period. What were they doing all this time?

On the other, you have EA. This time the suits are donning their "fellow kids" costume. They've filled what was marketed as a dystopian future set in seemingly inevitable and grounded circumstances with childish drivel aimed at wringing cash from children who don't know any better.

When you hear the same cringey end of round voice quip about how *fun* this hopeless war is--for the 100th time--you'll know what I mean by childish.

EA/DICE think so little of you that they removed the scoreboard and all chat out of fear you might not spend money in their game if you aren't coddled in a safe space like the toddler you are.

Well, now you can not spend money in their game by not buying this game at all, because it's not good.

Fun as hell. Be sure to divest yourself of family, loved ones, obligations, or morality before playing.

Such a beautiful game with incredible attention to detail. If you've played Origins this is more of the same, but there's a greater emphasis on story and side quests. The ship combat is as fun as it was in ACIV and the variety in armor and weapon styles is very nice.

I'm just here to get that Overall review score to "Mixed."

Take 2's stance on singleplayer modding is completely bonkers, especially when it has done so little to combat cheaters online.

After 200 some hours, I feel it's safe to say that Rainbow Six Siege is the best multiplayer shooter I've ever experienced. Ubisoft seems poised to market this game as a rival to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, and I feel it definitely has that potential.

+ The gameplay is dynamic -- every round is different, and yet it remains tactical and team-oriented. Counter-Strike has become increasingly stale to me the more I play Siege. I always check the same spots, throw the same smokes, and plant the bomb in the same places. I've seen the same round a million times, and the fact that there's up to 30 of them in a game only makes matters worse.

+ Pacing. Playing as a defender, you're left to roam quietly near the objective as you can hear the footsteps and gunfire of the attackers slowly close in on you. For a while, nothing happens but information gathering. Then, one of your teammates across the map gets downed. Twenty seconds later, an explosion in that direction, then closer. Half a minute more, and the attackers begin their siege, with explosions and destruction pounding the objective area and gunfire flying past your head. Every round is a slow and intense buildup to a climactic and explosive moment of truth.

+ Map variety. There's a upper-middle class house, a biker club, a christmas-themed cafe, a colorful favela, a beached yacht in the arctic, a border facility in the Middle East, a coast guard office, and several others, each meticulously detailed and impressive. Many are based on real-life counterterrorist operations, like a compound in the central US or a cramped commercial flight. And all are fileld with plenty of destructible walls, floors, and ceilings.

+ Sound. Holy crap, Ubisoft nailed sound in this one. It might not be quite as aurally impressive as the work DICE is known for, but Ubisoft has some tricks up its sleeves. First off, sound doesn't just travel through walls in all directions like in most games. Instead, it travels based on the shape of the map. If there's an enemy shooting in the room to your left, but the only door into your room is to your front, then you'll hear their sounds coming from your front, but if there's a hole in the wall to your left you'll hear them directly to your left. This isn't nearly as misleading as you might think, the audio wizards at Ubisoft have still managed to make tracking players by sound just as easy as any other game. Because sound travels in a path, following it will always lead you to the enemy. In addition, the ambient sounds are incredible. Light humming of AC units and coolers, grandfather clocks ticking and chiming, distant party music, far-away screams when you first fire your weapon, and training soldiers in the distance on a military base are all there to be heard if you listen closely.

+ The destruction is not only gorgeous, it adds so much intrigue and strategy to the maps. Opening new sight lines and pathways isn't a gimmick, it's critical to effective play. While games like Battlefield tout their destructive prowess, its gameplay implications are rather shallow.

+ The gunplay is tight, diverse, and satisfying. After 700 hours in CSGO I was getting really tired of AK (and only AK and M4, nothing else is commonly used) taps doing nothing, and even though I had mastered recoil control the whole system felt very outdated and unintuitive. Siege takes the gunplay you'd see in most modern shooters and adapts it to foster skilled play. Headshots are always lethal and your first shot will always hit where you aim, leading to some incredibly satisfying shots.

+ Operators give the player a chance to specialize in something meaningful. In CS you have riflers and AWPers. Battlefield does slightly better with its Medic, Engineer, Support, and Recon. But Siege offers a wide cast of operators with some very exciting abilities. Valkyrie can throw cameras wherever she likes, letting her keep tabs on the enemy's advance. Blitz has a flash on his shield, making him extremely deadly in a 1v1 situation. Caveira can interrogate downed enemies to give her entire team the realtime locations of the opposing force.

However, every rose has its thorns.

- Networking. Pings are mediocre at best, but the real problem is the semi-frequent disconnects. I don't get them often, but at least once every three games somebody on either team gets dropped from the game. I'm also matched with South American players on US servers on a surprisingly regular basis, and their absurdly high pings make them hard to fight. Peeker's advantage is king, the delay between when you peek on your screen and when your enemy sees you peek is so large that it is always better to be peeking than it is to be holding an angle.

- Terrorist Hunt. It could be absolutely incredible, but instead it's just something I play for a warmup. The AI is inconsistent as all hell; for the most part they're stupid and worse at the game than a small child, but the moment you blow a hole in the wall they turn into deadeye marksmen with the spatial awareness of a god. They also spawn outside with no warning, so if you're the type of player who likes to pick off players from an adjacent building, you're sh*t outta luck.

All in all, Siege is well worth whatever the current purchase price is. If you can get it on sale, great, but if not it'll still be worth your investment if you enjoy tactical and dynamic gameplay, and want to experience the most innovative shooter in recent memory.

While the movement is a little sluggish and the platforming isn't the best, this isn't your Super Meat Boy platformer. The game's pace is slow, thoughtful, and the art design is quite soothing. A nice, relaxing game to play in bed or with the girlfriend.

I don't know what I just played. All I know is that it was a thing of beuty.