Rating

A-

Specific Ratings

GameplayA-
GraphicsB+
Learning CurveA+
Replay ValueA
SoundA

Pros and Cons

Pros
  • Challenging Tactical Combat
  • Gold Edition and Collector's Edition Available
  • Control of Missions From Planning to Executing
  • Variety of Combat Situations/Missions
  • Excellent Training Section
  • Realistic weapons, armor, and tactics
  • Large Single Player Campaign
  • Great Multiplayer Options
Cons
  • Dated Graphics
  • Some Technical Problems

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (PC)

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Summary

Rainbow Six is a true tactical combat game that is full of great action, stealth, and realistic situations dealing with terrorist.

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Description

Rainbow Six is a group of highly trained soldiers who specialize in covert operations. They are excellent at dealing with situations that could possibly turn into a disastrous international incident. The operatives that make up this elite team are from all over the world.

This entire game series is based on the novels by the superb author Tom Clancy. In fact, many of the team members and other aspects of the game come directly from the books. This is the very first one that started a large series of excellent combat strategy games.

Gameplay was fairly decent in this game. One particular thing that I really liked was the fact that you could choose between first-person or third-person views. This could be done anytime during the game by just pressing the F1 function key. This only applies to the team that you will be in control of.
The keyboard will be used most often during the game, with the exception of firing your weapon, which is done with the left mouse button. The arrow keys will be used for movement, CTRL key for sniper view, and other keys for various tactical functions. The only action that you will notice is missing from this game is jumping, and there is a good reason for that. Combat groups like Rainbow are often involved in operations that require stealthy movement and trying hard NOT to be noticed by the terrorist. Jumping is an uncontrolled movement, and therefore they cannot afford to execute such an unpredictable move. The single player campaign is very large, with 16 missions, and if you play the expansion "Eagle Watch", you get an additional 5 missions.
These missions cover everything from hostage rescue, operations that require stealth, bug/surveillance placement, and bomb disarming. Most of the gameplay will be done in the planning phase of the mission, this is where you will spend most of your time and concentration.
The actual execution of the mission goes by rapidly and usually takes only a few minutes.
This is also one of the high points of the game. The level of immersion in this game is incredible.

You can have at the most 8 soldiers during any one mission, divided up into four different teams (Blue, Red, Green, or Gold). You choose the operatives that will be on the mission, you pick their weapons and uniforms, and make detailed paths for them to follow. So, as you can see, this is a very hands-on game. About the only time that the computer (AI) has any control is during the mission, in which it can take control of the other teams that you are NOT in control of. But even this level of control can be monitored by you because there are Go Codes that you can set-up during the planning phase that will tell those teams when to hold or move on during moments that caution is required. You can take control of any team at anytime by using the Page Up and Page Down keys. The Go Codes are designated as Alpha, Beta, Charlie, and Delta. The corresponding keyboard keys are used for these codes (Q)Alpha, (W)Beta, (E)Charlie, and (R) Delta.

I used the strategy guide when playing this game, but even with the help of that guide, some missions were very challenging. I consider that a good thing though, I would rather be challenged than bored by easy gameplay. Most of the time you should try to accomplish each mission without losing any of your team members, but that is NOT going to always be possible. If your soldiers are wounded, then they can return to duty, but it will just take some time before they can return.

This game does have a multiplayer option, and in fact it is suppose to be remarkable. In multiplayer mode, you can either choose cooperative and work with other players during any of the 16 missions, or fight each other on any of the game maps. The latter has six types to choose from, which includes games like Survival, Stronghold, or Double Bluff.

There were some technical problems that I had with the game. Sometimes it would freeze up or just totally crash out to the main menu. I don't know if this was a problem with the game or just my crappy computer. Regardless, it was not that big of an issue, and I am sure patches can be found on the internet.

The graphics were not really great but not horrible either. Bullet holes do show up in walls when they go astray, and the walls are solid, no graphic glitches in which the character magically goes through a solid wall. That is a good thing. This game did come out in 1998, so it is relatively old compared to most that are out now. The worst graphics are during the movie cut scenes, intro, and the final movie. They are blurry and hard to tell sometimes what is going on.

The Replay Value is very good. There are three difficulty settings you can choose when first starting a campaign. They are Recruit, Veteran, and Elite. Each has a certain amount of terrorists (Tangos) to deal with, and sometimes hostages or bombs to diffuse. Of course the higher levels have more terrorists, and they are usually more trigger happy. Also, I found that you become driven to complete each mission with minimal losses to your teams.

The sound in this game is very good. There is not really much sound in the game, but for what there is, it's not too bad. There is some background music, and at times your soldiers will speak, but that will be mainly in response to your orders. The weapons and uniforms are extremely realistic, with authentic weapon sounds, and many of the guns are the real deal used by real life combat troops.

The learning curve is excellent. It is hard to imagine any other game coming this close to such perfection with a training/tutorial section. Maybe the only other one would be Santa's Workshop in NOLF. This game had a whole section on the main menu that was solely devoted to training your soldiers in every aspect of tactical combat. This included weapon usage, hostage rescue, movement, and tactics for storming buildings. There are obstacle courses, shooting ranges, demolition ranges, and different leveled houses for your guys/gals to practice what they had learned.

Rainbow Six does come in a Gold Edition and a Collector's Edition. I have the Gold Edition, and I will be writing a review of it shortly, so be sure to check it out and see what is contained in it.

If you like tactical combat games, and being part of an elite group of soldiers, than this is the game for you. This is a realistic glimpse at what our brave men and women go through when they are part of such a honored group, like Rainbow Six.

Your Fellow Gamer,
Bobby

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