While Operation Vector Glare may not have been theRainbow Six Siegeseason players were hoping for, the upcoming Operation Brutal Swarm hopefully has enough content to keep the fans interested come September 6. Among the changes in the upcoming season are the new attacker impact EMP grenades that providealternatives to Thatcher, a new recoil system, and the permanent addition of the Stadium map into the base game. But of course, no season would be complete without a new operator.
This time around,Rainbow Six Siegeis getting the Singaporean intel-gathering attacker Charlie Tho Keng Boon, AKA Grim. Though Grim doesn’t have unique weapons like Operation Vector Glare’s Sens, his primary loadout consists of the reliable SG-CQB shotgun and the 552 Commando assault rifle. Currently, Grim only has the P229 handgun as a secondary weapon, but he can choose from two secondary gadgets: claymore mines and breach charges. While claymore mines are good in almost any situation, breach charges pair quite well with his powerful primary gadget: the Kawan Hive Launcher.
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Kawan Hive Launcher Sounds OP
Despite looking like a portable rocket launcher, Grim’sKawan Hive Launcher isn’t made for damaging defenders. It is an intelligence-gathering gadget that launches sticky canisters that, after attaching to a surface, release a swarm of nano-bots that constantly ping any defender who walks into them. Defenders affected by the swarm of nano-bot bees are pinged for quite a while after leaving the swarm’s general deployment area, allowing Grim and the attacking team to get the drop on them.
Much like Lion’s EE-ONE-D andJackal’s Eyenox Model III, Grim’s Kawan Hive Launcher is great for catching roaming defenders and punishing their movements. Pairing Grim with the aforementioned operators allows the attacking team to make up for his gadget’s weaknesses and use up defender utility (Mute’s Signal Disruptors, Jager’s ADSs, and Aruni’s Surya Gates are just a few defender gadgets that can counter Grim). Once these defenses are down, attackers can blast through with their hard breaching gadgets before using the Kawan Hive Launcher’s active pings to target enemies and take them out.
An Overpowered Information Hive
The information that the Kawan Hive Launcher’s nano-bots provides is so potent that the gadget might be too strong in its current state. Aside from the constant pings that are provided when defenders are caught in the swarm, active pings once defenders leave the general area last for three seconds. This may seem like a short amount of time, but it is more than enough for attackers to locate, predict, and eliminate those affected by the nano-bots.
Defenders don’t even have to step into the nano-bots for the Kawan Launcher to be effective. The simple fact that stepping into the swarm reveals a defender’s position is enough to prevent them from rotating through affected areas. Considering the current version of theKawan Hive Launcher has 5 shots, this is more than enough to lock down multiple areas and pin opponents down. As a bonus to the active pings, enemies affected by the nano-bots are also afflicted with a subtle vision-obstructing effect that limits their line of sight.
In a game such asRainbow Six Siegewhere area denial and information are important, having a gadget that can fulfill both roles with a relatively large supply of ammo is quite overpowered. Grim doesn’t have to switch gadgets or reload the Kawan Hive Launcher, so he can lock down an area quite fast. This makes him difficult to counter. Though Grim does have his foils, the sheer versatility of his gadget means that attacking players will more likely choose him over other attacking operators.
This then forces the defending team into playing certain characters that counter him, such as Mute, Jager, or Wamai. Though these characters can be considered meta, reducing the number of viable picks is not good for any multiplayer video game. While Grim’s current state in theRainbow Six Siegetest servers isn’t reflective of how he will actually play come Operation Brutal Swarm’s launch, Ubisoft should carefully consider balancing him in such a way that he is still fun to play but doesn’t limit player options in the game.
Rainbow Six Siegeis available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
