Rainbow Six Siege: M.U.T.E. Protocol Review

The latest event in Ubisoft’s massively popular team-based shooter is Rainbow Six Siege: M.U.T.E. Protocol. Not only does this event mix up the classic Siege formula in a way that we’ve never seen before, it creates what could be an entirely new game in its own right. Rainbow Six Siege‘s events are always nice because they’re a breath of fresh air from the standard game modes. This one however, this one is really quite something. If you love 80s sci-fi and teleportation, read on.

Forget Your Legs

The crux of Rainbow Six Siege: M.U.T.E. Protocol is teleportation. Attackers are attempting to break into the sci-fi version of the Tower map and hack two of three terminals. Defenders need to stop them obviously. However, that’s made all the more difficult because of a new ability the Attackers have.

Instead of needing to find a decent point through which to breach into the building and hack the terminals, Attackers simply throw down basic drones, and move them to where they want to be. At the touch of a button, the Attacker will spawn where that drone is, and can even fire within a second or so.

Defenders need to destroy those drones as soon as they see them, but they’ll never catch them all. Since this makes the Attackers pretty overpowered, Defenders also have a new teleport ability. There are fixed cameras around the map, which Defenders can access at the touch of a button. They can monitor the cameras, and spawn as soon as they see an Attacker move past.

Both teams disappear whilst they’re in their respective cameras. This brings a level of balance and tension to each match. You can see an enemy disappear, and know that they’re luring in the signal, waiting for you to make yourself known.

Mind the Shaft

Rainbow Six Siege: M.U.T.E. Protocol was taken down for a short time because of a great big bug. I managed to experience this bug, and it wasn’t fun. If an Attacker threw their drone down the elevator shaft at the start of the level, where every Attacker throws their drone, it would fall forever, meaning the team couldn’t spawn in the match.

Thankfully this was quickly fixed, and the event was extended as a result. Ubisoft may have fixed the elevator shaft, but the Defenders broke it again. The shaft is a key point to kill Attackers from, since many choose to drop down and spawn in it.

However, Attackers can claw the shaft back by hiding in wait at the top of the shaft. I managed to get most of my kills this way. It might sound cheesy, but as far as I’m concerned it was always 50/50 as to whether I’d be killed, or score a kill.

I saw most players using these tactics too, and it’s definitely become synonymous with the event. It’s almost like the first phase of the match, weeding out the wheat from the chaff of idiots who are stupid enough to dive in head first.

Clutch Victories

Every single match in this event was intense and terrifying. Since you never quite know where an enemy is going to spawn from, you’re always on edge. I myself used the fixed cameras to get around the map faster, making it easy to stop the Attackers from hacking a terminal.

On the other hand, Attackers did start to camp at these cameras. It didn’t quite feel like spawn camping, since if you paid attention you’d see the Attacker waiting. On the odd occasion that I was killed as soon as I spawned, I laughed, because it was mostly my own incompetence that killed me.

Watch the Spawns

In some matches, spawning felt like it could be the last thing you’d ever do. As an Attacker, seeing a Defender melt into the camera system is eerie if you’re the last alive. After seeing this, I spawned and began to capture a terminal, only to hear the Defender’s footsteps come racing down behind me. Luckily I did capture the point before they came to shoot me, but I swear that no standard match has ever felt so tense.

The same goes for being a Defender. If you see an Attacker spawn in a room with a terminal, and the two of you just hide behind cover whilst the point is contested, no one wants to make the first move. The problem is, if you’re the last pair alive, no one can use a camera either, since it will cancel out your affect on the terminal.

At the end of once match, the timer stopped on 0 as an Attacker and I both hid, waiting for the other to make the first move. In the end I did, and I got off a few good shotgun blasts that helped my team win the match. Had that Attacker been a little more prepared though, say with a trap, it would have gone totally the other way.

Check Your Fire

With teleporting being the name of the game here, there were far more team kills than usual. In most instances, I thought that every team kill I saw or experienced was a complete mistake.

When you’re just getting used to the mode, it’s hard to understand who is spawning in near you. Most players are used to shooting first and asking questions later. In this game mode that often led to an entire team being riddled with friendly fire. Luckily it doesn’t take too long to get to grips with seeing Operators appear around you. But it’s probably the reason that this game mode isn’t part of the game proper.

Looking Great

It’s impossible to talk about this event without mentioning the incredibly stylish cosmetics on offer. A few Operators got completely new outfits based on 80’s inspired robots. These are probably the only items I’d be happy to shell out real money for.

Everyone played the Operators with the M.U.T.E. Protocol cosmetics, because we all just wanted to have the best skins whilst they were in the game. I’m sure Ubisoft must have made a load of money from the collectors out there.

Verdict

Rainbow Six Siege: M.U.T.E. Protocol is a fantastic in-game event that was fun while it’s lasted. it’s just not something that I think would be any good in the game for longer than a short, time-limited event.

Unlike Grand Larceny, there are too many ways to exploit this game mode that would make it unenjoyable in the long run. Still, for the short time it has been live in the game, I’ve seen the community grow to love it. In the end we all just have fun with it.

I think that the Rainbow Six Siege can be too serious most of the time. Some game modes call for this. Ultimately I think that players need to be reminded of the fact that. Game modes like this are the best way to do achieve this.