Rainbow Six Siege X's new Dual Front mode has operators fighting for territory control

This is a milestone year for Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. It feels like yesterday that Ubisoft Montreal introduced the latest Rainbow Six title, which focused on tactical team-based shooting with unparalleled physics. It's a game that has proven to have far more mileage than anybody expected and is still going strong ten years later. Now the time has come for Siege to evolve and while the core of Siege will see some upgrades, the new Rainbow Six Siege X update will also introduce a new way to play the game. Shacknews recently had a chance to join up with other members of the press for a new 6v6 game mode called Dual Front.

Dual Front will put two teams of six on Siege's largest map to date, comprised of multiple buildings. Each side's territory consists of two sectors and a headquarters with the idea being to take full control of the opposing base. This will involve infiltration and defense, but many of the restrictions of standard Siege play are going to be lifted. As such, Attackers and Defenders can be placed on the same squad and players will be free to switch between characters anytime between lives. "Wait, lives?" the reader may be asking. That's right, Dual Front will include respawns. Sometimes, a situation might call for a different operator, which will mean examining the pool of Attackers and Defenders. Be aware, however, that not every character is included in Dual Front and the available operators will rotate each month.

Seizing enemy zones involves planting a sabotage kit at a certain point in the opposing team's territory. After planting the sabotage kit and protecting it long enough for it to activate, the attacking team will successfully claim that sector. If a sabotage kit is planted, the other team will have only moments to disarm it. Unlike standard Siege, there is no preparation phase, but setting up defenses is a valuable strategy. That means barricading the base and setting traps, including some Defender gadgets. There's also a Neutral Sector in the middle of the map with rotating objectives for both teams with certain advantages granted to the team able to complete them.

The moment-to-moment flow of Dual Front takes some getting used to after spending so many years accustomed to standard Siege. Without the preparation phase and with the ability to respawn and switch characters, this new mode does lose some of what makes Siege so unique. It starts to feel closer to a lot of other shooters currently on the market. Veteran Siege players will likely tell anyone that the game is at its worst when teammates approach it like Call of Duty or Battlefield and Dual Front isn't exactly going to discourage that practice.

With that said, Dual Front does have potential, even if I wasn't able to necessarily realize it in the limited hands-on time that I had. The ongoing meta-game of switching Operators to fit certain scenarios and opposing lineups can be interesting. I didn't find too many instances where I needed to switch, because support characters like Doc become essential. Trap characters, like Maestro with his Evil Eye turret, can also be critical in keeping points of interest safe. After busting out the sabotage kit, the overall experience starts to feel more familiar, including those heartbreaking moments that come when planting successfully, then dying, then watching the other team defuse all that hard work.

It'll be interesting to see if Dual Front catches on with the Rainbow Six Siege fanbase. Ubisoft Montreal isn't going to waste time getting this new mode out in front of players. As revealed during Thursday's Siege X Showcase, a closed beta will kick off later today and run through Wednesday, March 19 at 12:00 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m. ET.

This preview is based on a remote session through a private beta branch provided by the publisher.

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?