Rainbow Six Siege hands-on: blowing open the FPS genre

TRIGGERNOMETRY

We write about FPSes each week in Triggernometry, a mixture of tips, design criticism, and a celebration of virtual marksmanship.

Rainbow Six Siege was our favorite game of E3 last year. After the cancellation of Rainbow Six Patriots, we couldn't have been more impressed with Ubisoft's focused, multiplayer-centric approach to rebooting its now seven-year-dormant tactical FPS. Short rounds, a five-on-five format, no respawning, and a high-fidelity destruction system are a pretty good recipe for distinguishing yourself from Battlefield and Call of Duty.

Ubisoft invited me and other press to play Siege a second time at its studio in Montreal where the game is being made, and I've captured my impressions so far in the gameplay video above.

Evan's a hardcore FPS enthusiast who joined PC Gamer in 2008. After an era spent publishing reviews, news, and cover features, he now oversees editorial operations for PC Gamer worldwide, including setting policy, training, and editing stories written by the wider team. His most-played FPSes are CS:GO, Team Fortress 2, Team Fortress Classic, Rainbow Six Siege, and Arma 2. His first multiplayer FPS was Quake 2, played on serial LAN in his uncle's basement, the ideal conditions for instilling a lifelong fondness for fragging. Evan also leads production of the PC Gaming Show, the annual E3 showcase event dedicated to PC gaming.