Rainbow Six Siege, Xbox One and PS4 review: ‘offers up thrilling unscripted moments’

Rainbow Six Siege is, first and foremost, about making friends - every hostage rescue, bomb 'disposal' and terrorist hunt relies on complete trust in your comrades.

This is both the game's greatest strength and biggest weakness, as it attempts to satisfy ultra-realistic simulation fans and more casual gamers.

Initial signs play toward the latter. Menu screens are clear and concise, outlining a variety of multiplayer modes on offer. To help you get up to speed, a 'single player' option takes you through a variety of scenarios against AI enemies, ranging from basic infiltration missions to hostage rescue and tactics.

These all come in handy when taking on the impressive multiplayer modes, often playing out as five-v-five. Modes range from standard deathmatches to terrorist hunts, which see your team working together to eliminate multiple enemies.

It’s this mode that steals the show. You'll constantly have to watch each other’s backs if you're to succeed, and it makes victory feel like a genuine team effort. In fact, for gamers new to online multiplayer, there's perhaps no better title right now to help build a network of friends.

A large part of this is down to the impressive AI, which scales well through the three difficulties - Casual, Hard and Realistic. Whereas foes in Casual are swatted down relatively easily, Realistic sees enemies actively pursue you - often combined with a deadly combination of explosives and weapons.

Then there are the arenas – ranging from suburban houses to aeroplanes. You're given free rein on how to approach objectives – do you send in some drones to scout out enemies and find a hostage? Or do you send half your team down into the building's basement while you rappel up the wall? Siege is never boring, because missions never play out in the same way.