Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege X
The first time I played the Dual Front mode, I spent nearly three minutes wandering an eerily quiet sector of the map before I was gunned down by someone who had clearly been crouching in a corner since before I’d even showed up. It felt like I’d walked into a horror game with military cosplay.
That moment pretty much sums up Rainbow Six Siege X: a fascinating yet frustrating reinvention of Rainbow Six Siege that’s trying to be two things at once. It’s still got the bones of the tactical, high-stakes shooter that defined it over the past decade. But now, it’s dressed in new clothes, speaking a new language, and occasionally trying to be Call of Duty or Overwatch 2 when you’re just here for some breaching and clearing. It’s a game in the middle of an identity shift, and depending on how long you’ve been around Siege, that can feel either like a welcome evolution or a betrayal.
Dual Front Is Siege Reimagined, For Better Or Worse
At the heart of Siege X is Dual Front, a brand-new 6v6 mode that reimagines the series’ core dynamic. You’re attacking and defending at the same time on a mirrored map called District. It’s the biggest map Siege has ever had, and it looks the part: modern, sprawling, and divided into sectors that give it a board game kind of structure. In theory, it’s a test of multitasking and coordination: teams trade sectors, push into enemy territory, and clash over timed assignments in a neutral zone. In practice, it’s often confusing, oddly paced, and prone to long stretches of aimless movement punctuated by sudden, jarring deaths.
Part of the issue is how the map design and gameplay loop intersect. District is large and open, with playable exteriors, and the mode’s respawn system means there’s rarely a clear frontline. It’s easy to get caught out by someone who’s been holding an off-angle for five minutes while you’re sprinting across an empty courtyard.
That tension, the slow burn before a fast death, has always been part of Siege, but here it feels more random, more disconnected from the tight teamwork and careful planning we know and love it for. Droning helps, and the mode still rewards listening and smart plays, but with everyone able to constantly respawn and switch Operators, it leans more towards chaos than coordination.
A Faster, Flashier Siege, But Not Necessarily A Better One
To its credit, Dual Front is fast, fluid, and at times thrilling. It’s Siege if you stripped out the round-based structure and turned up the pacing. That’ll appeal to newer players used to live-service shooters where permanent death is a dirty word. But it’s also hard to ignore how much of Siege’s original identity gets lost in translation. Gadgets like Valkyrie’s cameras or Echo’s drones feel like relics of a slower, more deliberate game. The tactical layer still exists, but it sometimes feels out of place in this new context, like dressing up a chess match with dodgeball rules.
Still Siege At Its Core, But Sometimes That Core Gets Buried
If I sound critical, it’s not because Siege X is bad. In fact, a lot of what it adds to the core experience is impressive, especially if you jump into one of the game’s traditional modes. The lighting overhaul makes familiar maps like Border and Chalet feel more alive, with neon signs and glinting steel giving the world a much-needed glow-up. The new first-person shadows are a small but meaningful addition, adding more strategy to peeking and positioning. And the audio improvements are excellent: better reverb, clearer directionality, and contextual banter between Operators that adds a hint of narrative flavor.
The communication wheel is another standout, especially if you’re solo-queuing. It’s nothing groundbreaking, since it’s lifted pretty cleanly from Apex Legends, but it’s executed well, and it finally gives Siege a middle ground between mic comms and clunky pings. It’s especially useful while watching cams, where you can now convey specific information without giving away enemy locations through hard, revealing pings.
Movement has also gotten a few thoughtful upgrades, like momentum-preserving vaults and a smoother rappel system that lets you sprint along walls and round corners.
To be honest, these changes don’t radically transform how the game feels, but they do make it a little more forgiving, and a little closer to the high-agility shooter fans Siege now seems to be courting.
Still, for all its modernization, some of Siege X’s biggest swings feel like they belong to a different game entirely. Respawning in Dual Front, for example, undercuts the signature tension that made Siege compelling in the first place. You used to make every decision like it could be your last, because it was. Now, there’s always another chance, which makes risk feel less meaningful. Add in the complexity of attacking and defending at the same time, plus secondary objectives like hostages that appear mid-match, and the experience can feel bloated at times.
What Siege X Gains, And What It Still Needs
That said, it’s clear that Ubisoft is thinking about longevity. Siege X isn’t just a content drop, it’s a replatforming. The game is now free-to-play, with a redesigned onboarding experience, operator unlock system, and updated UI that finally feels more sleek than dated. It’s trying to be more accessible and more modern — a Siege 2 without quite calling itself that. And if that means appealing to new players who want faster, more action-heavy gameplay, it’s not hard to see why Dual Front exists. I just wish it didn’t come at the expense of the game’s slower, smarter roots.
What’s missing, and what I’d have personally preferred, is any kind of campaign mode. Siege has spent a decade crafting an intricate, lore-rich world through voice lines, cosmetics, and seasonal trailers, but it’s never had a proper single-player narrative. Dual Front may bring something new to PvP, but it doesn’t scratch that itch for a deeper, more narrative-driven experience. Of course, as a live service game, Siege X is clearly being built for the long haul, and there’s always the chance for something like that down the road.
A Battle Between Old-School Siege And New-Age Shooters
For now, though, Siege X is a fascinating update that feels caught between two identities. It wants to honor what made Siege great while embracing what keeps shooters relevant in 2025. Sometimes, it threads that needle brilliantly. Other times, it just makes me wish I was playing old-school Siege on Bank with a few friends.
Siege X is a bold, uneven evolution that both honors and undercuts what made Rainbow Six special in the first place. It’s more polished and more ambitious, but also less focused, less grounded, and occasionally less fun. Whether you love it or hate it will depend entirely on what you want from Siege in its tenth year.
Pros & Cons
- Core Siege still delivers on strategy and tension.
- Meaningful improvements to visuals, sound, and overall polish.
- Smart quality-of-life changes help modernize the experience.
- Veteran players might feel left out with the faster, more casual pacing of Dual Front.
- New mode struggles to balance innovation with Siege's identity.
