Ghost Recon Wildlands’ Special Operation 2 update is now live, bringing with it a new hardcore PvE experience and a special Rainbow Six Siege limited-time crossover event. It’s certainly fun to see the worlds of Wildlands and Siege collide, and a bit of dialogue tucked away in the event’s periphery shows that Ubisoft isn’t afraid to poke a little fun at itself.
Despite being a little barebones at launch, Rainbow Six Siege has since grown into an expansive and engaging team-based tactical shooter, and Ubisoft has shown time and again that it’s willing to give Siege the ongoing attention it needs to ensure it retains its edge. However, more dedicated Rainbow Six fans might remember that Ubisoft had once planned to release an entirely different entry in the franchise called Rainbow Six Patriots way back in 2013.
Patriots, which would have been a linear story-driven experience more in line with the classic Rainbow Six titles, was ultimately cancelled in favor of Siege, but as the new Ghost Recon Wildlands mission shows, what is lost is not always forgotten. In the new Wildlands/Siege crossover mission, players get to team up with several iconic Siege operators in their fight against the Santa Blanca cartel. During the traveling downtime between missions, the player’s character chats with Siege operator Twitch, and it’s during one exchange in particular that a very interesting conversation happens:
It’s unfortunate that Rainbow Six fans never got the experience Rainbow Six Patriots for themselves, but it’s also nice to see that Ubisoft isn’t above dunking on itself to share a laugh with players who get the “Operation Patriots” reference. Plus, Twitch also seems to hint that additional Wildlands/Siege crossover missions could happen in the future, though we probably shouldn’t take a little stray dialogue as an ironclad confirmation just yet.