Rainbow Six: Siege’s Hostage Rescues are Legit

A new post on the Rainbow Six: Siege website delves into how they made the Hostage Rescue game mode accurate.

The post features words from Ubisoft Montreal Community Developers Chase "Electr1cPanda" Straight and Genevieve "Livinpink" Forget, discussing how the team at Ubisoft managed to really deliver an authentic counter-terrorist experience in Rainbow Six: Siege. This is evident in the Hostage Rescue game mode, which pits a team of five in a fortified structure with a hostage while the opposing team of five has to rescue said hostage.

Creative Director Xavier Marquis said, "If we ask ourselves which mission creates the best story to tell, it isn’t disarming a bomb, it isn’t breaking into a building and making an assault... It is to be able to extract, to save, a hostage. We told ourselves that we were able to inject in the game, in the PVP, an immersive narrative with the inclusion of a hostage. We add a layer of reality for the player, letting them live the life of an intervention force.”

In order to assure that the experience was authentic and accurate, Ubisoft brought in GIGN (a French spec-ops unity called the Groupe d'Intervention de la Gendarmerie Nationale), to play the game and offer their feedback. One of the tidbits the GIGN offered was that the life of the civilian would take priority over the life of a teammate.

It is of the utmost importance then, that the hostage should not be injured or even killed. By making the hostage the objective, it makes both teams carefully plan out their moves and raises the stakes even more.

Game Designer Chris Lee said, "You have to be careful when trying to breach into the area where the hostage is. You can’t just throw a frag or any explosives near the hostage without a second thought. You have to be very careful where you aim your weapon as well. It greatly increases the tension around the hostage, which differentiates it from other types of objectives.”