Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege

The RealBlast tech is the star of the show. The elaborate physics set 'Siege' apart from other shooters. The destruction is procedural and dynamic, with no two blown up walls looking the same. Barricades can also be partially destroyed, as I learned when I was shot through a door because I had neglected that one of the enemy operators was Pulse, who can perceive heartbeats even through walls. The framerate is mostly steady at 60fps throughout multiplayer, although it drops to 30fps in co-op mode, which is noticeable. As usual, the Xbox One version is in 900p. Modeling is pretty, but some of the environmental textures are cheap looking.

The sound effects are excellent, between the constant bombs, grenades, breach charges, and everything else going off. These effects can change depending on the acoustics of the room they occur in, a subtle but immersive detail. The voice acting is decent but as a multiplayer-only game, it mostly consists of people shouting at each other and crying out in pain. Angela Bassett ('Malcolm X') is the centerpiece of the cast, but it’s a small role.

Call me nostalgic, but I miss the great 'Rainbow Six' campaigns of yore. The franchise has been rebranded as a different kind of game, similar to its predecessors but with more style than substance. A few days of casual play with 'Rainbow Six Siege' is quite enough to sample most of its charms, and while I enjoyed it, I doubt it will remain lodged in my memory for very long.