In the world of online competitive gaming, games like Counter-Strike, Overwatch, Battlefield Series; the seemingly infamous Call of Duty and the legendary Halo and Quake are some of the very first to have gained massive popularity in the gaming community. In turn the community changed the status of these games from just ‘games’ to a brand new genre, we know today as E-SPORTS.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (arguably the most competitive FPS game in the world), Call of Duty, the Battlefield Series and Overwatch(a seemingly new game in the genre, with interesting MOBA elements) have been so far the only games to retain an immense fan base. These games have been tremendously successful in the e-sports genre, generating annual revenues of millions, whereas other games made with the e-sports community in mind (cough..cough Battleborne, Evolve, Heroes Of The Storm cough…cough) slowly died off.
However, on the 1st of December, 2015, UBISOFT released ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege’. The game has similarities to Counter-Strike. Featuring game modes like Bomb Defusal and Hostage Rescue, one Death per round, and a much bigger emphasis on team work. Over the past 2 years, this game has been able to preserve its reputation and has continued to grow as a well established, well developed title that has quickly risen up the e-sports ladder.
This meteoric rise begets a burning question, ‘CS:GO or TCRSS, Which is better?’
Obviously, Most of the opinions come from an emotional point of view. Most people are likely to prefer CS:GO because it has been around for long time and has a colossal fan base with millions of unique players every month. And in a world where fanboyism trumps all, it is common to receive stereotypical answers like, ‘I have thousands of hours in both CS:GO and Siege, however CS:GO is way better because it’s tactically deep and much harder to master than Siege.’
But is that really the case? Is CS:GO really better than Rainbow Six Siege? Let’s go over a detailed analysis and see which one far excels the other.
AIMING/SHOOTING MECHANICS
The aiming and shooting mechanics is what makes a shooter stand out. Siege has a very standard shooting system like Call of Duty and Battlefield with little to no variations and it is also particularly easy to aim with the ironsight than CS:GOs hipfire mechanism which is rather unique and far outclasses Siege’s shooting mechanics when it comes to the difficulty factor.
CS:GO has specific recoil patterns for each guns that the player has to master by himself, Siege does not. Run and Gun is not an option in CS:GO. You either have to stop to shoot accurately or peek shoot from cover while in Siege with the ironsight the shots are more accurate while moving than in CS:GO. So yes, it is harder to aim and pick kills in CS:GO than in Siege.
GAMEPLAY ANALYSIS
Both the games have a similar motive but that doesn’t mean the gameplay has to be the same. CS:GO is far simpler in this regard. Siege excels in this section as it has more options than CS:GO. It allows it’s players to crouch, go prone and even has its own dedicated peek mechanics which allows the players to lean to the left or to the right with the push of a button. It provides the players with high tech gadgets like drones, cameras, sledge hammers, barricades, barbed wires, signal disruptors, and even explosive charges to breach!
CS:GO does not have any of these.
CS:GO is a very straight forward shooter game where you have to follow the map as it is to complete your objective. Siege on the other hand is not as simple as it looks. In Siege you make your own way. Would you choose to go through the front door? Or bring the whole ceiling down with a sledge hammer? Or blow up walls with explosive charges? Siege provides you with various gadgets and tells you to make your own way and play it as you would like. CS:GO constraints you by forcing you to play in a map that cannot be manipulated as you want it to.
COMMUNITY
Let’s just say that CS:GO is more toxic than Siege. Hackers and smurfs have ruined this game let alone griefers and derankers. It has become impossible to play a match in Non-Prime without calling someone a hacker. (for the uninitiated, prime matchmaking is an experiment by Valve to limit the number of smurfs and hackers who are associated with the trading of accounts, which is a violation of Valve’s Terms and Conditions) No matter what you do someone will shout at you or taunt you.
Siege is far less toxic, it has hackers too but not as many as there are in CS:GO. Reason being is that, Siege costs $60 and is more expensive than CS:GO which is $15 and becomes $5 on sales sometimes. So ultimately, it is likely to find more hackers in CS:GO as it is cheaper to buy accounts.
ECONOMY
Siege follows a class system where the player has to choose out of all existing classes and the operators under them. Each operator has their own special loadouts and gadgets. CS:GO gives a big NO to that and provides the players with a well designed and well balanced buy menu which allows players to buy weapons of their own choice. Economy forms the backbone of the game as the players have to save up money to buy weapons and gears with it. One wrong buy and it can cost you the entire round.
SERVERS
Let’s just say Valve wins this one. Ubisoft has a bad reputation when it comes to servers. It becomes a problem for the Siege players because the servers are down most of the time. Players face frequent connectivity issues. Valve on the other hand maintains a batch of very stable servers and are very swift to fix them should any error occur.
With than being said, let’s move on to the main question WHICH ONE IS BETTER?
From an opinion point of view:
Well, that depends more on the person. If you like complexity and strategy, you would choose Siege over CS:GO. Or are you are a fan of hardcore fast paced shooters which require both good aim and strategy? Then you would choose CS:GO over Siege.
From an objective point of view:
Lets sum up everything quickly. While CS:GO does tend to be extremely competitive, fast paced and strategic Siege might have a plus because it is more versatile and is very complex.
CS:GO encloses you within indestructible walls and restricts you from bashing through them which creates a challenge while on the other hand Siege inspires you to make your own way by blowing up walls and ceilings to cut short and save time.
Community also plays a big role in this, the less toxic a community is the more likely it is for people to stay in it. Most of the players who have fled from CS and have discovered newfound interest in Siege is because of the community factor. They have either been taunted or yelled at or have encountered hackers or smurfs which may have destroyed their gameplay experience forcing them to quit CS:GO. CS:GO has an infamous reputation to hold an extremely toxic community and it is indubitably true that this toxicity has rendered the game unplayable for the most part.
Let’s talk about the reality.
CS:GO gets repetitive and extremely boring, playing the same maps over and over and applying the same strats over and over. Siege has the upper hand here because it is unpredictable! Anything could happen, you have to equally contribute in both strategy and game sense to be able to successfully lead an assault while in CS:GO the strats are extremely limited.
But that doesn’t mean CS:GO is bad. While the gameplay might have become stale over time, CS:GO does create a challenge for you, it is harder to shoot in CS:GO because of its hip fire mechanism, while some guns do have scopes which can be used. But they are either hard to use because of recoil or are bolt actions.
When it comes to difficulty and fast paced competitiveness where you have to make minute decisions in seconds CS:GO beats Siege by far in the E-SPORTS arena. Siege is more fun to play and it is more strategic and has denser maps than CS:GO. So there is no doubt that it can beat CS:GO by far in the areas of strategy, tactics and versatility. While CS:GO far outshines Siege in the areas of shooting, competitiveness and strategy to some extent mostly because it is limited and does not require as much brain work as Siege.
Which game do you think is better and why? Let us know all that and more in the comments.