Tom Clancy´s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

The planning screen, where you, er, plan things!

Rainbow Six are a crack team of counter intelligence operatives who specialize in doing what others can't. Kinda like the official A-Team if you like. This is where you come in. You can control your squads orders, tell them to wait, open doors, blow them open, in fact, just about anything that you'd ever need to sneak about some houses and kill the tango's (tango's are terrorists, the bad guys).

The team select screen where you can choose your terrorist slayers.

There have been two previous games with the Rainbow Six title, and that's not including some of the add-on packs that have been released, but this being the third installment of the game, you'd expect improvements in a lot of areas. Red Storm have not let you down, and the improvements are vast. A lot more weapons have been modeled for added realism, if shooting computer created people with graphically correct guns are your thing. Graphics and sound are also improved, but is it all just gloss? Has the actual gaming experience improved, or is it another case of new graphics, same game? Lets find out.

First impressions last

The team briefing screen where your mission and any background information are given out.

Initial impressions are good with a nice case with 2 CD's and some good, concise instructions. Installation takes a while and swallows 2GB(!) of my hard drive, but quality does come at a price. As games get more and more complex, hard drive space is starting to become a premium. As is the usual thing these days, there's a nice little movie as the intro, this time detailing why your team has been set up and what you do. Of course, you don't read the manual, dig out the keyboard chart and jump straight into the game. Doesn't everyone do it like that?

dead tango's, a good thing!

Playing is easy enough for any FPS veteran, movement is the usual keys for your legs, mouse for your head. The first mission is there to lead you in, but don't be fooled. It's very much a softly, softly game as rushing into a confrontation with a Tango or three will often get you and you team shot to pieces within seconds. There is a health system, but, as in the real world, often one shot from relatively close range will kill you instantly unless you're wearing heavy armor. This slows you down as getting hit slightly does affect your ability to run so it's walking pace only. This isn't really a big penalty as running creates noise and often you'll hear voices saying they thought they heard something or asking who's there.

A Terrorist, waiting to be shot/handcuffed.

The missions then start to get more and more difficult, but it seems that sometimes you can complete a mission without any real difficulty, just by being careful and methodical, where as other levels are an absolute pain to complete due to the Tango's amazing and relatively unpredictable behaviour.

Fast Forward or Rewind?

Fancy a game? There isn't time for that!

Most of the missions are simple rescue hostages and eliminate all terrorists, but some have a slightly harder edge involving defusing bombs. Often just rescuing the hostages will complete a mission, or killing all the terrorists on a level will also clear that level, but some are tied into each other. For example, Rescue the hostages and then eliminate all the Tango's or you don't progress. Stats on the mission and how well/badly you did are available after each mission giving number of kills, hit percentage, squad health etc and if you're not happy with the result or desperately want that 100% hit ratio you can re-plan the mission or re-do the action phase again.

Another pool, this time with fancy water effect.

The level set in the Norwegian shipyard is one of the most difficult as there are so many places that you can be shot from and often it's very difficult too see where the shooter is as they are often very far away. This can create moments of panic and confusion, and, more often than not a failed mission. It can be even more annoying to play through almost a whole mission only to have the last Tango kill your last man or shoot a hostage. This has happened a few times to me during the time I've played the game for the review, and more often than not, if it happens twice I usually end up playing something else before I end up going a bit Postal with the PC.

I love it when a plan comes together

previously killed hostages. Not my fault!!

Planning is a really big thing in this game. You can view the map, set waypoints, change equipment on any of your team, and even decide if you want a sniper to hold position. Just about everything can be changed for your upcoming mission, or you can just use the quick plan that is the default. There's nothing particularly wrong with the quick plan, but some people prefer to fine-tune some things. Often I've found that the main weapon chosen for you isn't really the best suited to the job with either single shot or full auto when there are other weapons that give the option of a decent telescopic sight and a three round burst option.

