Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3

"Worth the wait?"

INTRODUCTION
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 is a squad based tactical first person shooter. It was first released on the PC and then on the Xbox. PS2 came next and now we have a Gamecube version. Is it worth the wait?

STORY 5

The game is named after the Tom Clancy novel but there is no significant connection between the two unless you read the book. The main character, Ding Chavez is from a completely different book. If you have ever read a Tom Clancy book, then you will know what to expect, as there are no real surprises. Even the plot twists are predictable. The game has the Tom Clancy name but the story is far from the best that it could be.

GAME PLAY 8

The game play in this game is very good, although very flawed. First I will state the positive things about the game play. The game lives up to its genre. You will control a squad with three men and yourself through a number of predictable yet tactical missions fighting terrorists. Controlling your squad is very simple and in the heat of battle you will never have trouble giving them a command. The team and enemy A.I. usually act human and some of the objectives really stand out.

Now for the bad. Although the team and enemy A.I. are usually smart, they are also very stupid at times. For example, I was doing one mission and I killed a terrorist and before he died he threw a grenade. It landed in front of my man and he shouted "Grenade" and I ran and looked back and he was still there as the grenade blew up. These incidents are not common but they will cause a few mission failures in the last few missions. One thing must be noted. If you prepare your team ahead of time, they will usually due fine. It is the little surprises that get them killed. When I said that a few objectives stood out, that is because they are the only different ones. Usually you will rescue a hostage or defuse a bomb and that is it.

Finally the squad dynamics must be explained. There are a number of commands that you can issue to your squad. There are the basic open and clear or open, flash and clear but there are some cool commands. You can blow up doors or open them slowly. There is also a zulu command. If you see two doors leading to one room you can set up a timed attack. For example you can order your team to clear a room after you flash it. Things like this add to the realism and it is fun to experiment.

AUDIO 9

This is where the game shines. A great deal of attention was obviously put into the audio. Every gun sounds different and every little thing that you do makes a noise that is very realistic. The enemy is Spanish and throughout the game you will hear them communicate in Spanish. Even better, if you understand Spanish, then you will know what to expect. There is also excellent background noises. You will hear fireworks, car horns or planes overhead. These sounds really help breathe life into the game. My only complaint about the audio is that the music is often recycled. This is not good because some of the music is unbearable, but that is a small complaint.

GRAPHICS 7

The graphics for this game are a mixed bag. Some of the effects are fantastic while others are awful.

Level design is great. Everything is how it should be. In a villa there is furniture and it is clean and in a shipyard it is dark and rather ugly. Every level provides a number of opportunities to use the environment for some amazing tactical experiences. This part of the game does not disappoint.

Lighting is also an excellent show. Throughout the game you will see your shadow and it is reflected perfectly right down to how the gun reloads. This is just an extra feature that really adds to the life of the game.

Textures are very ugly. It hurts to say it but this is a PS2 port so the textures feature very little detail and variation. The Gamecube is capable of much better and it sucks that Ubisoft had 3 months to work on the Gamecube port and this is the final result. Very disappointing.

The character models are average. They sport some nice uniform detail but they move like robots and they have a square look to them. This is also very disappointing, but it really does not matter. Enemies are very much the same although there is great variety between the enemies.

For some reason I always check the sky in games to see if it looks real and this game did not disappoint. Every level features a unique sky and the sky directly reflects the look of the level. This level of detail makes the game look better.

The guns in the game are some of the best looking in the business. Each gun sports a great amount of detail but this ends when you look through the scope. This feature is a nice touch but it is annoying to snipe through a pixilated scope.

REPLAY 6

This game features a two player cooperative mode but is basically the single player campaign with two people and only two people. There are three difficulty settings but only hardcore gamers will even want to complete the game on all the settings. This is Gamecube so there is no on-line. Anyone surprised?

FINAL 7

As a first person shooter this game is superb. As a squad based shooter this game is seriously lacking. Do not buy this game until you rent it. Only those with just a Gamecube should buy this version, as the Xbox is far more enjoyable.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/17/04