During a hands-off presentation at Gamescom, Ubisoft showcased how its upcoming turn-based title Rainbow Six Tactics wields environmental destruction as more than visual spectacle, using it to undermine one of tactical gaming’s most entrenched conventions: flanking. According to creative director Elie Benhamou, the system lets players breach walls and fire through the resulting gaps, reshaping both offensive and defensive positioning in ways that set it apart from contemporaries such as XCOM 2.
The demonstration made destruction look excellent, with walls breached, cover blown apart, and masonry peppered with rounds. Yet for a series already defined by its destructible environments in Rainbow Six Siege, the question was whether this turn-based entry actually advanced the technology or simply repackaged familiar mechanics. That uncertainty crystallized during one particular moment of the hands-off demo: sniper operator Glaz fired a high-powered round through two interior walls to headshot a terrorist on the far side. The projectile left visible holes behind it, but beyond being an attractive bit of set redressing, nothing suggested capabilities absent from other turn-based tactical games.
A Creative Tool Rather Than a Graphical Nicety
To understand what was happening beneath the surface, I pressed Benhamou on whether the destruction offered anything distinctly Siege-inspired. His answer framed it as foundational rather than decorative.
“For us it was a key feature from the very beginning,” he said. “To make sure that this destruction was a creative tool to solve situations.”
Elie Benhamou, Rainbow Six Tactics Creative Director
The distinction lies in how those holes function physically. The gaps players punch through walls are not mere visual effects; they are real openings through which you can then fire, effectively creating new lines of sight. While Glaz’s sniper round leaves only a small aperture, larger breaches produced by shotgun blasts and grenades open up far more tactical possibilities.
Rewriting the Flanking Dynamic
Benhamou argues that this technology fundamentally alters how battles are perceived compared with other tactical titles. In most games of the genre, when an enemy takes cover behind a wall or object, the standard solution is to flank – repositioning to gain an unobstructed view while exposing yourself to risk.
Rainbow Six Tactics does not discard flanking entirely; it remains beneficial and enemies will deploy it against you. But embracing destruction enables genuinely new approaches that sidestep that vulnerability altogether.
“In our case, you can just blow a hole and shoot through it,” Benhamou explained. “It changes the notion of safety for the enemies, but also for you.”
Elie Benhamou, Rainbow Six Tactics Creative Director
He painted a vivid scenario: enemies who have barricaded themselves inside a room and established overwatch on doors, windows, and obvious corridors. Rather than risking exposure to outflank them, players can simply blast through a wall and eliminate them from an unexpected angle.
The danger cuts both ways, however. Benhamou warned that operators frequently position themselves in cover, relying on overwatch while feeling secure – only for enemies who failed to recon to arrive armed with a shotgunner, rocketeer, or gadgets capable of completely disrupting their position.
Destruction Across Every Operator
To fully leverage the destruction system underpinning Rainbow Six Tactics, every operator can damage scenery in some fashion. However, it serves as only the “centrepiece of the character” for a select few. Benhamou pointed to Ash, armed with a CREM (the M120 Compact Rifle Entry Munition Launcher) – essentially an impact-grenade launcher – and Sledge, who carries the BOS (Big Ol’ Sledgehammer), noting they can “destroy pretty much everything.”
By contrast, stealth-focused Nøkk, wielding a silenced shotgun and pistol, must work considerably harder to make her mark. “She will blow holes in the walls,” Benhamou said, “but it requires more commitment because you need to be close, you need to use your ammo.”
A Welcome Return to Tactical Tension
The reveal of Rainbow Six Tactics back in August I wrote about Rainbow Six Tactics’ reveal back in August, and even then it struck me as more promising than some commenters. This turn-based interpretation of Siege appears to merge naturally with the series’ modern versus-shooter counterpart, honoring its tactical roots.
The ability to coordinate the actions of numerous operators as a single player evokes memories of playing Rogue Spear on Saturday afternoons in my father’s study – and before I played Dreadline Express, it was among the most exciting things at Gamescom. It looks like an excellent tactical game.
Talking with Benhamou only deepened my eagerness to test his bold claim about dismantling classic flanking tactics. Given how competently familiar so much of Rainbow Six Tactics appears, fulfilling that promise – and making players feel genuinely unsafe as they plan their moves – would mark a welcome departure from more recent turn-based titles. Recent entries like Star Wars: Zero Company have offered little challenge to someone with hundreds of hours in XCOM and its peers.
There is still no release date for Rainbow Six Tactics, so for now it must be watched from afar as the developers pursue such ambitious claims.
Travel and accommodation to Gamescom was provided by the conference organisers.
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