Which is big news across a number of fronts, but could have those out there screaming for a new instalment in the long running Splinter Cell series more than just as a playable operative in Rainbow Six Siege just a bit miffed. But hey, maybe this exposess him to an all-new audience for something further down the track?



Here's the debriefing in full ahead of our own hands-on with the new content scheduled for tomorrow:

In Operation Shadow Legacy, players will be able to rediscover Sam Fisher as an Attacker named Zero, equipped with a new gadget, the Argus Launcher, a two-way drill camera. The cameras are launched to pierce soft or reinforced walls, windows, and hatches or stick to any surface. Once viewing the camera, the Attacker can rotate the camera’s vision to see the other side of the wall. Each camera is equipped with one lazer charge, usable to deal damages to Defenders or destroy gadgets. Sam Fisher is also coming with his unique weapon the SC3000K & melee weapon: the Karambit.

In addition to Sam Fisher, players will be able to explore a reimagined Chalet map, which has been newly reworked. The team has improved the first and the second floors, and the roof is now traversable, among other features. Objectives have been the main focus of this rework, with a hallway added to improve rotation in the Basement, and the Trophy site has been switched for a new one in Dining.

Alongside this new season, Ubisoft unveiled that Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege will be available to play for free from August 27th to September 4th, depending on the platform. Interested players can join the more than 60 million players in the Rainbow Six Siege community across all platforms, including immediate access to all maps, modes, and 20 legacy Operators.

Ahead of this free week, Ubisoft also announced the launch of SquadFinder, a mobile and desktop web application designed to help players match with teammates according to their language, playstyle, and overall game habits. SquadFinder is now available at http://rainbow6.com/squadfinder.

Additional game updates include the following:

• Ping 2.0
  
• Map Ban
  
• New secondary gadget: the Hard Breach Charge
  
• New Optics and Sights Colors
  
• New Reinforcement Pool

The Test Server for Operation Shadow Legacy will go live on August 18th. The Test Server is an alternative version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege, allowing players to test upcoming gameplay features that will make their way into the main game itself. Since this is a testing environment, a consistent gameplay experience is not guaranteed on the Test Server. Players are invited to submit the issues they encounter on the Test Server on the R6 Fix platform: https://r6fix.ubi.com/. The Test Server is exclusive to Windows PC.

That's a lot to take in, and we'd have to assume legacy players are big Ubi franchise fans, so this feels like a massive win across the board. And as mentioned in the intro, who knows, maybe this is just the first major step in bringing Fisher back in standalone capacity down the track.

Watch a video for Rainbow Six Siege: Operation Shadow Legacy and all its moving parts embedded below, and stay tuned for our hands-on tomorrow.