Yeah! One thing I thought of is that it costs 5 movement to turn 90 degrees. You could attack to the 3 squares in front of you normally, to the two sides with disadvantage, and not attack behind (or cast spells for that matter if they require sight or touch of the target or area.) You could move to your sides and forward, and backward as if through difficult terrain.
With what you said about it being a reaction, if the attack range is how I suggested, it could provoke opportunity doing that. A reaction could also be interesting though.
I saw this at my local game store, I was amazed.