Rainbow Six Siege started out five years ago as a multiplayer shooter built around 1) destructibility and 2) characters drawn from the world's most famous special forces and police agencies: SAS, GIGN, FBI, and so forth. It has expanded considerably since then, into more esoteric and even straight-up fictional agencies and individuals, and it shows no sign of becoming more grounded in its next season, Operation Void Edge.
The new season will add two more characters to the roster, revealed today as Iana and Oryx. Ubisoft is waiting to fully explain these characters this weekend at its big annual competition, the Six Invitational, but some fresh lore sets the table: Iana comes from a family of engineers, washed out of the Air Force "for reasons beyond her control," and is currently residing on a space station, while Oryx is Kaid's second-in-command at the Fortress, but has a mysterious 15-year gap in his history. (Perhaps he picked up a gig as a stunt double for Vinnie Jones.)
The trailer validates what we've heard in the Siege rumor mill in the past week or two, which is that Iana will be an attacker who remotely controls a holographic decoy (Alibi meets Echo, perhaps), and that Oryx will be able to smash through walls and hatches on defense to execute not-so-silent flanks on attackers.
In case the trailer isn't explicit enough about it, the two characters are absolute opposites, which will presumably be reflected in their approach to the game. "On the one hand, you’ve got technological smarts that are out of this world (literally) and on the other, a guy who could bench-press a hundred and fifty pounds with just his face," Ubisoft wrote. "He’s not stupid, and she’s not weak, they’re just… diametrically opposed, both in their life experiences and in how they view the world."
Both characters, and everything else about Operation Void Edge, will be revealed on February 15 during the Six Invitational. Our man Morgan will be on the scene in Montreal to tell us all about it over the course of the weekend, and you can also catch it on Twitch.
- Rainbow Six Siege Void Edge release date: everything we know
