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Not what I was expecting for the Rainbow Six franchise, but WOW! | Review - Rainbow Six SMOL
4K View2024-02-22
✨Overview
Rainbow Six SMOL is a top-down isometric roguelite shooter developed by Ubisoft. It features a very whimsical take on the Rainbow Six universe, with adorable, cartoonish graphics and fast-paced gameplay. Released on iOS and Android for Netflix Subscribers, the game offers a cute and perhaps an unexpected spin on the tactical shooter franchise.
Ubisoft has found ways to inject personality into the operator characters of Rainbow Six Siege, perhaps a little too much, as these characters now exist in a larger universe beyond Siege, appearing or crossing over in other media such as but not limited to the open-world shooter Ghost Recon, survival horror Dead by Daylight, coop shooter Rainbow Six Extraction, and now, in a rogue-like, cute version of the Rainbow Six universe wrapped up as a mobile game.
🟩Pros
+Faithful adaptation of Rainbow Six operator abilities
+Destructible environments
+Fast-paced gameplay with tactical depth
+Unique rogue-lite elements
+Cute whimsical art style
Rainbow Six SMOL is a top-down isometric roguelite shooter developed by Ubisoft. It features a very whimsical take on the Rainbow Six universe, with adorable, cartoonish graphics and fast-paced gameplay. Released on iOS and Android for Netflix Subscribers, the game offers a cute and perhaps an unexpected spin on the tactical shooter franchise.
Ubisoft has found ways to inject personality into the operator characters of Rainbow Six Siege, perhaps a little too much, as these characters now exist in a larger universe beyond Siege, appearing or crossing over in other media such as but not limited to the open-world shooter Ghost Recon, survival horror Dead by Daylight, coop shooter Rainbow Six Extraction, and now, in a rogue-like, cute version of the Rainbow Six universe wrapped up as a mobile game.
🟩Pros
+Faithful adaptation of Rainbow Six operator abilities
+Destructible environments
+Fast-paced gameplay with tactical depth
+Unique rogue-lite elements
+Cute whimsical art style
🟥Cons
-Occasional lag that needs more optimization
-Minor visual bugs
-Occasional lag that needs more optimization
-Minor visual bugs
⭐️Score: 8/10
📖Story and Premise
The story of Rainbow Six SMOL is simple. Players control a squad of R6 operators who are suddenly magically transported into the land of SMOL, which is under threat from terrorists, conveniently a job suited for the Rainbow Six Operators. It's up to the operators to clear the land of SMOL and defeat the terrorists, all while navigating the game's charming and lighthearted world. That's basically all we need to know, as the game does away with the plot and jumps straight into the chaotic top-down shooter rogue-lite action.
🎨Visuals and Art
Rainbow Six SMOL features adorable graphics that transform the gritty, realistic visuals of Siege into a childish art style resembling a cartoonish sketch, combined with low-poly 3D. The presentation is top-notch, from the missions to the combat visuals, all being flashy and lively while maintaining a lighthearted feel.
🎮Gameplay
Gameplay in Rainbow Six SMOL is fast-paced and engaging, with a focus on twin-stick combat with autoshooter elements and rogue-lite progression. Players control a main character accompanied by squad of R6 operators, each with their own unique abilities and weapons, as they take on various missions around the land of SMOL.
In typical Rainbow Six Siege fashion, the game features highly destructible environments, allowing players to approach each mission from basically all sides. Additionally, the game's roguelite mechanics add an element of challenge and replayability, as players must carefully survive the operations and make strategic decisions to succeed.
The goal is to clear the whole Land of SMOL. Each territory is divided into groups of levels that you need to progress through, with a branching choices of missions. There are different types of missions, including rescuing hostages, bomb defusal, machine defense, assassinations, and more, all in typical Rainbow Six fashion. You are still breaching and clearing mostly throughout the levels, and it's a very fast-paced and fun roguelite twin-stick shooter.
⏫Rogue-lite Progression
Each run — called operations, allows players to accumulate tactical patches (skills and modifiers), recruit companion operators, gather coins, level up their current character class, and ultimately clear the whole map. After every run, you go back to your home base to regroup, upgrade, and unlock new things.
When you die, you only lose your character's current skill points, but there is still progression retained as the levels completed will stay cleared. Additional persistence comes in the form of unlocking new powers in a talent tree called Books of Powers, as well as rescuing operators across the map to use as companions. The operators are taken from the Rainbow Six Siege games and are mostly based on their unique abilities in this iteration. For example, Sledge still breaks down walls, Castle deploys walls, Valkyrie recon's behind walls, and more.
Overall, the game is a blast to play, but there is a slight difficulty as you can easily die from random hazards or powerful one-hit-kill melee enemies if you're not paying enough attention. Fortunately, the game is very forgiving. The pacing of levels is fast and bite-sized, although there is a lot of unskippable loading and flashy presentation in between missions that may test your patience during continuous do-overs and reruns.
