New Operators. New maps. New improvements. Anything else you need as Operation Brutal Storm kicks off Year 7 Season 3 in Rainbow Six Siege?
The game that continues to grow by the month, Rainbow Six Siege has been built on massively by the Ubisoft team since it first launched way back in 2015. Not only have multiple seasons and years rolled out since that time, but it also got treated to a glorious next-gen makeover for Xbox Series X|S in 2020. Today though it’s all about Operation Brutal Storm.
Year 7 Season 3 and Operation Brutal Storm ushers in a new Singaporean Operator, another new map, some amends to the Rep System and more gameplay improvements than you can shake a stick at.
It’s Grim who is the new Operator here; a master of survival and reconnaissance from Singapore with military experience in stealth, security, and intelligence. He’s well equipped too, with a Kawan Hive Launcher System gadget that fires a projectile that deploys a canister on the floor and releases a swarm of bee bots into the air. Defenders that pass through the swarm area have their location revealed by a ping. And even after leaving the swarm area, Defenders will continue to be pinged until the bee bots run out of battery.
Grim is a high speed, low health Operator, equipped with a 552 Commando or SG-CQB as a primary weapon and a P229 as a secondary weapon. Perfect for us.
In terms of the new map and you’ve got Stadium popping up for action. This is a permanent addition to the roster, and comes to Siege in the form of Stadium Bravo. It makes the most of plenty of ideas, ripping stuff from other maps, throwing in bulletproof glass and ensuring those who frequent its space will need to utilise many a tactic.
There’s more though and recent major balancing changes have been announced, including tweaks to Finka and LMGs, which are delivered in Y7S3. Players can also look forward to changes like the addition of impact EMP grenades to some Operators’ loadouts. And then others include more weapon attachment options for players to choose from. Additionally, the recoil system has been overhauled with each weapon’s recoil adjusted, and recoil intensity increasing during sustained bursts. Admittedly, the recoil overhaul is exclusive to PC, with console players now having dedicated recoil updated for controllers.
Further balance updates for Dokkaebi and Rook are due to arrive mid-season. Dokkaebi’s Logic Bomb now affects eliminated players, and Rook’s armor plates now grant Operators the Withstand ability if they are wearing them. Withstand allows Operators to self-revive with 20 health if they fall into the Down But Not Out state.
Addition updates direct from the Ubisoft team include:
- Gameplay updates for this season include changes to the Map Ban phase to display five maps instead of three, increasing map diversity while maintaining player agency for removing maps from the pool. The Tactical Map has also been updated to provide Attackers with more information to help them during the preparation phase. Attackers can now see a list of available Defender objective locations, with the floor map and objective locations displayed when discovered by the Attacking team.
- In addition, the ability for players to report suspected cheaters is coming to the Match Replay viewer. Players can review footage from their latest games and report suspected cheaters while viewing their gameplay. This feature highlights Ubisoft’s continual commitment to detecting and banning cheaters to create a fair environment for all players.
- Phase 2 of the Reputation System launches later in the season to continue addressing player behaviour improvements. This update introduces a new penalty for abusive text chat. While active, this penalty mutes repeat offenders by default to prevent hateful and abusive content in text chat. Muted players can still send and receive messages, but their messages will only be seen by players who choose to unmute them. There will be a short grace period after launch for players to adapt to the new system. After the grace period, players who are found to have sent too many hateful or abusive messages will get an active penalty for 30 matches.
Finally, Operation Brutal Storm brings focus to another faction – Nighthaven. You may well think that the Private Military Company is opportunistic and hostile, but that’s because its agents are very protective of it. Their services have a price tag, so Nighthaven often works for the highest bidder. This lets the company afford the finest military technology and weaponry, which can be an attractive proposition for Rainbow Six operatives. Finka, Pulse, Ela, IQ and Smoke made the choice to leave Rainbow for Nighthaven, joining Kali, Wamai, Aruni, Ace, Osa and their chief of security, Grim.
Rainbow Six Siege continues to be available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, PC, Luna and Stadia. We’ll link you to the Xbox Store in case you don’t yet have a copy.
