Rainbow Six Siege gets its first new map in 3 years

As promised at the start of Rainbow Six Siege Year 7, Emerald Plains, the first new map added to the game in three years, is finally here. It adds a little bit of Hitman energy and vigor to this long-lived tactical shooter.

The Emerald Plains Country Club and Private Ranch is an imposing map in Northern Ireland that resembles an Irish castle with modern touches. It has two floors. It’s a luxe locale that will serve the hardcore tactical gameplay of Rainbow Six Siege just fine. (But it also isn’t hard to imagine someone like Agent 47 slinking his way through.)

Each Emerald Plains floor has its own taste, according to Ubisoft :

The two floors inside Emerald Plains are distinct, with a modern bottom floor contrasting against the classic style of the manor’s upper floor, to emphasize clear call outs and orientation landmarks. These large rooms, partly inspired by Border and Bartlett, provide an expansive playground on this map.

For those new to Siege, the game divides up its content calendar into years, each broken up into four named seasons. Year 7, dubbed Demon Veil, began in March with a host of balance tweaks and the new Operator Azami, a Defender with the the ability to deploy barrier walls via kunai-style throwing knives.

Looking ahead, the remaining three seasons will each arrive with a new Operator and further new maps to end Siege‘s map drought — for the last three years, the developers have preferred reworking old maps over introducing new ones. Other additions inbound later in Year 7, per the Rainbow Six Siege roadmap, are crossplay/cross-progression and a permanent Arcade mode.