Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 update finally ends reload frustrations

Have you ever cornered a lone Rainbow Six Siege operator as they reload and gone in for the kill, only for them to turn around and blow your head off? Frustrating, isn’t it? The Rainbow Six Siege Year 8 update, however, finally fixes the FPS game‘s reloading system, as well as making some big changes to the compensator and muzzle brake.

One of Rainbow Six’s most irritating features is its reload system. Players often fall into the trap of assuming that, because an enemy is reloading, they can’t cancel the animation and simply turn on you. At the moment, cancelling the animation is easy, you still receive a full mag of ammo, and can easily get the advantage over the player that was trying to get the drop on you.

Year 8 Season 1 will change that, as you’ll now be locked into the reload animation – to borrow Ubisoft’s words, the mag won’t “magically pop back if you cancel that animation.” If you are shot while reloading and still have a little bit of ammo, you’ll be left with one bullet, but as Ubisoft says, “in Siege, it only takes one.”

Not only is this a lot more fair, it aligns better with the ethos of the game. You have to be tactical about your reloads, because when you’re locked into the animation you’re locked in. Not only is this far more realistic, it adds yet another challenge to the iconic tac shooter.

Continuing in this vein, muzzle brake is increasing from 45% to 50%, and the compensator will increase from 15% to 35%. Both of these changes are an attempt to make Siege “more tactical, more purposeful, and more strategic than ever before.”

All of these combined will hopefully make the game feel a little cleaner. With new operator Brava joining the fray, and the new MouseTrap anti-cheat system, Ubisoft is certainly making some big changes to Siege, and I really hope they pay off.

In the meantime, though, there’s a whole plethora of multiplayer games that you can check out while you wait for Year 8 to drop, or if you fancy something a little more intense we have a list of the best war games, too.