Rainbow Six Siege brings double trouble with Operation Twin Shells

The team at Ubisoft Montreal is coming out firing on Sunday with the reveal of Rainbow Six Siege's next season. After spending the spring remastering part of its current roster, Siege is back to adding newcomers as part of Operation Twin Shells. The latest member of the Siege roster may look familiar to long-time fans of Ubisoft's tactical shooter series.

With Operation Twin Shells, Rainbow Six Siege welcomes in Skopos. This Defender is better known as Kure Galanos, the Greek operative last seen in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. Recall earlier this year that players were witness to the mission where Gerald Morris, now known as Deimos, betrayed his teammates. One of those teammates was Galanos, who lost use of her legs following the explosion at the end of the mission where Deimos was believed to have been killed. Since then, Galanos has worked to get back into the field despite being confined to a wheelchair. In fact, she has used her chair to her advantage, turning it into a makeshift command center. It doesn't allow her to get back in the fight directly, but it does allow her to control two different robotic operatives.

Skopos' operatives are unlike anything seen in Siege so far. She can control one robot at a time. The robot that isn't actively being controlled will sit in an idle position and shield itself. This can make it a pseudo barrier, so positioning for the robots is important. The robot in active control can function as a normal Siege character. However, it's important to note that if the robot on offense is destroyed, Skorpos is effectively neutralized. She cannot switch control to the other robot because her connection will be severed.

As for the defensive robot, it not only acts as a defensive barrier, but also as an intel tool. The robot's shell has a camera that can be utilized by Skorpos and her teammates. If Skorpos is actively looking through the camera, she'll have the option to switch the two robots' states, basically swapping places on the fly. Just know that the switch can only happen if the active robot is in a spot where it can deploy its defensive shell.

Teamwork will be critical with Skorpos' two robots on the field. The idle shell is not invincible and can be targeted by explosives, as well as gadgets from characters like Mute and Dokkaebi. It's also important to note that the robots cannot be healed, nor can it armor up with Rook's vests. The fortunate trade-off is that the robots don't need to breathe, making them immune to Fenrir and his fear gas.

Another major feature coming to Operation Twin Shells is a boost to the Attack team's drones. Drones have gone largely unchanged for the last decade, but now the Siege team hopes to offer new tools aimed at keeping drones active. The new Drone Boost gives a player's drone a burst of speed up to three times. This allows players to evade defenders that may have spotted them or allow them cover more ground in the preparation phase. The Drone Boost will also be available to Brava and her Kludge Drone. On the opposite side of the coin, if Mozzie hijacks a drone with his Pest Launcher, he'll also get to use their Drone Boost.

Ubisoft Montreal has spoken frequently about addressing cheating and toxicity within Rainbow Six Siege. The team's latest efforts include the implementation of a process called binary hardening, aimed at preventing cheating programs from infiltrating the game. Bans are also coming at a faster pace with the Ubisoft Montreal team pledging to hit cheaters harder than before. As for toxicity, the developers are implementing a revamped Reputation Center in the future in hopes of allowing players to build up their reputations while punishing recidivists.

Operation Twin Shells will also include various balance tweaks, a new outfit for Jaeger, and more. Players won't have to wait long to take a look at this new content. Operation Twin Shells will come to the Rainbow Six Siege Test Server this coming Monday, August 26.

This preview is based on a developer briefing held via Discord.

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?