Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown

"Taste the Rainbow."

First of all: This has been my very first Tom Clancy-inspired game and also (besides Counter-Strike) my first tactical shooter, so I don't rate Lockdown in relation to other games of the genre, but simply as a game.

Although I've never played any Clancy-game before, I've heard a lot about his books and about how good they were, so I thought “Hey, Ubisoft's newest game has the well-known author's name in its title, so basically it's bound to have a great story!”. I never imagined I could be so wrong: Your team-mates are given some nice personality in the last five missions, but the story itself is standard terrorist fair (traitors, maniacs who get a hold on a devastating weapon, etc.) mixed with all kinds of cliches (yay, just another bunch of bad guys from Germany, Eastern Europe and Arab countries) and nearly no tension certainly don't add up too well.

But what about the gameplay? The name Rainbow Six stands for tactical action in combination with a complex planning phase prior to every mission, but why do you think they left out the “4” in this game's title? I believe, this is because of the shift from tactics to a way more action-oriented gameplay; hence Lockdown might be more of a spin-off than a true sequel. In previous instalments of the series you would have a map of the mission place where you can plan on how and when what team-members move and act in addition to the action-phase where you gain control of one of the good guys. In Lockdown on the other hand, you always have a prefixed team, consisting of one or three team-mates in addition to Ding Chavez (the only playable character for most of the game) and the only thing you can do prior to the mission is to equip your men and yourself with various weapons and gadgets.

In order to give you an insight into the gameplay, I'll let Ding tell you his observations during a mission. This mission isn't part of the game in this form, but it combines all critical elements of R6L, so it certainly provides you with true information...saturated with my opinion, since you probably want to know about it too, when reading my review.

“Ok, great: A nice rifle, a pistol, a motion tracker and some phosphor grenades; sounds like I'm gonna have some serious fun. So, let's go...oh, ok, another loading time...well...it's probably one of the longest loading times I've seen on the Cube so far. They're probably building some great-looking areas out there. Here we go finally! Err, what exactly took so long? My team-mates definitely have a nice look to them, but what about the surroundings? Come on: You call that water? I call it mediocre. And what about those textures? And the architecture!? Whoa, the lack of some decent anti-aliasing is definitely the worst thing around. Luckily a foresight into the final five missions just showed me it gets better later on...until that I'll probably have to stick with Lofquist's backside for some nice view. Anyway: Sound is good, people are way more conversational than in your average Cube-game and the metal soundtrack underlines the great-looking cut-scenes pretty well.

What's that? A door? Oh, I know what to do: I'm a professional and so are my team-mates, so why don't I just let them breach the door via a hammer, throw in a flash bang and rush in? The controls run smoothly, but why don't my men do, too? The grenade has exploded but why has only one of my people entered the tango-infested room...and how comes he can't even hit a blind guy just next to him? I better assist him. Standard procedure: Kneel down, zoom in, aim, fi- get out of my way, you imbecile!! Just seconds ago you didn't move a bit and now you've got nothing better to do than running right into my crosshair and stare at me? Ah, that's better; yes, turn around and shoot. You know that you're not supposed to scare them but to take them down, don't you? Oh well, finally the room has been cleared and only two of my men have been hurt, so I guess I better proceed.

Another door. Maybe I should let my team open this one with the shotgun and then rush in directly. Now what exactly was the big deal in choosing how to let the door be opened?!? It's open, yes, but the previous one is, too. Anyway, let's concentrate on the hostile forces around, although they don't really seem to care about me. There's gotta be something extraordinarily interesting at that wall. I guess I'll have a look after eliminating this terrorist. So, let's see: Hmm, nothing at all...except for those enemies spawning right in front of me. Maybe I've gotten into the wrong game? Nope, still Rainbow Six, no Doom anywhere to be seen. But there's this suspicious looking corner in the hallway; as I think about it: The enemies around seem to be have such a great intelligence aversion, so I might just run around it and sho-*bang*.

