Mar 28 2009
“Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six” (1998) ***1/2
Story:
In 1999, a multinational counter-terrorism group of elite NATO soldiers known as RAINBOW is established in response to the growth of international terrorism. The group responds to a series of unrelated terrorist situations by a radical eco-terrorist group known as Phoenix.
It turns out that the advisor of RAINBOW, John Brightling, is also the chairman of a powerful bio-tech Corp. known as Horizon Inc. which Phoenix Group happens to be a front for. Brightling is in the process of unleashing a super-virus known as Shiva with the intention of wiping out all mankind on the planet.
Graphics:
This is a PC-to-console transferred game. The graphics here, more or less, get hit hard as there is little-to-medium character detail (they all look pretty much the same, if you ask me). However, you probably won’t notice once you really get into the gameplay.
Controls:
It may take a few tries to get a hang of the controls here as there is a lot of stealth and tactical stuff for you to do in this game. The basics, however, like shoot, proceed, turn, action, etc. is no problem. It’s relatively easy even though the layout is somewhat complex.
Gameplay:
Welcome to the world of tactical shooters where the focus relies more so on stealth and tactics rather than sheer firepower. Terrorists can be handled with one-two shots and so can the player and his teammates. There’s a briefing and planning stage before each mission where you get to select your team members, the weapons, uniform, and equipment. You may also assign your crew orders to follow in the mission, such as where to deploy devices like flashbangs, etc.
During mission, you start out as the team leader but you can switch in between any crew member you’d like and take over them. If any of them die, it’s permanent, you will no longer be able to control them in future missions/levels. However, you do have the option of ‘rewinding’ to a mission that was, although somewhat successful, pretty much a disaster in an attempt to try it again.
Each of your missions will begin with you and your teammates at a safe zone on the map, they will immediately begin following your orders and going wherever you told them to go and do. Your objectives are mostly set around rescuing hostages, you must either escort them to a certain area or eliminate all of the bad guys on the map firsthand.
Overall:
This is one of those games that were built for the two player mode. There’s big levels that are loads of fun to explore, realistic tactical gameplay, and an attractive array of firearms to aide you in your missions. The game is pretty doable in one player mode as well, but when you team up with a friend and have him join in, man, that is such a defining trait here.
The only downside to “Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six”, aside from the medium-subpar graphics, is that there are simply not enough levels while some levels might actually be a bit too confusing for the player, and lastly, some of the items may be a bit too difficult to use at first. This is, however, the very first video game in the ‘Rainbow Six’ franchise and it proved to be a much better successor on the PC than it was on the console versions like here.
Rating: ***1/2
I could never get past the second mission.
bill,
I know. Being that this was the first one in the series, it can sometimes be a pain in the butt when taking into consideration how much they’ve updated with the recent Rainbow Six games.