Just when you thought that Ubisoft couldn’t make their multiplayer shooter any stranger, they bring out Rainbow Six Siege: Sugar Fright Event 2020. This event turned a lot of core concepts on their head. It also completely changed the way that you play and the reason you jump into just one more match. It’s hard to say if the event was necessary, but it’s definitely been a fantastic distraction for Halloween.
If the reason that you don’t play Rainbow Six Siege is that you don’t get on with its core gameplay, or you’re sick of dying and being forced to watch others finish the round, then this event was for you. It shows you just what the game would be like if Ubisoft followed Activision into the realms of mainline shooter titles. It also highlights exactly why that’s a bad thing.
Trickers vs Treaters
Rainbow Six Siege: Sugar Fright Event 2020 is a team deathmatch mode for a game that was never intended to have one. Players are split into two teams, as usual. However, the big difference to the core gameplay is that players will be revived a few seconds after dying. You can then get right back into the action as if nothing had happened. Of course, it has, and you feel pretty terrible about how stupidly you died.
The goal of each match is to collect 50 Candies. These are dropped by all players when they die. If you collect one from an enemy kill, then you score a point for your team. You can also pick up a Candy your teammate has dropped in order to prevent the opposing team from scoring off of it.
To top it all off, there’s a brand new map called Neighborhood. It’s a cartoonish nightmare of a town and looks like it was designed by a bunch of kids that have been let loose in a sweet shop. While insane, it’s definitely been built to work with the event’s mechanics. This is a godsend because this event would have been a catastrophe without it.
Finally, there are a whole host of cosmetics to earn or purchase. As you’d expect for Halloween, these are nightmarish puppet versions of each Operator. They’re so scary that I actually dropped my controller a few times when presented with the screenshot of who had killed me. It’s something about the eyes that’s just so unsettling.
Even a Tank With Poor Handling is Fun to Drive
I played this event extensively over the course of its duration. I think that there’s no way it would last more than the couple of weeks that it’s been live because of the massive flaws in its design. With that said, it has been a lot of fun to play. Having the freedom that comes with being revived after death makes you take more risks, something that I think Rainbow Six Siege is built for anyway, but most players don’t take advantage of.
The first major flaw I came across was the speed of each Operator. Since this is a game in which you’re usually sneaking up on the enemy, each character is built to feel as though they’re wearing a house. That’s because it’s realistic, and every Operator is packed to the gills with equipment. In this event, that just makes you feel like you’re running through water as you sprint from point to point collecting Candy. If this was a new core game mode, I’d say it needs fixing. As things stand, it gives those watching out a chance to take down any player brave enough to make a death run for points.
The second flaw in this game mode is spawn camping. We all know what it is, and we’ve probably all done it at some point. Developers have spent years putting together sophisticated systems that move player spawns to avoid this behavior. Ubisoft has done no such thing. Instead, it’s possible to spawn at your team’s base, only to be set upon by three enemy Operators all waiting for you to realise that you’re in control again. While you can do the same to them, it does start to feel cheap.
Break From Tradition
I know I’ve pointed out a lot of negatives with this event. But that’s just because the rest of it is so brilliant. When I heard what the event was changing the game to be, I though players would hate it. I was pleasantly surprised to see that every match had a full lobby though. that’s not just players looking for new collectibles either. Everyone was genuinely having a good time in the game.
My favourite moments were hiding in the tower, and making Candy runs. In the map’s tower, you’re able to shoot any player unlucky enough to run out into the open. You can also take down any player who is bold enough to try to sneak through the buildings opposite. Sure, you can get snuck up on and murdered from behind, but if you’re careful then you can own the game from this high point.
Candy runs were definitely a strong point. About halfway through each match the map is littered with Candy. No one is going to take it because they’re all over the initial rush, and are hiding. That’s when I would always run out and grab as much as I could. Along the way I’d always fund one or two unsuspecting enemies to down for yet more points.
What Could Have Been
I think that the reason Rainbow Six Siege: Sugar Fright Event 2020 feels so good to play is because it’s an iteration of what Rainbow Six Siege was at one point. It’s easy to forget that this game is quite old. At one point, it will have been developed alongside many other shooters that have failed. Each of those had a team deathmatch mode. I think that this game succeeded by being so different, and so enjoyable.
However, I can’t help but feel that this event is the result of the creative side of developers who wanted to add something like it into the main game. There must have been loads of crazy ideas like this. Thankfully they were all put to the side so they could be drawn upon later. It’s sad that we don’t have a more consistent version of team deathmatch in the game though. This event highlights that and so much more.
