Rainbow Six Siege's Secret Lore Will Blow Your Mind

Could Ubisoft have an Overwatch of their own?

by Ewan Paterson
Ubisoft

Rainbow Six: Siege is a veritable gaming phenomenon, releasing to little fare in 2015 only to reverse its fortunes and become one of the most popular competitive shooters on the marker. It's a remarkable turnaround, and though the main draw of the title is its methodical, tactical PVP gameplay, there is another element of Siege that's flown somewhat beneath the radar - its lore.

Because, while yes, Siege is itself a reboot of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six world, it's still based on the late author's works. When Ubisoft took to making games using the Clancy IP, they fashioned one of the original gaming universes, with titles like Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon and of course Rainbow Six all existing in the same world; 2008's Hawx - a forgettable military flight sim, by all means - even opens up with the player providing close air support to Scott Mitchell's Ghosts in the wake of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2.

This was the old Clancy-verse though, and with Rainbow having since been rebooted, Ubisoft have taken to fashioning a new lore of their own. Whether or not it's as compelling as Clancy's material is up to you, but still, what lies beneath Siege's cutting-edge gameplay is actually quite compelling - in an Overwatch-y type way.

Ubisoft are yet to tap into their mythos quite the same way Blizzard have with their own hero-shooter. Scratch beneath the surface though, and you can definitely see how they could.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.