Developer Ubisoft Montreal has published an in-depth blog post clarifying why the upcoming first-person shooter title Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege will only offer players one life per round.
The blog post details back to the original Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six released in 1998 and how it was different from “an era dominated by over-the-top guns-blazing titles like DOOM and Quake,” but they went on to state that this is an aspect they’re ready to revive in Rainbow Six Siege.
“When designing the game, we found that above all else, the No Respawn rule touched the three main pillars of what we want in this game: teamwork, tactics, and tension,” the statement in the blog post reads. “Not only are these three pillars at the heart of Tom Clancy’s video game series, but they’re arguably absent from the FPS market today.
“Even when playing on a team, run and gun titles emphasize twitch reflexes while neglecting other skill sets, and you may feel disconnected from the action and all alone in your plight. With Siege, that’s not the case.”
Game designer Chris Lee explained how the No Respawn rule made for “a surprisingly good change” during the internal tournaments hosted for the title, and how the mechanic “really opened up the game to many different types of players.”
“The developers who were longtime FPS players initially found it difficult because they were only good at reaction time,” Lee added. “They weren’t communicating, playing tactically, or thinking about the consequences. Their K/D ratio was high before, but after introducing One Life, they stopped thinking about K/D ratios and more about how each player could work together for the win.
“Developers who weren’t as good before played slower, thought carefully about the situation, and ended up doing better on the leaderboard. Because One Life rewards this kind of behavior, it puts well-rounded players at an advantage over pure run and gunners, which is what the Tom Clancy’s franchise is all about. They utilize a complete skill set and the rest of the development team really liked that, since going back to its roots is what we wanted to do and the rule stuck. It wasn’t something we predicted, and we were really happy with how it turned out.”
‘Support mode’ is an emphasising factor the Rainbow Six developers want players to take into account, allowing users who have been eliminated to source information on the enemies’ position through drones or security cameras and relay it back to their remaining team members. Additionally, the blog post adds how previous gameplay from the title revealed that rounds last for approximately 3 minutes, meaning players won’t be eliminated for long and this helps to keep a fast-paced, intense experience during a match.
Chris Lee’s colleague Andrew Witts added: “I think it’s really cool to rediscover and reiterate on some old points and basics in a tactical game. When you go back to Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six, you go back to one of the first tactical shooters, seeing what makes it tick, deconstructing it and then reassembling it for the current generation. Being a part of that is really cool as a fan of the previous games. I’ve seen the metamorphosis and it’s great to rediscover the basics.”
Originally revealed during the Ubisoft E3 press conference earlier this year, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege officially replaced Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots after three years of development.
With the title expected to run at 60fps on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege will launch in 2015.