Ubisoft has revealed two new Operators heading to Rainbow Six Siege Year 5. Operation Steel Wave adds Ace and Melusi, a new Attacker and Defender as well as some robust new changes to the gameplay and House map. Best of all, Melusi is from South Africa. In addition, Ace is from Norway.
Check the new Operators out in a Rainbow Six Siege Operation Steel Wave gameplay video down below;
Like all Rainbow Six Siege Operators, Ace and Melusi also have their own cool backstories. Melusi signed up for the South African National Defense Force. After an ambush left her badly wounded, she resigned and instead began training local women in tracking, interception and surveillance as part of the Inkaba Task Force Anti-Poaching Unit.
Melusi has a range of cool electronics she uses in-game. Her Banshee deployable gadget applies a slowing effect to any attackers that are in a direct line of sight. The same gadget also creates a unique sound when an attacker comes close to it doubling up as an alarm.
As for Ace, this Norwegian Attacker is part influencer part hero. He is equipped with SELMA (not to be confused with salmonella). This throwable sticky grenade can stick on any verticle surface and at the same time can destroy up to 3 panels. SELMA can also be thrown as other defence gadgets destroying them with water explosive. It is pretty cool to see the gadget open its robotic arms and destroy other gadgets in the way.
Along with the new Operators comes some changes to the game’s core. Ubisoft has revamped the classic House map adding a “girl’s room” to the game. This room has been under construction for some time now so it is nice to see it revamped and ready. However, the room is not the only new addition. Those familiar with the map will notice new windows are now in place as well as walls were there used to be windows. In addition, the map is bigger than ever before with a whole new level of rooms and entry points. These new map changes will add fun new ways to approach every match.
There’s also a new proximity alarm now added to the Defender’s loadout. This annoying gadget beeps whenever someone is in line of sight alerting other defenders to an enemy presence.
I got to spend a few hours with Melusi and Ace last week and it was great. I am by no means a Rainbow Six Siege pro but the Operators bring some great new challenges into a match. Melusi being South African is, of course, my new favourite Defender. Her Banshee deployable gadget is fun to use and let me place it on almost every surface. Once deployed, the defending team had to deal with an annoying slowdown in movement as well as a slight screen shake. It also creates this humming sound which can also interfere with opponents listening for sounds in the map. It, however, does not slow down camera movement, only enemies walking and crawling.
Melusi’s Banshee gadget will create some exciting new combos in a match. For example, Goyo’s shield that bursts in flames will kill an enemy who is slowed down by the Banshee. A smoke grenade will also be hard to escape from when you are stuck walking slower than a sloth thanks to Melusi’s gadget.
As for going up against the Banshee, it can easily be destroyed. A well-timed grenade throw or explosive ammo can instantly kill it. You can also melee it broken if need be. However, walking up to this gadget while it is humming is tough and frustrating. You walk very slow, the sound is irritating and the vibration shake of your screen can get a little too much at times. Of course, this gadget is meant to annoy an Attacker and it does a great job in doing so.
As for Ace, his gadget will change the matching landscape drastically. Anything that breaks panels is the best and worst thing to happen in Rainbow Six Siege. The SELMA is pretty cool to watch. You toss it and it spreads its arms like a fungus. It then destroys a panel and moves down to another automatically to do the same thing. These panel openings create the perfect vantage point to peek inside a bomb site or even enough space to toss some grenades in and hope for the best.
SELMA also moves at a slow pace when moving to the next panel. This means you can toss it and run away luring players to the point of detonation while you flank in from a whole different location. You can also just sit by and wait for the second panel to get destroyed too. This is now possible due to the low damage output of the SELMA blast. In short, it destroys panels, not players.
It will be interesting to see how these new Rainbow Six Siege Operators fare in the coming weeks ahead. It is always fun and exciting to have new gadgets added to the game which allows players to experiment with their combat approach. Melusi’s Banshee gadget and Ace’s SELMA detonator will add countless combinations for other Operators to enhance their abilities while at the same time, new ways to counter them too.
The new Operators will be available on the Operation Steel Wave Test Server from 19 May 2020. They will then be added to the game and available to Year 5 pass holders for the first week. After which, they will be available to purchase in the game store. The new Defender gadget, as well as the house map changes, will be available to all players.
What do you think of these new Operators? Let us know in the comments section. Thanks to Ubisoft for hooking us up with early access to this new Rainbow Six Siege Operation Steel Wave content for us to test out and share our thoughts on it.
