Tomorrow see's the release of Operation Outbreak/Operation Chimera in the Rainbow Six: Siege world, however while playing it for a while a thought occurred to me about how well done this was for a free patch, in terms of content and story this easily could and should be a full game, considering the negative surroundings Ubisoft often get from their games and how they usually try to squeeze every dollar out of their playerbase I'm still kind of shocked at how well done this is for a free patch to kick off year 3, so today i'd thought i'd review the patch but also explain as to why I feel Ubisoft should of charged at least something for this and why they should make it a full game down the road.
So lets take a look at it, keep in mind i'll be doing Operation Chimera separately at a later date, anyway welcome to New Mexico.
In a small town in New Mexico that goes by the name of Truth or Consequences, a falling meteorite can be seen crashing from the sky into the town landing somewhere in farmland, a local by the name of Boyd searches for this meteorite before finally finding the crash site in his friends barn, turning out not to be a meteorite, but rather an escape capsule from a space ship that looks like it comes from the USSR in the earl 1980's, a few days pass and the town begins to succumb to a strange virus that is killing the town and causing the local population to go insane and their limbs becoming mutated, while asking the resident doctor who to call about this, Boyd stumbles through the doors of the hospital, horribly mutated with blood red eyes and unable to speak.
He unveils himself and we see twisted mutations of black spikes covering his body, a week later the town is in complete chaos with the national guard and army have had to quarantine the town and are barely holding the line against the virus that has turned the population into a horde of insane mutated monsters, Rainbow Six member Ash, Eliza Cohen, arrives on scene and requests that she be given clearance by six to setup strike forces in the town asking for operators from the rainbow coalition, Thermite and Tachanka arrive on the scene with Doc who is currently investigating the outbreak and trying to understand it, however six also send two CBRN specialists (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear threat unit) to aid them.
Upon setting up operations in the town they quickly begin to realize the town may be beyond saving and consider the first strike option(nuclear detonation) as if the virus escapes containment it's only a small distance from California and from Mexico, while still on the table Ash sends in teams of operators to investigate the town and report back on what is happening while the other operators maintain the quarantine and setup defensive operations around the town so that they can contain it, it isn't until they land on the ground in the worst hit area that they realize what is happening and how quickly the tide is turning against them, with the whole town now affected and mutated stronger and stronger variations of the mutated begin to appear and it may only be a matter of time before they break containment.
Obviously this isn't the newest story in the world but it is done so effectively for a game that has nothing to do with this type of genre it's actually astounding how much work they put into it, without spoiling the campaign i'm actually really shocked that this didn't cost us anything, and that they released it for free, as we'll cover below this could of extremely easily of been a full game that I think most Siege players would of happily bought.
https://www.destructoid.com//ul/491096--wip-i-played-rainbow-six-siege-outbreak-and-here-are-my-humble-thoughts/1-noscale.jpg
In many ways Outbreak feels like a spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead 2, the same game play mechanics apply but coupled with the amazing....everything of rainbow six siege it's takes it to a whole other level in terms of game play enjoyment, while most people know siege as a tactical team based shooter, Operation outbreak brings all those things and dials them up to eleven, while the operators themselves haven't changed it's very interesting to see how they've built the mode around the operators to still have the freedom of the normal game while also making the gameplay a lot more hectic and less tactical than it's counterpart, personally I think it's great as it allows the operators to be used more freely than the tightly guarded hallways and rooms of it's counterpart.
In outbreak you spawn in with a 3 man team, only some operators are available for these missions so the choice is limited, once you spawn in you're tasked with a certain objective that will quickly turn into a new one as the time goes by, while there's technically only 3 maps there's about 7 objectives all up that range from 25-40 minutes on normal difficulty and can take an hour or longer on Pandemic difficulty, while in game you'll be tasking with attacking and defense at the same time, while patrolling through the streets to look for objectives or hot spots, taking it slowly and methodically is recommended as is bringing a silenced weapon as sound will attract them.
During defense however it's all out war, they will come from every possible direction including through walls, roof hatches and the floor, in a way it's sort of like mixing the attack/defense paradigm of regular siege into one on a massive map which works extremely well you'll still need to reinforce walls and setup defenses but it also offers you the freedom to leave objective areas to get a better vantage point and on pandemic level there are hordes of the infected coming at you so strong defensive positions need to be setup before you begin the objective, like I said, very much like Left 4 Dead.
