“It’s an opportunity to see where Siege was and where he’s going, and to make sure everything we do in and out of the game matches that,” said Alexander Six, Rainbow Six’s art director Alexander Karpazis. . IGN before the unveiling of the year 6.“It’s a modernization of what you see in the game,” he says. ‘This is in line with the tone we have with our new operators and seasons. It makes it speak to what you feel when you play the game, and what you see when you see our characters. ‘
As for these characters, Flores, a master criminal from Argentina, is the latest addition to the list. Equipped with a burger jacket, soft cap and Daredevil-style red-tinted glasses, he is far from the tactics most of Siege’s operator sports design.
“With Flores, we wanted to explore an archetype we had never done before, and the idea of a master thief came up,” Karpazis explains. “We wanted his remote control explosive to have a DIY, Raspberry Pi feel, and that made it really fun. However, we always try to balance the idea that he will appear in battle, and he must know how to hold a weapon. If the character does not come from a more traditional military background, it still makes it seem like it fits into the world and that they are based on all the other characters we have. ”
Although Flores indicates that Ubisoft now more than wants to investigate the traditional anti-terrorism agencies, Karpazis is eager to dispel any idea that classic military designs are left behind in favor of a more ‘hero shooter’ aesthetic.
“Without spoiling anything that comes later in the year, we still have a bunch of options when it comes to more traditional military clothing,” he says. ‘Our references do not run out, there is a big world of reference for us. It’s more about how we balance it and make it feel fresh from season to season, and what the cadence looks like. ”
It’s not just Ubisoft’s operator design that is experimenting with the once sacred Tom Clancy formula. Historically in a Tom Clancy game, death is the ultimate game, but Siege plans to challenge it in year 6.
“We are looking at activities after death so that players can still be involved and still play a role after they are eliminated,” Karpazis explained. In the support phase of a match, dead players will still have access to defenses and attacking vehicles, allowing them to better support their teammates and even communicate with the action itself. The Director of Siege, Jean-Baptiste Hallé, admitted that during the Support phase he checks Twitter and YouTube, so it is a game adaptation to ensure that players still have a game to play, even if they are killed . It’s a sacrifice of ‘realism’ in favor of creating a better game. But, as Karpazis notes, Siege still has tactical play at heart.
“This is where real life tactics and tactics merge into the game,” he says. “We want players to still be invested in a round, even after they have been eliminated. They can still contribute a lot and do not have to sit on a drone comb that accidentally points into a corner of a room. It was very important for us to maintain that kind of investment for the duration of an entire game. It’s a big stir, but we think it’s important to make sure the intensity of the game and the fun factor is there. ”Changes are also made to the preparation phase. Offensive players will be able to change which operator they play, rather than sticking with the character they chose when the round started. For example, if someone playing like Thatcher discovers that the defenders are not using electronics, they can switch to a more useful operator before the action phase begins.
“It actually responds to the idea of being tactical in the real world,” Karpazis says of this change. “If you were to go to a situation, you would have intel and bring your gear and equipment to deal with that specific situation.”
The evolution of Rainbow Six Siege may have taken it along a path that leads away from people like Raven Shield and Rogue Spear, but Karpazis and the team at Ubisoft Montreal remain grateful for Siege’s origins.
“The original key art did a wonderful job and we still love it because it really spoke of transgressive asymmetry,” Karpazis says of the old statue of Blitz bursting through a plaster wall. “We will always be grateful for that, and we have great love for it. It gives knowledge of the decisions we have made with our new key art, where we have the asymmetry, attackers versus defenders. But this [new art] talk to where the game has moved. While previously it was more focused on CTUs than the identity of our operators, every operator we release now has its own unique identity. They are creative, they have their own look, and we want to celebrate that. ”
For more information on Rainbow Six Siege’s evolution, check out all the changes coming in Year 6 and Operation Crimson Heist.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s British news and entertainment writer.