You can of course change this during the planning stage, but many players won't even look at the planning screen, preferring to get straight into the action. This is missing out on some of the immense beauty of this game. Everything can be fine tuned, changed, modified or even scrapped completely for the upcoming mission, and many people will routinely spend 30 minutes getting the weapons, equipment, way points and the correct squad members in their team.

Smart as two short planks?

Another mission completed!

The tango A.I. is a bit confusing. If they see you they will more often than not try to shoot back, but only if they actually catch sight of you or another member of your squad. This is realistic, but in other areas they fall down. For example, when you open a door, unless the terrorist is immediately on the other side of the door, they won't catch sight of you, so don't shoot. Often a query "Who's there" will be heard, but I know if I were a terrorist expecting men in black suits to come in looking to fill me full of lead, a door opening all by itself and one of your buddies not walking through it would be rather suspect and give me an itchy trigger finger!
Occasionally, often towards the end of a mission terrorists will attempt to surrender to you by dropping their weapon and putting their hands behind their back. They can then be subdued or just shot for their trouble. I usually shoot them, but then again, people have said I need professional help.

There's no I in team

Mmm, lamb chops!!!

As for your team, they are pretty smart, following orders and shooting off their own back, often saving your skin, too. What is annoying is when you ask them to open a door. They open it and then stand right in your field of fire so you can't attempt to shoot anyone on the other side. Also, once you've told them to open a door, they will follow you through the door and then wait, like idiots on the other side. It's often been a good few minutes before I've realized they've held position after opening the door and I've wandered off all by myself. All members of your squad can climb ladders, open doors and smash windows and then either clear the area, throw a grenade into the room (Either a flash bang, gas or a proper fragmentation one) and then clear it, but this all has to be ordered when you are far away from the window/door.

Other movements available to you and you squad are the squad and the ability to crawl lying down. Your movement and ability to aim are also compromised by what position you are in. Again this is realistic, but not all-available movement has been fully realized. For example, you can't climb over walls, no matter what height. You can't jump at all, not even onto low height walls that wouldn't even be knee high. This is a bit strange, but I can see it's the last thing they wanted in the multiplayer online games. I'm sure if you've played Counter-Strike you've seen all players jumping about like pogo sticks as a jumping opponent is harder to hit. Raven Shield is about stealth and quietness, not pogo-a-go-go to make a difficult target.

Patience is a virtue

Anyone fancy a Tango?

Speaking of the multiplayer games, most of them are run through Ubisoft's online portal, Ubi.com. This is fine but you need to register at first, and even then, actually joining a game can be rather a long-winded affair. Find an "open" game that you can join and then wait, sometimes for ages for a new round to start. This can sometimes take 10 or 15 minutes, sometimes even longer. Counter-Strike is far more open as you can drop straight into a game being played. With Raven Shield you can only join at the start of a round. It's all done in the name of fairness, and not all rounds will take 10 minutes to start a game, but for a quick online blast a more traditional FPS such as Quake 3 or Counter-Strike will probably be more satisfying.

Looking good!

Graphically Raven Shield is quite good. Texture's are detailed and some of the more open maps are very nice, with no drop in quality or speed even when looking across great distances at several objects. I just can't help feeling that the textures feel a little flat, possibly slightly more detailed models would have worked better, but these would have placed more strain on graphics engine and possibly raised the minimum spec of the game. The sound is good, with very realistic radio chatter and speech is also excellent during the planning stages. Weapon sounds are suitably meaty and the orchestration is also excellent. I can't find fault with the sound at all really. Everything sounds as you think it should.

Raven Shield is an excellent squad based shooter that's not quite in the traditional FPS "mindless killing" mould, but more for the patient, thinking FPS fan. Graphically and sonically on par with current releases but with added thought required. I can see the online aspect becoming quite popular with clans who set up their own games, but public Internet play can become slightly tedious, as you have no idea when a game is about to start.