The mystery surrounding Operation Chimera and the limited time event known as Outbreak for Rainbow Six Siege is quickly coming to an end. Ubisoft has been revealing new information on the first season of year 3 on a consistent basis this week including both new operators and some of the new cosmetic gear that launches alongside the update. The biggest piece of the puzzle finally fell into place yesterday as fans finally got information regarding how gameplay is going to work during Outbreak.
Ubisoft's latest blog post offers a wealth of information for Rainbow Six Siege fans. Players in teams of three are sent into the heart of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico to face off against a parasite called Apex that appeared when an old USSR satellite came crashing into the town infecting the local populace. While Ubisoft stops short of calling these enemies zombies, the developers make it clear that this mode will not only challenge players with these aggressive enemies but also push the destruction engine to new heights. Players will need to work together to control the environment while under constant pressure from five different types of enemies.
Outbreak features three new co-op maps and two difficulty modifiers to pick from. Normal provides the basic experience while Pandemic pushes the challenge further by turning on friendly fire and reducing the number of hits players can take. The list of available operators in Outbreak is also limited to a carefully selected few including Smoke, Ying, Buck, Kapkan, Ash, Doc, Tachanka, Glaz, and the Recruit. The newly named Operation Chimera operators, Lion and Finka, also join this exclusive list. All Rainbow Six Siege players can officially start fighting back the Apex parasite when Outbreak goes live on March 6th to April 3rd.
For all of the goodwill that Rainbow Six Siege has continued to gain over the past two years, the status quo was disturbed this past week after Ubisoft announced a price increase across all versions of the game leading up to the start of Year 3. The community wasn't thrilled about this situation including the added bonus of additional Outbreak packs, which existing players wouldn't be getting. The backlash became so strong that Ubisoft backtracked its plans for the standard version of the game, leaving it alone and at the same price. The Gold and Complete Editions, however, will be moving forward with the planned changes on February 13.
Rainbow Six Siege is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.