Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

"A very good game that can be played slow or fast."

I'll open this review up very simply; if you have never played a Rainbow6 game, this would be a great game to start with. Raven Shield is an awesome game that falls in the rare catagory that gets everything ''right''. One of the best things about Raven shield is, as a new player you do not need to of played the previous games in the series. For those who played the previous games, their's an awesome new graphics engine..and well that's about it. If you didn't like the previous Rainbow 6's chances are this game will not convert you. If you did like the previous Rainbow6's this game is a must own.

Graphics:

Very clean graphics, awesome movements, fluid actions..awesome attention to detail. If you have the computer to handle it, at high detail settings this game offers some of the best tactical combat on the market. Even at lower detail settings, this game has enough detail to make even the most skeptical person appreciate the lush enviornments, from oil refinery's to the truely awesome Prision level. Great shadows and a truely unique perspective of the action all brought together by the Unreal engine.(Think UT2K3).

Sound:

One of the things I was most impressed with the attention to sound. When the player goes to the sound options panel, their are literally tons of options from EAX 1,2,3 to 3d sound and some awesome feature for Audio virtualization. Obviously, the more you enable the more of a powerful soundcard you'll need(in turn taking up more CPU cycles). The gun shot sounds, and communication are top notch. Just as attention was paid to the graphics, the same attention appears in the sound. A dramatic score, with a rising feeling of tension appear off and on which keep one at the end of their seats. The sound is right on que. While a 4.1 system will more than be able to reproduce the awesome sound, a 5.1 system makes the sounds truely come to life, espeically with Dolby Digital sound(Surround). This game will thank you for having a high end speaker system such as a Logitech Z series(540/680) or Klipsch 4.1/5.1.

Gameplay:

You aren't just ''thrown'' into the action as in other tactical games. In Rainbow6, you actually get to set up to 4 teams of 4 men/women. Each of the 4 teams are given a codename such as Alpha or Bravo. You set each one's route based on a pre-game planner. Very nifty. You also can choose from a significant amount of characters to fit youre needs. Their's Snipers, demolitions, assult teams, recon teams etc. You can move each team by means of ''way points'', which are configured by the previously mentioned pre-planner. The replayability is awesome for each individual mission. Their is a campiagn, which offers a story which involves a country which just recieved access to the internet and bad juju occurs when the higher ups learn about a possible strike against the US. Needless to say that's where the Rainbow6 team comes in. For the record Rainbow6 is a team of highly trained individuals who are the best at what they were trained to do.

System requirements:

I ran the game using a ATi Radeon 9700PRO, 1gig of DDR400 an Athlon XP 2600+ and a A7N8x and was able to achieve a consistant 60FPS the entire game at max details. For those with GeForce/nVidia based cards, be aware that this game is HIGHLY optimized for ATi. I tested with a GeForce4 ti 4400, in a very similar system and the FPS dropped considerably to around 25-30. I'm going to recommend that for high details and a playable framerate a 9500PRO or Nvidia TI4600.. with a 1.5-1.8ghz processer and 512meg of ram..yes 512. Granted I had a gig, but..if you run shadows in high detail the extra memory really kicks in. Anything less will take a hit if the shadow details are maxed out.
A side note, if you are planning on running EAX HD, I have to recommend a 2ghz+ processer, since Raven shield taps heavily into the CPU for EAX HD(aka EAX 3.0)

Conclusion:

Awesome game, I highly recommend this game for anybody who is looking for tactics instead of mindless shooting. The online portion of the game offers a clean interface, just as the single player campaign. I recommend this game, and give it a 10, not for being perfect..but for being what it is..today in march 2003, this type of game in this genre couldn't be produced better. A must buy for fans..for those not sure, why not download the demo? Their's a single player and multiplayer demo out on the internet.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 03/22/03, Updated 03/22/03