UbisoftRainbow 6: Siege has been one of the most popular multiplayer games out there for the past decade, with the game gaining a ton of momentum in the years after its launch. However, one major problem has grown and festered over the years that’s been dragging R6 down.
The thing that makes Ubisoft’s premiere multiplayer shooter special is just how much both game and map knowledge matter. Though mechanical skill plays a huge factor, understanding how to play around and engage with R6’s unique gameplay mechanics is essential for success.
However, this is a double-edged sword. The very depth that has kept players engaged for years is driving newcomers away, or even longtime players who struggle to return to the game after taking a break for an Operation or two.
And, while Siege X’s massive overhaul is focused mostly on adding layers to that depth, there’s one new feature that’s absolutely essential for winning over new players: the Dual Front game mode.
Dual Front creates a sanctuary for new players
Rainbow 6: Siege has arguably the biggest barrier of entry out of any competitive multiplayer game. Though MOBAs like League of Legends and DOTA 2 are notorious for being hard to get into, they at least only have one map and some tutorial functions that have been added over the years to make complex game systems more accessible.
In Rainbow 6, not knowing the maps and Operators will result in you getting absolutely smoked out the gate. There are more than 70 different Operators with different abilities and loadouts at this point. It’s never been harder to get into R6, and it wasn’t an easy game to learn to begin with.
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You really, really have to be determined to grit your teeth and suffer through your opening hours to get to the point that R6 is enjoyable. It’s never had a great onboarding system, with only a barebones tutorial to walk you through what it looks like firing on all cylinders. It’s hard to imagine where Siege would be if creators like Jynxzi weren’t showing the masses the peaks high level play can reach.
This, however, creates a divide.
Diehard players will want more content. New players will be discouraged by it. So, how do you solve the new player problem?
You create a mode that’s less punishing and removes all those barriers to entry, one that doesn’t mess with what already makes R6 great: Dual Front.
Dual Front is a mode that’ll get updated with an entirely new map for every Operation, putting all players on a level playing field in terms of knowledge from the get-go. Additionally, attackers and defenders are unrestricted in terms of which team can pick which Operator and has much faster respawns.
Before, it was essential to learn a few different characters on each side. The requirement to play Attack and Defense forced you to constantly change which character you played.
Considering how common one-tricking is in every multiplayer game that follows the hero-based structure, the ability to learn the game by playing just one character is a bigger deal than you’d think.
Additionally, the Operator pool for this mode is limited to a set number of characters, giving new players less things that they’ll have to learn compared to normal modes.
What’s more, Dual Front ditches the round-based structure of R6 and gets rid of all that extra down time. Just straight PvP in a constant fight to defend your base while planting a bomb in the space your enemy is trying to defend.
UbisoftThis is something old-school players may not gel with, but giving novices more time in-game trying to win shootouts will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes for them to learn core mechanics.
If you’re bad at Siege and try to learn it, you have a very real chance of being stuck in a perpetual loop of spawning, prepping, dying almost immediately, and waiting around two minutes to play the game again, only to rinse and repeat. Siege X aims to ease new players in a bit
And, hey, if you’ve never tried Rainbow 6 before and you’re reading this, you can get Beta access and try Dual Front for yourself now! Even if you don’t own the game, you can get in.
The fact that new players can actually play the game now rather than sitting in the spectator screen is a huge improvement for the series and hopefully a way to keep them around long enough to experience the real joys of Siege that are only accessible once you know what you’re doing.
And, though the audio overhaul is also a huge fix to a problem that’s been around since the beginning, creating a way for new players to learn and grapple with R6’s game mechanics is the best thing the devs could have done to bolster this game’s future and create an environment where it can thrive for years to come.
There truly is nothing else like Rainbow 6: Siege out there, and hopefully X can create a path that allows more people to experience it. It’s one of the biggest multiplayer games out there for a reason.