📊Technical Performance
The game offers a variety of graphical options, (performance and low frame rate modes) and even includes an immersive haptic feedback option (vibration/rumble) while playing. On my Snapdragon 888 device (ROG Phone 5), The game is a bit laggy despite its lightweight visuals, with a bit of minor visual bugs appearing on screen. However, it does a great job of maintaining itself amidst minimizing and multitasking, and it does not close unexpectedly. The game also runs offline and does not include any in-app ads, purchases, or any live service elements.
⚖️Conclusion
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rainbow Six SMOL captures the spirit of Rainbow Six to a certain degree with its faithful use of operators, destructible environments, and Siege inspired gameplay elements. Its has a cute whimsical art style, fun fast-paced gameplay, and unique rogue-lite mechanics that make it a compelling game to play, even without the Rainbow Six name attached to it. It's a game that any mobile gamer (with a Netflix subscription) will probably enjoy, especially if they’re a bit open-minded and won’t mind a weird take on the Rainbow Six franchise.
The story of Rainbow Six SMOL is simple. Players control a squad of R6 operators who are suddenly magically transported into the land of SMOL, which is under threat from terrorists, conveniently a job suited for the Rainbow Six Operators. It's up to the operators to clear the land of SMOL and defeat the terrorists, all while navigating the game's charming and lighthearted world. That's basically all we need to know, as the game does away with the plot and jumps straight into the chaotic top-down shooter rogue-lite action.
🎨Visuals and Art
Rainbow Six SMOL features adorable graphics that transform the gritty, realistic visuals of Siege into a childish art style resembling a cartoonish sketch, combined with low-poly 3D. The presentation is top-notch, from the missions to the combat visuals, all being flashy and lively while maintaining a lighthearted feel.
🎮Gameplay
Gameplay in Rainbow Six SMOL is fast-paced and engaging, with a focus on twin-stick combat with autoshooter elements and rogue-lite progression. Players control a main character accompanied by squad of R6 operators, each with their own unique abilities and weapons, as they take on various missions around the land of SMOL.
In typical Rainbow Six Siege fashion, the game features highly destructible environments, allowing players to approach each mission from basically all sides. Additionally, the game's roguelite mechanics add an element of challenge and replayability, as players must carefully survive the operations and make strategic decisions to succeed.
The goal is to clear the whole Land of SMOL. Each territory is divided into groups of levels that you need to progress through, with a branching choices of missions. There are different types of missions, including rescuing hostages, bomb defusal, machine defense, assassinations, and more, all in typical Rainbow Six fashion. You are still breaching and clearing mostly throughout the levels, and it's a very fast-paced and fun roguelite twin-stick shooter.
⏫Rogue-lite Progression
Each run — called operations, allows players to accumulate tactical patches (skills and modifiers), recruit companion operators, gather coins, level up their current character class, and ultimately clear the whole map. After every run, you go back to your home base to regroup, upgrade, and unlock new things.
When you die, you only lose your character's current skill points, but there is still progression retained as the levels completed will stay cleared. Additional persistence comes in the form of unlocking new powers in a talent tree called Books of Powers, as well as rescuing operators across the map to use as companions. The operators are taken from the Rainbow Six Siege games and are mostly based on their unique abilities in this iteration. For example, Sledge still breaks down walls, Castle deploys walls, Valkyrie recon's behind walls, and more.
Overall, the game is a blast to play, but there is a slight difficulty as you can easily die from random hazards or powerful one-hit-kill melee enemies if you're not paying enough attention. Fortunately, the game is very forgiving. The pacing of levels is fast and bite-sized, although there is a lot of unskippable loading and flashy presentation in between missions that may test your patience during continuous do-overs and reruns.
📊Technical Performance
The game offers a variety of graphical options, (performance and low frame rate modes) and even includes an immersive haptic feedback option (vibration/rumble) while playing. On my Snapdragon 888 device (ROG Phone 5), The game is a bit laggy despite its lightweight visuals, with a bit of minor visual bugs appearing on screen. However, it does a great job of maintaining itself amidst minimizing and multitasking, and it does not close unexpectedly. The game also runs offline and does not include any in-app ads, purchases, or any live service elements.
⚖️Conclusion
I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rainbow Six SMOL captures the spirit of Rainbow Six to a certain degree with its faithful use of operators, destructible environments, and Siege inspired gameplay elements. Its has a cute whimsical art style, fun fast-paced gameplay, and unique rogue-lite mechanics that make it a compelling game to play, even without the Rainbow Six name attached to it. It's a game that any mobile gamer (with a Netflix subscription) will probably enjoy, especially if they’re a bit open-minded and won’t mind a weird take on the Rainbow Six franchise.
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why do i need to pay the membership for Netflix just to play this game man at least just login into ubisoft or something
2024-02-25
Author likedNetflix probably paid or funded the developers for this game hence the unfortunate need for Netflix in order to play😞 Same situation as Apple Arcade games.
2024-02-28
just download Tiny, same game.
2024-03-08