Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shadow Legacy hands-on preview

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege is changing things up in more ways than one for Operation Shadow Legacy. To this point, a major update for the long-running tactical shooter has meant the debut of two new Operators the game's roster. However, back in February, Ubisoft Montreal noted that this would no longer be the case going forward. In an effort to help focus on bringing the rest of the game up to date, major updates would now only include a single Operator. If there's only one Operator showing up for Operation Shadow Legacy, that character had better be a doozy.

Oh. Yes, I think that counts.

Yes, for those who missed the news earlier in the week, the new Operator for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege goes by the moniker Zero. However, in a past life, he was known as Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher. Zero is slumming it in Siege as the game's newest Attacker, but does his style fit in with this different type of game? Shacknews recently went hands-on to find out.

The first thing to note is that Zero doesn't quite bring the same level of stealth to Rainbow Six Siege that he does to Splinter Cell. As one might imagine, he needs to be more of a team player this time around. He'll be utilizing SC3000K Assault Rifle, the MP7 Submachine Gun, and yes, the 5.7 USG, which is reminiscent of his Fisher's trusty old FN Five-seveN. He might die a lot more than you might be used to in a Splinter Cell game. (Or you might die just as much. Who am I to assume how good or not good you are at Splinter Cell.) But death isn't the end for Zero. He'll still have quite an impact even after he gets shot down in the line of duty.

Zero's ability is the Argus Launcher. Using a handheld blaster, Zero can fire off drill cameras that can be placed just about anywhere on the map. The Argus Launcher will even fire through breakable and reinforced surfaces. If Zero dies at any point, you can still peek through the Argus Launcher cameras and ping any targets, which makes Zero an invaluable asset. Just try and place those cameras where they can't be seen, because the Defenders can still take them out with a simple shot. More specifically, Mute can wipe them out with his Signal Disruptor.

While a bulk of the attention in Operation Shadow Legacy will be on Zero, he won't be the only new addition to Rainbow Six Siege. The Chalet map will be receiving a rework. The first and second floors have been given a fresh coat of paint, as well as a traversable roof area. You'll just as likely find Attackers trying to infiltrate the area from above than you will from any of the windows. So maybe consider hiding in the newly-reworked basement area. Just watch out for breachers, especially ones carrying around the new Hard Breach Charge secondary gadget.

Chalet is the latest map to see major improvements, but maybe it won't be to your taste. Or maybe some of the other maps won't suit you. Fortunately, a new Map Ban feature is coming to Ranked and Unranked games, allowing players to vote on which maps are taken out of their rotation. Other changes include new Optics, Sight Colors, and improvements to the game's new Ping 2.0 system, which allows for players to continue participating in sessions even after they've died by pinging points of interest for their teammates.

Some of this news might have you interested in trying out Rainbow Six Siege. At least it would if the community's toxic reputation wasn't a factor. So as part of its continuing effort to make Siege a more pleasant place to play, Ubisoft will be launching a new mobile app called SquadFinder. SquadFinder allows Siege players to search for teammates by language, play style, and overall gaming habits. While it doesn't fully solve the toxicity problem, it does offer a new tool to help make some decent friends.

All of the Operation Shadow Legacy changes will be implmented on the PC Test Server this Monday, August 17. Look for it to hit the full Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege game shortly afterwards. To help celebrate this update, Ubisoft Montreal will have the full game available to play for free on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One from August 27 through September 4. We'll have more to say about Rainbow Six Siege's Operation Shadow Legacy shortly, so stay tuned to Shacknews for more.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?