Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Crimson Heist hands-on preview

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege continues stronger than ever, preparing to head into its sixth year of development. While the COVID-19 pandemic means that Ubisoft Montreal will not be celebrating with a capacity arena crowd as it has in previous years, the plans to make the game bigger and better have not slowed down. The next big update will see the addition of an exciting new Operator, which will be just the beginning for Siege's massive Year 6. Shacknews recently had a chance to learn more about what's coming in Operation Crimson Heist, as well as go hands-on with new Operator Flores.

Flores is a new Attacker from Argentina. On top of bringing his AR33 assault rifle to the battlefield, he also has his new original gadget. It's the RCE, also known as the Ratero Charge. On the surface, it looks like a normal drone. However, it has a powerful explosive attached to it. The idea is that Flores can escort the RCE to an opposing target and detonate the explosive to make things easier for the Attackers. The RCE is capable of removing enemy obstacles and sometimes, if you're really lucky, it can remove enemies, too.

The RCE is a versatile device, able to go wherever a drone can go. That means it's able to roll underneath Aruni's Surya Gate without being deactivated. However, it can be countered in more than a couple of ways. For starters, you'll have to watch out for Kaid's Electroclaw and Bandit's Shock Wires. Beyond that, the RCE can be shot like any other drone. That doesn't seem very handy on paper, but there are ways to protect it. The RCE has a timer on it and once it expires, it encases itself in a bulletproof shell. At that point, there's no stopping the explosion. The RCE can also be triggered manually, so if a Defender hasn't shot it down by that point, it's too late.

The RCE makes Flores a big threat from afar. He can deploy the RCE from a long distance and use its camera to infiltrate opposing defenses. If you're a Siege player who's more into performing recon with drones, the RCE will be your favorite gadget. And having played a few hours with Flores, there's nothing more satisfying than actually scoring a kill with this thing.

If Flores doesn't intrigue you, then perhaps a new secondary weapon for the Attackers will prove more interesting. The Gonne-6 is a new secondary handcannon with only a single shot. It can penetrate soft walls and can also pack a massive punch against Defenders. This weapon will be available for Glaz, Dokkaebi, Lion, Finka, Gridlock, Amaru, Iana, and Zero.

Players can also look forward to a rework of the Border map. The interior balcony now connects the eastern staircase to the break room, while the bathrooms have been expanded. Getting into the Border interior will prove to be more of a challenge, as the number of destructiuble walls has been reduced. There's an outside staircase available to help Attackers get to the upper levels, but they might have to go loud to get inside.

The addition of Flores, the Gonne-6, and the Border rework are coming in Operation Crimson Heist, but that's just the start of what's ahead for Rainbow Six Siege's Year 6. The next big update will introduce an unnamed Operator from the Nakoda Nations, as well as a rework of the Favela map. The year's third update will add an Operator from Croatia, along with reworks for three of Siege's existing maps. Year 6 will conclude with an update that adds an Operator from Ireland alongside a rework of the Outback map.

On top of adding more Operators and map content, Ubisoft Montreal will look to rebalance a number of the game's existing characters. New quality of life improvements will see the developer work with partner Microsoft Azure to improve server stability and continue reducing the number of DDoS instances. Match Replays will also go into beta soon for PC users, allowing them to step up their game in the future. And a Streamer Mode is in the works, which will help Siege streamers hide their information in order to reduce instances of stream sniping.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege's Test Server will add Operation Crimson Heist on February 22. It'll make its way to the full version of the game soon.

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?