But the one thing that really stands out is the map design, they're pretty big for what you might think of a free patch, the entire town has been made a reality and is probably bigger than all of the previous maps combined, hats off to Ubisoft for using original assets as well instead of just copy pasting from the main game, i'm completely impressed with how much work has gone into this patch and it's only the second time iv'e ever said "they worked too hard on this", the first being The Old Blood which was basically a new game but was only marketed as a small expansion, Ubisoft really hit all the marks here on every level, but it's much easier to show you so take the time to check out the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyzmpimZLis
One thing I kept saying while playing Outbreak was that it would and really should be a standalone game, i'd happily hand over 30 or 40 dollars for a full 8 hour campaign of Outbreak and it seems like Ubisoft have the resources and time to split between the two as Operation Chimera and two new operators as well as a shit load of changes are coming at the same time, I don't know if the siege team is just really good at their job or if Ubisoft is really banking on Siege becoming an even bigger hit, but all I know is that it worked extremely well with this patch and it's a hell of a way to kick off year 3.
Hopefully Ubisoft see the reaction to Outbreak and decide to explore it more down the road, obviously it's not for everyone but I think there's a big enough base there for a standalone game and the overwhelming reception of Outbreak from the PTR has been hugely positive with fans already asking for more maps and yes, a standalone game, usually i'm not one for tacking on different modes that go outside the genre but switching from Tactical Operations Simulation to Zombie survival game somehow magically worked for Ubisoft and at a time when the market is flooded with this kind of stuff it's hilarious to see a "patch" take the crown right now(apart from Vermintide 2, but apples and oranges people).
Sadly we only get Operation Outbreak for a month which I think is weird but it could also point to maybe Ubisoft is just baiting us and they actually have something in the works, like I said, there seems to be a lot of work that went into this for just a free patch and the amazing trailers that came with it seem out of place for a game mode they SAY they're only doing 3 maps of and only giving it to us for a month, only time will tell now but I think there's something in the works over at ubisoft, I just hope they don't keep it in the Rainbow Six universe and don't pull a Metal Gear Survive on us.
https://cdn.stevivor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/Outbreak-Screen-8-800x450.jpg
Obviously i'm a fan of it, a lot of people are and i'm not usually one for praising developers but hats off to the people at Ubisoft, it's an amazing patch for what it is and the fact it's free is even more mind blowing, it releases tomorrow as of this review and I have played it on the test server for quite some time now but even i'm excited about it's release tomorrow and iv'e already finished it several times over, obviously the harder difficulties are going to be fun with friends so there's always that, but for the people who haven't played it and are on the fence, 100% try it out because it's an awesome mode that deserves some recognition and puts Ubisoft and their development team in a positive light.
The only little snafu there is, is the operation outbreak alpha packs, usually you buy alpha packs with renown you get from playing the game or getting lucky and winning one, the outbreak packs however are only purchasable with real money, you get 4 to start off with and then you have to buy the rest, the biggest controversy came when they said Ash's elite skin would be in those packs and everyone threw a fit, amazingly Ubisoft said "Yeah our bad" and instead gave everyone the skin for free(not a fan of that tbh) which is great to see any company acknowledge a failure and rectify it within 24 hours.
But if i'm being honest and if you've read the review i'd say the alpha packs are worth it in terms of "restitution" for the amazing patch, I may put 10-20 dollars down on these alpha packs just for the prestige of having some unobtainable skins on my account but even then you know I still feel like they put a little bit too much time in it to give it away for free, if there's one thing iv'e always said on my blog is that you should know what you're worth and ask for it, but then again could just be the bait I talked about for a game later down the track, either way i'm excited for it.
Operation Outbreak is an awesome game mode that releases tomorrow and I can tell is going to be a big hit with the non PTR crowd, the action is great the uniqueness of the game play is like Left 4 Dead on crack and PCP and the trailers and scripted events as well as the new operators and "other side" of the fence seeing what operators do when they aren't killing each other is also really enjoyable, if you haven't played Siege before now would be a great time to pick it up and test out this awesome mode and then stay for the mayhem of the regular game.
Hope to see you guys in New Mexico tomorrow!
http://sm.ign.com/ign_za/video/r/rainbow-si/rainbow-six-siege-outbreak-rundown_fanp.jpg
#### Thanks for taking the time to read my review if you enjoyed it, feel free to up-vote, resteem for follow me for more content, have any questions about Outbreak? leave them below in the comments section and i'll get back to you, cheers guys!