Ubisoft is teasing a new Rainbow Six Siege operator that, frankly, I'm having trouble accepting is real. If this 15-second video of Sam Fisher on a Codec call with his stealth franchise rival is to be taken at face value, Solid Snake is coming to Siege.
We then see a neck-down shot of Solid Snake skulking through a cloud of smoke, unholstering what appears to be a SOCOM pistol with an unusual sight. The man himself doesn't speak, but he appears to be wearing a sneaking suit similar to this MGS2 look. The teaser ends with the date and time of the full Year 11 roadmap reveal: February 15 at 8AM PT.
Some obvious questions arise, such as: Huh? Collaborations are nothing new for Rainbow Six where cosmetics are concerned, but this is the first time a playable operator has come from outside the Tom Clancyverse. And what a whopper of a guest character to start off with.
It's also totally strange from a lore standpoint—yes, Siege does have an ongoing story told through seasonal animations. Where does Snake fit into all of that? Is he the newest member of Rainbow, or will the game just sort of ignore his presence? It seems tonally dissonant to slide Solid Snake, a cheesy 80s-style action hero conceived by Hideo Kojima, next to Siege's roster of uber-serious global commandos, but I can't pretend it's inconsistent with the game's tacky style these days. Ubi has already soiled Siege's tactical shooter identity with ugly clown show skins a thousand times over.
On the gameplay side, I'm totally intrigued. How will Snake's sneaking antics translate into a Siege gadget or ability? He has no shortage of iconic gadgets to pull from: the Soliton Radar, directional microphone, thermal goggles, or even that cute little wheeled drone from MGS4. Or, will his loadout be more ballistic? The man does love a rocket launcher.
I hope his playstyle ends up more faithful to his character than Sam Fisher's kit. When he arrived in Siege back in 2020, it was almost like Ubi was hesitant to embrace the Splinter Cell connection: his official name was "Zero," not Sam or Fisher, and his gadget was a handheld camera launcher that didn't even attach to his rifle, as it did in the Splinter Cell games.
I will bet a dollar on two things: 1) Snake's box will appear in a post-game emote, and 2) In the full reveal, Snake will say "Kept you waiting, huh?"
The Year 11 reveal is going down during the next Siege Invitational in Paris, February 15 at 8AM PT.
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