As a lapsed Rainbow Six Siege player from the first few years of the game’s life cycle, I’m always looking for new reasons to return to the tactical FPS gameplay that the 5v5 shooter is known for. Siege’s gunplay is some of the most engaging and rewarding you can find, even if the spawn-peeking sweats and headshotting savage end up getting under my skin before too long.
With the news of a Team Deathmatch mode becoming a permanent addition to the game, I figured that would be the perfect opportunity to come back into the fold. After spending some time with the mode, it’s a decent way of learning the gunplay as quickly as possible, but it doesn’t really mesh with Siege as a whole.
The mode itself is pretty standard. You can play as most of the attackers and defenders (no shield-only operators, though) and you’re able to choose from whatever weapons that operator uses, along with a standardised choice of equipment from stun, impact and frag grenades. That’s about your lot, really, as you’ll spawn into firefights that are way quicker than anything the regular game throws at you.
There’s a certain value that comes in having a mode as lightning fast as TDM in Siege, especially when it comes to learning the rigours of Siege’s PvP formula. Knowing how to deal with other players can be tricky in regular games due to the one life per round constraints of the game. You could spend 2-3 minutes having not found a single player, only to be domed by some sneaky player from out of nowhere and be forced to wait for another go.
Getting into the thick of it as quickly and as often as possible is a great way to improve a player’s accuracy and reaction times, along with dealing with the anxiety that comes with a one life game mode. Sometimes, there’s a hesitancy that comes with playing a game like Siege because of the one-life aspect, so the deathmatch mode is perfect for normalising death in Siege. What’s the worst that could happen? You lose a round? That’s fine.
Unfortunately, the end execution feels like a disposable mode you’d play while matchmaking for Unranked or Ranked games instead of a viable alternative to those modes. This could be due to the lacklustre payouts you receive and lack of incentive to actually play. Considering there’s no chances for Alpha Packs or any Battle Pass challenges, there’s no reason to actually play it. The Renown payouts are also weak too, meaning the mode is completely pointless.
The actual structure of the mode has some issues too, and not just from the fact that you’ll often spawn in the middle of an active firefight. The operators you control won’t have access to any of their key abilities, meaning that the operators lose pretty much all of their identity in the TDM mode. Sure, each operator has their own selection of guns, but aside from that, there’s no reason to pick one over another. The game may as well feature 10 Recruits gunning each other down for 5 minutes straight instead of these watered-down operators.
Team Deathmatch was never going to replace the regular version of Rainbow Six Siege, nor should it, but this milquetoast version of TDM feels like a weak addition to the game. Maybe with some updates or more reasons to actually try the mode, it’ll feel more like it belongs, but for now, it’s a bit of a confusing addition.
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