Tom Clancy´s Rainbow Six 3 review

Squad based games are the new black. Really, they seem to be ten a penny at the moment and becoming more and more popular with each new iteration. From the hyper-realistic one-shot, one-kill arena of Ghost Recon to the arcade environment of Freedom Fighters, it seems there are loads of us out there who love teaming up to wipe out terrorist threats.

Tom Clancy (or at least his name) seems to have been there from the word go, leading the way with the award winning Rainbow Six range of games. Developed originally for the PC by Red Storm Entertainment, these hardcore tactical shooters have been translated to consoles on a few occasions, on everything from the GBA to the Dreamcast. These were never huge successes due to poor conversions and arguably the only notable console success was when Ghost Recon hit the Xbox, ‘Cube and PS2 in 2002. This latest version of a Rainbow Six game (known as Raven Shield on the PC) has been handled by Ubi’s Montreal team (who were also the bods behind the excellent Splinter Cell) and if this represents the standard of games to come out of the Canadian studio, we should be very, very happy.

Not Zippy

Firstly, this is not a standard Rainbow Six game. Previous versions (including Raven Shield) have involved heavy use of pre-planning and have had a strong strategy bias. Rainbow Six 3 (RS3) has been adjusted to reflect the fact that console gamers are usually a little more trigger-happy than their PC counterparts. Gone are the planning stages and the prospects of having Alpha and Bravo teams and in their place the game takes on a much more freeform design, with teams having to react to situations rather than plan for them.

You play Ding Chavez, ace field leader of a four-man Rainbow team, who represent the ultimate in anti-terrorist forces. It used to be the case in Rainbow Six that before stepping foot into battle, you’d have to plan out actions meticulously, studying the level maps in great detail and ensuring your equipment was correct right down to the level of armour you teams were given. RS3 shuns this by dropping you into the action after minimal briefings and a short stop-off at the armoury for yourself. The game takes on a much more linear approach but in doing so, makes things much more accessible. Only the hardcore fans of the originals will be disappointed here.

You take orders from John Clark, who remains at base monitoring your progress and giving new objectives as and when appropriate. This is where the main “gimmick” of this game kicks in. RS3 is sold with an optional headset with the premise that you can control your team by shouting commands and guess what? It really works. If you don’t already have one from your Live connection, I urge you to make sure you spend the extra tenner and get the mike, as it turns out to be a genuinely useful extension of your control over the team.

In addition to being an interesting control method, the headset does more to immerse you fully in the game than any other gaming device I’ve ever seen. All orders and acknowledgements from John Clark and your team arrive through the earpiece. This is an absolutely inspired piece of game design and it’s executed so well you almost feel like applauding the development team every time one of your team-mates makes an off-the-cuff remark about how nicely you executed the last Tango (I hate Tango too, Fanta’s much better – ed.).

If you can’t stretch to the headset, fear not. You can issue orders very easily using a context sensitive menu system that is remarkably intuitive given the sheer amount of orders available.

The game takes you across the world on the trail of a criminal mastermind. Each level consists of various objectives (rescue hostage, defuse bomb etc) and some missions will see you having to address issues either on your own or at least with a reduced complement of men. The enemies put up a reasonable fight, despite having questionable AI on the lower difficulty levels.

Or Bungle

A quick look around when starting the game will reveal some average character models and texture maps, but when combined with the same lighting engine employed by Splinter Cell, things always look a lot better than they have a right to at any particular point.

Where the game stands out in the graphics department is in the effects. At any stage during the game, you can switch to night or heat sensitive vision. Couple this with the flashbang effect (which burns the current screen image into the screen and gradually fades) or the Phosphorous grenades (which throw out smoke and burns everything nearby) and this is overall a very nice looking shooter.

Where the developers should also be congratulated is in the use of sound. This game surpasses Halo and Ghost Recon in the best use of a 5.1 system. Everything has been designed from the ground up to work with modern surround sound systems and it shows. Sounds are crisp, clear and very well defined, meaning Tangos or other noise sources can be pinpointed with extraordinary accuracy.

Rod, Jane and Freddy?

Everything mentioned previously adds up to a superb game but where things really take off is when you sign in to Xbox Live. Unfortunately, due to technical constraints, RS3 cannot accommodate multiplayer on one box. Use Live (or system link) though and you are in for a treat!

What is available in the way of game modes are a couple of adversarial modes and the exquisite co-op mode. With this, you and up to three mates can team up to progress through the single player campaign or through individual levels using the Terrorist Hunt mode. The latter forgoes the mission objectives and instead gives you the sole task of killing everything that’s not one of your teammates.

Games of this nature have been playable online with the PC for a long time but only since the advent of Live have they really bloomed. It’s so satisfying to be part of a team that can speak to each other properly, co-ordinating and carrying out attacks and strategies together.

The net code created for RS3 is superb, with lag being kept to a minimum even on “slow” (512kbps) connections. In contrast to the Ghost Recon games, it’s not uncommon to find smooth lag-free 16 player servers for RS3. Part of the reason for this is the inclusion of an “Xserver” function. This allows you to set up a dedicated RS3 server for you and your mates to play with – it can even cycle the maps automatically, a la Counter-Strike, just to keep things interesting.

The amount of game types available over Live has been reduced from the days of Ghost Recon, but Ubi are suggesting more will be available soon. Indeed even on release there was a new level ready to download.

Paint the whole world

It’s difficult to convey just well put together this game is. The single player game is gripping and challenging and the multiplayer is slow and stealthy, yet can be fast and frantic when times call for it. The headset feature has to be used to be believed as the extra level of immersion it provides is amazing. It’s far more than just a gimmick.

Miss out on this and you’ll be missing one of the best games of the year thus far.