From the Department of Mobile Games We’d Like To See, Ubisoft and Netflix have partnered up to create Rainbow Six Smol, a new roguelite mobile game that gives the franchise a fresh new look aimed at a mobile audience, featuring short, quick games with loads of humour and fantastic tactical, and not-so-tactical, action.
The game is a top-down isometric shooter with colourful graphics and a fresh take on the franchise’s normally serious subject matter. There are various objectives to play through and complete, and there’s even a wacky storyline thrown in the mix to keep you engaged or confused; who knows? In essence, you control a Rainbow squad recruit leading a squad of different operators. Your missions range from diffusing bombs, protecting equipment, executing assassinations, and freeing hostages, to name a few. Each of your operators has its own set of skills and abilities, but when they die, you’ll need to hire a new recruit. Old recruits can be revived at a cost, not monetary, as you may think.
Ubisoft was intent on creating a game that does not take itself too seriously and it has executed well on this objective. Having played about 30 minutes of Rainbow Six Smol before writing this, I can confidently say that I’ll be spending a lot more time in the world of Smol.
Apart from beautiful design and fun gameplay mechanics, I was most impressed with the fact that this game does not revolve around any monetisation mechanics. In an interview with The Verge, Creative Director at Ubisoft Montréal, Renaud Forestié, said that Netflix was involved with the game from early on in the development cycle, which meant the game was built around a subscription model and not microtransactions or ads. This allowed the development team to focus on the player experience . The only requirement for this game is an active Netflix subscription. Everything you need to unlock is earned in-game, and there is not way to spend real money in-game. Fantastic!
This is where things get interesting, to amplify the excitement and help you earn XP and credits; the game’s environments are destructible, so stealthy approaches are completely optional. Shooting and smashing seems to be the order of the day.
The game is a bit of a power hog, and my phone ran hotter than it ran with any other game to date. There were also some frame drops before I enabled my phone’s Gaming Boost function, which diverts all power to the game’s requirements and improves performance.
As a matter of interest, Forestié also says that the game’s small development team consisted of only 10 people.
You can grab Rainbow Six Smol on Google Play or the App Store; you’ll be prompted to log into your Netflix account when you launch the game.