Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

"Terrorist down"

Who would have guessed it? Terrorists have struck again and its up to Rainbow Six to thwart their dastardly plans. So let's gear up and see if this Rainbow Six is worth volunteering for.

GAMEPLAY
Tactical shooters have enjoyed a renaissance of late with SWAT4 storming in to deliver a killer blow. Rainbow Six has always been about planning first and shooting later. This time it's no different with the usual array of excellent planning tools at your disposal to come up with some fiendish plans to get through missions. It might take several attempts to find just the right combination of clever and sensible but most missions should be easy enough. An impressively huge selection of weapons and accessories are available to aid you in dealing justice to your enemies. Squad mate AI is competent enough and you can now issue basic orders similar to SWAT4. Once you've started a mission you'll find that your worst enemy will be the nefarious door that will stand in your way. Unlike the SWAT4 guys your Rainbow Six operatives still attempt to burst through doors as though they are auditioning for a Three Stooges show. While they're doing this bemused terrorists usually end of perforating them with popguns. I certainly hope the war on Terror doesn't go like this or we'll all be doomed to die from laughter. The old staple of one shot and your dead is still alive and kicking and makes for some tense encounters with terrorists. The new heartbeat sensor is useful and functions like a pair of binoculars and will show any heartbeats detected in your immediate field of vision ending the old cheat of previous games.

STORY
The background story is the usual Tom Clancy terrorists and hostages story with the odd cut scene thrown in between missions to add some character to proceedings. Each mission is helps to move the story along and works well to give your teamates more of a role than just bullet sponges since they can now gain experience from previous missions.

SOUND
Raven shield makes good use of ambient sound and music to create a tense atmosphere as you creep through missions intent on surviving. Weapon sounds are excellent and meaty enough to give your eardrums a real workout. Teammates' voices are rather bland and the usual array of "Yes sir" comments.

GRAPHICS
Using the Unreal engine Raven shield finally moves away from the rather bland visuals employed in previous games. Your squad are well rendered but terrorists and hostages look a bit too similar and average. Levels are well done and look the part. Unfortunately the ragdoll physics can make for some very comical gymnastics when shooting a bad guy.

REPLAYABILITY
Missions are as open as you want them to be with multiple routes and tactics available to tackle them any way you see fit. Whether you'll have the patience to fully explore the planning phase of missions is really up to what type of gamer you are. Some excellent custom play modes such as terrorist hunts and lone wolf are still available giving some additional life to the game.

RECOMMENDATION
A good evolution for the Rainbow Six franchise this could still use some work on the AI and pales a bit in comparison with the recent SWAT4. If you are into your tactical shooters this is well worth a try.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/20/05