Ubisoft has unveiled Operation Shadow Legacy, its latest update headed to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege. The third seasonal update of 2020 brings an in-house collaboration with the Splinter Cell series, including a taste of its covert espionage in the hit tactical shooter. That marks the arrival of iconic operative Sam Fisher as a new intelligence-focused attacker — and some impactful gameplay changes sprawling throughout the full multiplayer sandbox.
Fisher is the star of Shadow Legacy, introduced to the Operator roster under his callsign "Zero." He brings the new "Argus Launcher," a handheld camera gadget, featuring new drillable projectiles that provide a new approach to attacker intelligence. The camera burrows into walls, ceilings, and reinforced surfaces, with the ability to see either side through each of the four modules. He also packs the iconic SC3000K assault rifle from Splinter Cell, swappable for the MP7, with a 5.7 USG secondary in the holster.
The season introduces the new Chalet rework (diverging from Ubisoft's previous roadmap committed to revisiting Skyscraper) with the usual changes to both the layout and visual palette to improve multiplayer encounters. Efforts center on improving how attackers approach the objective, bringing various open spaces into the four walls, and allowing Operators to rappel onto the rooftop. Ubisoft has also released a deep-dive trailer, detailing its planned changes.
Ubisoft adds various impactful gameplay features too, as a part of its commitment to deliver new "core" adjustments with the drop from two to one new Operator per season. The highlights include Ping 2.0, a new contextual ping system, recently pushed by titles like Apex Legends, allowing players to ping through cameras, and points of interest like gadgets and defusers. The new Map Ban feature also deploys to Ranked multiplayer with Shadow Legacy, expanding upon pick-and-ban with an opportunity for teams to eliminate locations from the map pool.
There's also a ton of smaller-scale, yet impactful features on the menu for Shadow Legacy, primarily impacting the firearms and gadgets. Two new weapon sights make their arrival, coupled with changes to existing optics and custom reticle colors through the game menu. The defender reinforcement process changes next season. Instead, the game distributes ten reinforcements into a shared team pool, rather than on a per-Operator basis. For attackers, we're also receiving a secondary thermal breach charge, providing a toned-down alternative to Thermite, Hibana, Ace, and Maverick.
Replay Mode, Rainbow Six Siege's theater mode that allows players to revisit past matches, makes its arrival with Shadow Legacy. It's headed to the Test Server (TS) on PC in Alpha, although the timeframe for its public, live server debut remains unclear.
Rainbow Six Siege Operation Shadow Legacy debuts on the PC Test Server on August 17, with several weeks of public testing ahead of launch. The Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC live release date is yet to be discussed, yet established schedules put September 8 as the likely candidate.
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Ubisoft's hit shooter is hotter than ever, touting tense tactical gameplay, and regular free updates. Powering through 2020 with millions of players, Rainbow Six isn't slowing down.
