Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown

"Lockdown is a fun, polished game, but it isn't the Rainbow Six you know and love."

Introduction

You may remember the very first Rainbow Six, an extremely difficult game that considered planning and tactics more important than a quick trigger finger. That was almost a decade ago. By now, the fourth game featuring Team Rainbow is out; Lockdown. I will be reviewing this game.

Story: 5/10

Any of you who have played a Tom Clancy game before know that they always have military-focused, realistic backstories that could have been ripped from today's headlines. Lockdown is no exception. There are many twists and turns, hostage rescues, interrogations, and more, but the best way to find out what the game is focused on is reading the back of the box: a group of terrorists has a deadly virus, and you need to kill them all before they unleash it on the world. Bla bla bla, been there, done that. I give the story a 5 for the depth it goes into, but it really doesn't mean anything more than you have to kill lots of terrorists before they kill you. Moving on.

Graphics: 7/10

Rainbow Six 3, Lockdown's predecessor, had a mixed bag for graphics. The weapons were well detailed, but the environments were dull, and the animations stiff and not very life-like. Lockdown's visuals are very similar. Everything is very round, and there aren't any impressive textures or lighting effects. The weapons all look a little strange; the models appear soft and rounded, instead of hard, cold, black metal like their real life counterparts. The fire and explosions are well done though, especially the pyrotechnics that occur when you set off a phosphurous grenade. There isn't much smoke in the game. Of course, this an M-rated game, so there's blood involved. When an enemy or ally is shot, there is a spurt of blood, which looks much better that the clouds of red that appeared in RS3. While there is a fair share of arterial spray in the game, there isn't nearly as much as many other games, so all of you squeamish gamers out there should be fine. The character animations are better than average. Your teammates move and hold their weapons like any real-life special ops force, and your enemies run around frantically and shoot from the hip like the inexperienced terrorists they are.

Sound: 3/10

To me, this is what killed part of the game. The music. Remember Rainbow Six 3's orchestrated, militaristic theme song that fitted the game's mood perfectly? All gone. Thrown out the window. In it's place is some lame hard rock music. When I first played the game, I thought it was a joke, and that the real music would begin in a few seconds. Nope. This so-called "music" doesn't fit Rainbow Six's serious mood at all. Most people will be turned off by it. I fully suggest that you go into the options menu, and turn the music volume all the way down. The game sounds better with no music, no joke! The other sound effects are pretty average, but still better than the music by a longshot. The guns don't sound very loud or threatening, and neither do the explosions. Probably the best part of the sound is the voice work. It's all very clear and easy to understand. Your enemies emit slightly comical screams when shot, and there is some variety to their voices and accents. Your own team is similar. Rainbow is comprised of soldiers from many different countries, and each of your various teammates has a unique accent and voice unique to their country.

Gameplay: 9/10

Finally, the meat of the game, and the best part. In all, it's very similar to Rainbow Six 3. Before each mission, you choose your primary weapon, pistol, and two secondary items. Once again, there is a large arsenal of guns to choose from. Classics such as the MP5 and G36c return, but a few series staples are missing. Where's the MAC-10 and AK-47? What about the good old USP pistol? Which weapon you choose doesn't really matter, because all of them handle pretty much the same; with exceptions like shotguns and the grenade launcher. After you select your equipment, you move on to the actual gameplay. The character you play as is Domingo Chavez, Team Rainbow's longtime leader. You have little health, and can only take a handful of hits before you expire, but your stamina is noticeably stronger than in RS3. You're still better off than your enemies though, who have no body armor and can take even less hits. Their misfortune is good for you, because there are plenty of them to shoot. In most levels, you'll fight at least 60 terrorists. This makes for a much more engaging, but much less suspensful experience than Rainbow Six 3. If you have a fast trigger finger, you can just run through the levels and shoot every terrorist in sight without sustaining much damage. Your teammates are about as sharp as a marble, but they still help a lot in the bigger firefights, where the amount of bullets in the air is the deciding factor for victory. Enemies have the same basic AI, but they run around and shoot a lot more (but are much less accurate than your allies). A new part of the Rainbow Six series are the sniper levels. Occasionally you'll play as Dieter Weber in the beginning of a mission, and snipe enemies like crazy to protect your team. These segments are fairly challenging, but feel like a pasted-one minigame. An essential part of Lockdown, and any first person shooter, is your HUD (heads up display). Around the edge of the screen is a curved border, which gives the illusion that you are wearing tactical goggles. At the top of the screen are three small bars which indicate your current health. Three green bars mean perfect health, two yellow bars indicate wounded status, and if you see one red bar, well, you might as well restart the mission or get pasted in half a second by the next wave of enemies. At the bottom left is the status of your three teammates, who use the same health system as you. It also shows what secondary item you equipped, and how much ammo you have for it. At the bottom right is a bar indicating how much ammo there is in the current clip of your weapon, and how much ammo you have in reserve. You have a ridiculous amount of ammo for your primary weapon, so feel free to spray and pay all you want.

Replayability: 8/10

Lockdown is longer than your average shooter, but will still take less than a week to beat for most gamers. Luckily, there's plenty of oppurtunity for replayability. Hidden in each level are 5 intel briefcases that give you points to spend on new weapons and cheat codes. The briefcases aren't hard to find at all if you look a little, so it shouldn't take you long to save up enough intel points for all of the weapons and cheats. When you replay a mission, you can play the standard campaign level or a terrorist hunt, along with various other gametypes. Then there is co-op mode. The game is made almost pathetically easy with two experienced people, but oh well. Replaying the levels with different equipment and weapons is always fun, and you can pop in the game and plug a few terrorists before you go to school or work in the morning for five minutes of fun.

Final Reccomendation: For the casual gamer, I reccomend you buy this game. It's only $20 brand new right now, and even less used. Rainbow Six Lockdown is a fun, action packed game that you can come back to a few years later and still have fun with. For all of you longtime Rainbow fans though, I reccomend you rent it or not play it at all, you will be disappointed in how different it is from the older games.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/01/06