This one hurts. I loved those early Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon games. Even Wildlands was mostly great. Now we’ve got Siege that barely resembles what Rainbow Six used to be, and what the Tom Clancy brand was in video games is all but destroyed.
I worked as a game tester for Red Storm shortly after graduating from college in 2006.
I also grew up playing their games, starting with the original Rainbow Six. There never would have been a Counter Strike or a Call of Duty if it weren’t for Rainbow Six.
I have such fond memories of playing Rainbow Six Vegas 1 and 2 back in the day. Siege is an absolute abomination and does nothing but a disservice to the franchise. But Ubisoft lacks the capacity to make an Assassin’s Creed game that’s actually an Assassin’s Creed game so no surprise there…
Franchise rot is real. You’d think they’d learn when their most talked about games are always the early entries in a series, after the devs have hit their stride but before execs have ruined things with dumb ideas and fad chasing.
I haven’t played an Assassins Creed since Black Flag. I remember watching a preview of (I think) Valhalla showcasing the stealth. They snuck up on a boss and “assassinated” him, which… started the normal boss battle with the boss missing a bit of health. What’s even the point, then?
I guess they weren’t even working on those games anymore:
However, while Red Storm is best known for its association with Tom Clancy games, for the past decade, it’s been focused on VR games, such as Werewolves Within (2016), Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017), and Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR (2023).
Modern stewardship of Tom Clancy titles has been handled by Massive Entertainment (The Division), Ubisoft Montreal (Rainbow Six Siege), Ubisoft Paris (Ghost Recon Wildlands), and Ubisoft Toronto (Splinter Cell remake).
I loved the early games, played them a lot late 90s and early 2000s. The newer ones never landed with me, I loved the hardcore tactical aspects of the originals more.
Still, such a shame, I feel like a bit of history is lost with every iconic studio closure.
Wildlands was genuinely a good game. Like, story wise and shit, irrelevant, but the open world roaming in coop with my brother was probably some of the most fun we ever had in any ubisoft game.
However, this doesn’t surprise me at all considering that ubisoft is creatively bankrupt for years now.
I think a friend from middle school worked there; not sure if he’s still there, though
