Ubisoft launched Year 2 of Rainbow Six: Siege today with patch 2.1.0 and Operation Velvet Shell, and while new operators and maps are always a good thing for expanding gameplay, some fans may want more. Unfortunately, more will come in the form of operators instead of new game modes.
Some fans who are getting a bit tired of the repetition, but adding more game modes is “something that we do not want to do,” Creative Director Xavier Marquis told PC Gamer at a recent preview event in Montreal. “The map can be different, the operators can be different, but we need something static and that is Siege mode. Siege is the center of everything.”
“We’re constantly looking and prototyping,” Brand Director Alexandre Remy said. “But the thing is, when doing that we concluded that there are some foundations to Siege that we want to keep: attack versus defense, destruction, operators, and [only having] one life. That is the DNA of the game, so when you look at what game modes would sufficiently refresh the experience but remain faithful to those rules, there’s not that many. Siege is its own game mode.”
Remy went on to explain that more operators is a better option for the type of game Rainbow Six: Siege is. “The idea is that you actually want enough operators so that each pick you have a choice,” he said. “Thermite for a long time was not a choice, everyone had to pick him in a team because he was the only one who could breach into a reinforced wall. Introducing Hibana, all of a sudden the player could perform that task with a choice. At that moment every choice is tough choice for the player and not an obvious one. To come to that moment, you need a minimum of 50. When we have 50, that’ll be when the game is at its peak in terms of strategy.”
He said that 50 operators is a minimum and that number could go higher, citing the 80-100 characters a MOBA can have and still work well. So the focus throughout Year 2 and the future will be new operators and maps, not new objectives.
Jackal and Mira of the Spanish GEO were added today in Operation Velvet Shell. Two operators each will be coming from Hong Kong, Poland and South Korea along with three more maps to complete Year 2 by November of this year.
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