"A good game, but far from great."

''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'' for the Dreamcast is a good port from the PC. What is it about? Well, a anti-terrorist unit called Rainbow sets out on several missions to rid the world of crime and stop terrorist attacks. Now, first and most importantly, ''Rainbow Six'' is not a common first-person shooter like the popular titles ''Doom'', ''GoldenEye 007'', ''Perfect Dark'', etc. It is a strategy game where you plan execution. You cannot just go and start a gun fight. There are several missions, each are unique in their own way. Most mission objectives include the occasional saving hostages, defusing bombs, and more. Some require you to use stealth and not let the enemy see you. There are several characters to choose from. Each have their own specialty. It is your job to decide the six that will go out and save the world. The good points go to the fact that there are several characters to select, each from a different part of the globe. You can browse through uniforms and select what suits (No pun intended.) you best. You can also choose your weapons and your gadgets. The gadgets might impress you. Everything from the lock kit to the heartbeat sensor. You have the ability to plan your moves and assign each team to different locations. On to the measures.

Graphics: 8/10 - The graphics are nice and detailed. You'll appreciate the backgrounds and the character models. The faces of the characters could have been better, though. The animations could have been smoother as well. This game, by the way, is powered by Microsoft Windows CE.

Sound/Music: 6/10 - I cannot say much for music because I've only noticed three tracks: The music from the game's introduction, the music from the game's main menu, and the in-game music stays the same throughout all the missions. They're decent, but how about a little variety? The sounds are nice, however, are nice. The gun sounds are clever and the voice-acting isn't too bad. Overall, everything in the audio is halfway decent.

Gameplay: 7/10 - I read the manuals before playing any game, and the controls for this game had my head hurting for a few seconds. The controls take some time getting used to since the controller doesn't have enough buttons for every command. An example would be having to press Left and A to execute some action. Lucky for us, they've put together all the controls in a nice, understandable summary. Control response is rather poor while you browse through the menu, but I don't know much about the Windows CE system on the Dreamcast to judge harshly. The missions are quite fun. You have to be careful as to not to get shot. You only have two chances. If a teammate is killed, you've lost him/her for good. They won't be there to join you in the next mission. The difficulty can be increased in ''Veteran'' mode, where more mission objectives are placed on your lap.

Replayability: 4/10 - Ouch. The lack of multi-player really hurts the game's replayability value. The only real reasons to come back to this game are to complete the missions and if you are seriously into the game's training mode.

Value: 7/10 - I had enjoyed this game, and I'm a Tom Clancy fan, but if you were expecting a gun fest, you're at the wrong place unless you start one. I would recommend renting this game first.

Overall Score (As seen in the previous page): 8/10 - I enjoyed this game, like I said. Planning strategy, executing plans, choosing team members equals a good, covert time.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/01, Updated 02/05/01