Recent reviews by Type9

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I'm going to make this short and sweet just to give an overview on how the game is running as of now.

Right now the game is amazing. This game is one of the most innovative FPS to come out in ages. Sound is one of your greatest assets along with teamwork and communication. Destructable terrain changes the way you play each map every round and allow for so many different strategies. Multiple operators (basically classes) allow for some really cool synergies and interesting strategies which are highly satisfying with communication. The potential for this to become and eSport is huge. If you communicate with your team, you're going to clean the house. This game is on every level a tactical shooter focused around teamplay with competetive depth. Currently the game is pretty well balanced, not perfect, balanced enough for now.

BUT WAIT, there is one major problem which exists. It's the servers. The servers are faulty at the moment and ranked matches in some regions are non-existent because of it. Wait times are sometimes long. There's a peekers advantage because of net code issues. Data synchronization issues and infinite loading times are still there. For a multiplayer only game that's in FULL RELEASE this is unacceptable.

The developers have recognized the issues and are working on fixes: https://www.reddit.com/r/Rainbow6/comments/3zvzlk/patch_12_and_january_2016_priority_fixing_top/

Almost all of the bad reviews on this game are because of the server issues.

Regardless the game is amazing, and because I love it so much I'm willing to deal with the issues till they're fixed. If you're not willing to deal with the risk of Ubisoft (with their "amazing" track record) not completing these fixes, then wait a bit. However, Ubisoft may find their redemption here. This game could become one of the most popular games for the coming years as long as they fix these issues.

If you want to see how tactical the game is for yourself, I would check out Serenity17's guides on youtube. The amount of depth he goes into in such a short time on each operator is great and serves as a good glimpse into the depth of the teamplay and tactics in the game.

Check him out here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwrxS4HlY-ZQjR2eQOYFlxg

I don't usually write reviews, but this game is a place where I think an opinion from one who plays lots of first person/third person blade games (i.e. Chivalry) might be handy. So this review is going to focus on combat mechanics rather than the overall feel (which is great by the way).

Starting off with melee weapons, I can confidently say the melee system in this game is extremely satisfying. Even for one that likes a skill curve in games. Melee weapons have that clunk to it that you don't usually see in games. When you hit a wall with an axe/hammer you'll see it get caught on the wall, similar to Chivalry. But not just walls, but the Skaven (the rat people) as well. When you hit Skaven, you'll see your axe get caught in their arm/chest/neck and it's satisfying as hell. The hit boxes in this game are extremely tight, so managing the direction and distance of your swings is nessecary. Because all the melee weapons attack with a preset combo when hitting lmb is succession, you get a predictable move set. This allows place to aim for parts of the enemy which will cause higher damage. Similar to dragging in Chivalry, you can aim your weapon's swing so that it'll hit the neck the neck only for a high chance of decapitation (ultimately a 1 hit KO) which is usually only seen consistently with the large war hammer. This is great because a skilled player could be spending potentially 50% less time on each enemy since they're taking 1 hit to kill their enemy instead of 2 (which is common with swords/rapiers).

Blocking in this game is about right. The way it works is that you have a certain amount of block points. Different enemies will take up more block points when hitting you shield/weapon. It goes without saying that shields will have more block points but sacrifices your melee weapon since you'll only be able to 1 hand the sword/axe. You can shield/weapon bash which'll knock enemies back leaving openings in swarms of enemies which you wouldn't have otherwise (similar to L4D). But these will also take up one block point. Effectively managing your blocking and bashing allows for interesting teamwork since shield users can use shield bash to attract attention onto them, then tank with the shield, while friendlies clean up the attackers.

Ranged weapons are satisfying enough to the point where nailing an enemy in the head is risky, yet rewarding. Most ranged weapons (such as pistols/bows) will take 2 hits or more to kill an enemy in the body. But in higher levels or in bigger enemies, you can aim for the head for a 1 hit KO. Althought effective, it is risky. More often than not you'll see yourself missing because of such slim hit boxes and fast enemy momvement speeds. Thus creating an especially steep skill curve with most ranged weapons. For those without real skill in aim, they can still use shotgun like weapons which help mow down multiple enemies at a time.

Now onto how stats effect gameplay. The main stats in this game are:

number of enemies that can be hit at a time
damage
speed
knockback

For the most part it's self explanatory. However it's still fun to mess with different weapons since it vastly determines the way you fight. Hammers and other blunt weapons will have lots of knock back with their charge attack and be able to hit many enemies at a time. Thus allowing for major crowd contol. However 1 handed weapons such as daggers or axes will have trouble attacking large groups of enemies because you're going to find your weapon getting stuck in enemies every hit. These stats allow for different varities of gameplay because you're going to be moving differently. When using 1 handed weapons, I find myself not bashing as much, but dodging and waiting to single out 1-2 enemies while the others are recovering. However with large weapons such as hammers, you'll find yourself charging attacks and using it to take out 6+ enemies at a time while not having to move too much. The skill curve with each weapon seems to be there, and it's fair to say each type of weapon is an experience in of itself, and can be, to some extent, mastered.

tl;dr
+Skill can increase performance in-game greatly
+Doesn't heavily rely on skill, and there are tools for everyone
+Combat is extremely satisfying and visual feedback is there to show high performance (i.e. gore)