Back in 2011, Ubisoft announced Rainbow 6: Patriots, the next entry in the Rainbow Six series that attempted to push the moral envelope. Unfortunately, many delays prevented the title from seeing the light of day and, instead, came back as Rainbow Six: Siege, which was unveiled during Ubisoft’s E3 press conference.
The pre-alpha footage showed an ongoing multiplayer match between hostage takers and rescuers. Set in a 5 vs. 5 format, the match showed one team attempting to rescue a hostage from opposing forces. Environmental damage plays a key role in how matches play out, and players can blow out walls and doors in order to find their objectives.
Siege will run a modified version of Assassin’s Creed’s Anvil Next engine called “Scimitar.” The engine allows Ubisoft Montreal to use procedural destruction, while Blast Tech allows players to blow holes through walls, doors, windows, floors, and ceilings when using explosives and guns.
Talking to Polygon, Rainbow Six brand director Alexandre Remy revealed that Patriots was canceled, saying it was more of a strategic decision to do so. According to Remy, Siege has been in development for 18 months by a group of 40 people.
Siege creative director Xavier Marquis confirmed that the game will include a single-player and co-op campaign, but wouldn’t elaborate. As for the multiplayer component, there will be six rounds, with each team of players defending and assaulting three times. Multiplayer will be a one-shot-kill affair, unless players use body armor or shields. In addition, as shown in the pre-alpha footage, there will be no respawns. Once players die, they can move around the map as a drone. However, the drone can be shot down.
Rainbow Six: Siege will be released for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC in 2015.