Terrorist Hunt is one of the most iconic modes throughout the Rainbow Six series, starting its life in Rainbow Six 3. While the mode was available in the early days of Rainbow Six Siege, it was scrapped in Year 8, Season 4 before being replaced with the current Clear House mode.
Speaking to FRVR, Rainbow Six Siege developer Matthieu Sola explained that the game’s current incarnation of the mode exists as a new framework for future PvE updates. While similar to the mode that came before it, Clear House only exists due to the technical issues that surrounded its predecessor.
“Terrorist Hunt was a long-standing PvE mode in Siege, but over time it received significantly less attention compared to our core PvP experience,” Sola explained. “The underlying systems were outdated and required extensive maintenance each season to keep them functional.”
These types of issues are otherwise dubbed tech debt, and a litany of other games bump into these problems as titles last longer in the current age of gaming. Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, Bungie’s Destiny 2 and countless others have abandoned features due to the upkeep required to keep them, and Siege is no different.
Sola claims that, with Clear House, “players can now enjoy the same warm-up benefits that Terrorist Hunt offered – while leveraging our optimised framework designed for continuous updates and improvements.” However, as fans have rightly pointed out, Clear House isn’t the same.
Unlike Terrorist Hunt, Clear House’s AI is lifeless and they aren’t as complicated as the old enemies used to be. While Clear House is a better warm-up for some players, it lacks the thrill that Terrorist Hunt used to instil in players, and was the entire reason it was such an iconic mode to begin with.
Nevertheless, the creation of Clear House on Ubisoft’s side isn’t just about creating a replacement for T-Hunt, but instead it was more about creating the framework for future PvE content. As Sola explains, the team is now able “to deliver a more sustainable and engaging PvE experience moving forward”.
For more of our chat with the Siege team, read about the game’s anti-cheat solution and why the game will never come to Steam Deck.
