Ubisoft is making the first singleplayer Rainbow Six in 19 years, and it's a tactics game in the style of XCOM

Ubisoft has identified the peanut butter and jelly in its pantry, and believes they would make a mean sandwich.

Announced at today's Gamescom Opening Night Live show, Rainbow Six Tactics is an XCOM-style tactics game led by the folks behind another turn-based tactical adaptation, the Mario + Rabbids series. It's the first singleplayer Rainbow Six in 19 years and features characters from both Rainbow Six Siege and the Vegas series.

Though, Siege is really the source text: R6 Tactics' story centers around the rebuilding of Rainbow after the events of Siege Year 10 (a story that has been told mostly through seasonal lore videos), and its playable cast includes 15 operators hand-picked from the competitive FPS. A briefing shown to press ahead of ONL included Ash, Montagne, Glaz, Doc, Nook, Smoke, and Sledge. The roster is a mix of attackers and defenders from Siege, but the Tactics missions I saw were all centered on attacking fortified terrorists.

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The briefing also made it clear that R6 Tactics will have no in-game store or live-service aspects—it's just a game you buy and play. Players will operate Rainbow from headquarters and deploy operators on counter-terrorism missions. Screenshots suggest there will be an element of operator development and base building similar to the XCOM series.

It'll also have "dozens of hand-crafted maps from around the world," not procedurally generated ones—though there will be some randomized elements like enemy and objective locations. Every mission begins with a realtime recon phase, in which drones are deployed to covertly learn the lay of the land just like in Siege. Then comes the entry phase: Players choose entry points for operators, lay down breaching charges on walls, and execute a simultaneous infiltration. From there, the action seemingly goes turn-based: The briefing mentions that XCOM-staple mechanics like cover, overwatch, and sightlines are crucial.

Operators will seemingly have unique abilities—I noticed that Glaz can take long-range shots from across the map with his sniper rifle, acing two lined-up enemies with a single shot. Nook's ability seems to help her freely move between sightlines, and it's a safe guess that Sledge can break open walls whenever he wants.

The Vegas connection, if you were wondering, comes with the campaign's main character (and new leader of Rainbow): Paul Bishop, the protagonist of both Rainbow Six Vegas games. The story is told through cutscenes between missions, and should be a gold mine for the Siege loreheads.

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Rainbow Six Tactics is out in 2027.