MeinMMO author Dariusz has played many years of Rainbow Six: Siege and therefore had high hopes for Siege X. However, the anticipation has somewhat subsided.
Rainbow Six: Siege will receive a major update in 2025, thus becoming Siege X. This is an important step to ensure that the shooter remains future-proof. The game is already 9 years old, and some aspects have clearly aged – especially the engine seems partly overwhelmed by the steadily growing scale of the game.
Anyone who has played Rainbow Six: Siege in recent years will criticize the sound, for example. It used to be really good, but nowadays footsteps are far too often inaudible. They are not too quiet, but simply absent.
Because I love Rainbow Six despite the numerous problems, I was looking forward to Siege X – but so far, the update does not feel like the fresh start that players like me had hoped for.
This is what Siege X changes
- Siege X releases on June 10, 2025 (free-to-play for new players, Ranked requires Premium Access)
- There will be 5 visually revamped maps at launch: Cafe, Clubhouse, Chalet, Border, Bank
- Existing players keep everything, including Ranked access
- A new permanent mode is coming: Dual Front
- Larger squads, 6v6 instead of 5v5
- Attackers and defenders play together on the same team
- Play takes place on a new, larger map
- The goal: capture the enemy’s “base” and defend your own
- All operators can move around both outside and inside
- There are respawns (about 30 seconds respawn cooldown)
- The mode has a limited operator pool that changes every season
- Audio overhaul
- Visual overhaul (textures, lighting, first-person shadows)
- Wall anchoring is changed (sprint along the rope to climb around corners)
- Destruction of environmental objects (fire extinguishers, gas pipes, motion detectors)
- Motion detectors can be disabled with EMPs or destroyed with explosions
- Gas pipes spray flames and explode when shot
- Fire extinguishers create smoke clouds and can stun enemies when exploding if they are too close to the blast
- New animations, such as when reloading
- Veterans receive rewards for each year they have played Siege
- Year 1 reward is a new “Black Ice” skin;
- There will be a badge indicating when you started playing Siege.
- The unranked mode is back
- Introduction of a new “Pick & Ban” system for operators
- 3 bans per attack and defense, 1 ban per round
- Example: In round 1, the attackers ban the operator Mira, in round 2 Valkyrie, and in round 3 Jäger.
- The ban from round 1 also applies in round 2.
- After the side swap, the bans are reset.
- With Siege X, “ShieldGuard” goes live to combat cheaters. It detects actions that are impossible for legitimate players – such as shooting while sprinting.
- Outlines for characters will be introduced to better see operators.
- Update for the basic movement: You can now jump down from small ledges (like from a bed) without losing momentum.
- Introduction of a communication wheel to coordinate a push without voice chat or request the blowing up of a wall.
- Players can now inspect their weapon
Siege X is a penalty kick without a goalkeeper, but Ubisoft kicks against a balloon
Last weekend (March 15/16, 2025) I tested the closed beta for Siege X. It should be noted that only the new 6v6 mode “Dual Front” was playable. However, that was enough to at least gain a first impression.
That only Dual Front was playable is also my first point of criticism:
Siege X is a penalty kick without a goalkeeper for Ubisoft. This means Ubisoft has the chance to appease years of critics and just has to slide the ball into the empty net. They have already done the groundwork that led to the penalty kick. Now they just have to convert it.
The groundwork that led to the penalty kick
Rainbow Six: Siege has some problems. The biggest, of course, are the numerous cheaters. But there are also small issues that pinch in the football shoe which Ubisoft addresses with Siege X. For me, as a long-time player, these three changes are particularly interesting:
- The audio overhaul
- The introduction of outlines for operators, so they can be seen better regardless of the background and the uniform played
- the return of unranked
Now the penalty kick occurred, but instead of a high-quality leather ball, there lies a balloon on the spot that wobbles back and forth in the wind when you try to shoot the balloon into the goal.
The penalty kick that was not ideally utilized
Instead of presenting the really interesting changes on the already known maps, only the new mode was accessible in the beta. This takes place on a significantly larger map, features respawns, and occurs much less within a building than on the maps of the other modes. Naturally, sound behaves differently on the much larger map than we are used to from the ranked maps.
Furthermore, Ubisoft is introducing a new “Pick & Ban” system for operators with Siege X that we will encounter in ranked and unranked. Of course, we could not test this without the respective modes in the beta. And how well the new outlines for the operators actually work on the maps we know is still uncertain.
Ubisoft has worked hard to present the major update, yet does not allow us to test important and interesting changes. And the new mode is not enough to generate excitement for Siege X.
The new mode is just a byproduct and not a new era
Dual Front can be fun, but the mode is clearly designed as a byproduct. The focus will be on the “normal” Siege. It will still primarily be about playing 5v5 in ranked and the other modes – after all, the operators and maps are designed for this gameplay. Ubisoft knows this and is therefore visually revamping old maps like Border and Chalet.
Gameplay-wise, it quickly became clear to me that Dual Front is more of “a nice diversion” than the start of a new Siege era. The mode is good for newcomers as they can initially learn a small selection of operators on a single map. This makes starting the rather complex game easier.
However, I will only play the mode when I do not feel like competitive matches but want to relax. And this is my big problem: Even during the introduction of the mode, Ubisoft emphasized that you should use your drone because otherwise you might find yourself unprepared looking down the barrel of an enemy’s gun.
If you are eliminated in Dual Front, you face an approximately 30-second respawn cooldown. This preserves the tactical gameplay of Rainbow Six: Siege and ensures that newcomers can truly learn all the fundamental mechanics of the shooter. However, I do not need to learn the basic mechanics anymore and do not want to scout a huge map with my drone in a fun mode with respawn or wait 30 seconds after a death.
In my view, Dual Front fails to be a fun mode for occasional play as death should feel too punishing. But if I should play cautiously and deliberately anyway, I would rather play ranked or the returning unranked, because there are more operators and more maps there.
Siege X does not bring the change that brings me back
Actually, Siege X is a step in the right direction and if you are actively playing Rainbow Six, you will probably be pleased with the announced changes. However, I still miss that one big argument that justifies a real return.
- The comeback of unranked is cool, but for the most part irrelevant to ranked players.
- The audio update is good, but the sound was still somewhat inconsistent in the beta.
- The visual overhaul of the maps is nice, but negatively affects the FPS, and in competitive games, I want as many frames as possible.
However, these are just small changes, and Siege X is just an update. Anyone who has not enjoyed Rainbow Six: Siege recently will not suddenly become the biggest fan of the shooter. This update does not motivate me to invest another 4,000 hours into the game. I will still occasionally launch Rainbow Six and play a few rounds, but the time when I played almost nothing else is over and will not return with Siege X. It is not a new game, not a new beginning, but an update that is supposed to make the aging shooter future-proof.
If I currently play Rainbow Six: Siege, various things bother me. For instance, I no longer know which operator to play. Some have been changed in the rebalancing to the point that they are no longer fun for me, while I have played others so much that I no longer want to play them. The maps are similar. I can’t stand the “good” maps anymore, and I still don’t like the “bad” maps – and Siege X will change nothing about that. Siege X is not Siege 2!
I had simply hoped that Ubisoft would somehow manage to bring back the magic of my former favorite game. But I must accept that this will not happen. The game has changed too much since then and is different today than it was from 2016 to 2020, when I played it for hours every day. For me, the hoped-for change has therefore not occurred. I now prefer to play another tactical shooter: I have finally found the shooter I hope to play for the next few years after countless months