Damn! How could he start firing at me that quickly? So I need to repeat all up to now and I guess the next checkpoint is still pretty far-off. I always have such a good luck, it's starting not to be funny anymore...

But I've learned my lesson: Leave the team behind and try to do as much on your own as possible. Who needs realism when you can be a Hollywood-hero? Still Rainbow Six, by the way. Maybe I should give the motion tracker a shot? Whoa, nice visuals and it really seems to be of use. There are two enemies in the next room, but they're too much to each side, so a frag grenade wouldn't help a bit. I open the door, directly aiming at the first tango and positioning myself in such a manner that the other one can't spot me. He doesn't even realize his companion has just died, so I might rush in and eliminate him swiftly. A set of stairs? Why should I take the long way, if I can simply hop over this small table? What the? I really shouldn't have given up my exercises, now it would pay off.”

Twenty minutes later.

“*cough* Not another door. Ok, team stay behind. I said: Stay behind! Okay, okay, you can come along if you want it that much. The same procedure as last year Mrs. Sophie? The same procedure as every year, James (Just in case you wonder what I mean by this: It's a quote from a very well-known short movie always shown on New Year's Eve here in Germany and probably in some other European countries as well). Motion tracker, looking for a safe place for my team, opening the door and repeatedly having a quick look to take down all enemies one-by-one. Finally: I've reached the first checkpoint. Only two more level sections to come...”

Rainbow Six Lockdown certainly provides a lot of tension and thrills at the beginning, but although the game actually gets better later on, you'll probably get bored in the end and wish for the game to be over already. This is mainly because you'll soon repeat two or three strategies over and over again that will bring you through most of the game, and this routine rarely includes your team-mates. Most of the time you will only drag them along and position them in some place out of your way so you can deal with the enemies on your own. Both the tangos and the good guys act totally unpredictable, ranging from quickly and well aiming, strategy aces to dumb, paralyzed or imbeciles tired of living (actually it's pretty funny when a bazooka-wielding terrorist stands right behind a wall and fires off). Your men often even don't follow your orders, so you might be wondering why you shouldn't let them die (especially, given they will return in further missions no matter what) but they are nearly essential in certain situations and you will most often know when such situations occur. As I said: The player is dictated by routine.

Mission objectives also don't give the gameplay a fresh taste: Unlike e.g. in Goldeneye, objectives are either completed automatically or they need to be completed before you are allowed to move on.

The real neat twist in this gaming experience are the level sections where you gain control of Dieter Weber, a German sniper. Here you have a limited range of movement and most of the time you snipe away hordes of enemies, but only standing still won't do you any good: In order to survive and to protect your men, you need to set priorities concerning which tangos to eliminate first and you also need to change position from time to time to dodge rockets or to get certain terrorists into sight e.g..

What about replay value? The single player campaign will keep you more or less entertained for about 10 to 12 hours if you beat every mission on your first go and afterwards you can try the second difficulty setting (which is way harder than the first one), play some boring alternative play modes in the single player levels (which haves you deactivate a few cameras, while fighting enemies, for example) or search for any missed intel briefcases. These items are found in every level and since they aren't hidden too badly, this will probably not provide much replay value either, but at least they allow you to buy new weapons or cheats. This sounds nice, but don't expect as much fun as you might have had with the Goldeneye cheats.

Finally I'll come to the multiplayer mode, a vital part of Rainbow Six games as far as I know, but if you just glimpse at the length of this section, you might already see there isn't that much to say about it: The only MP mode in the Cube version of R6L is the coop-mode. Deathmatch and anything similar have been removed, but given I am a huge fan of coop-modes I didn't mind...before I've tried it. A maximum of two players (without the support of any AI mates) play the exact same levels as in the Single Player mode, but they have to fight an additional enemy: The frame-rate. While it stays smooth enough in Single Player, here it will make you die more than once. Since it is possible to die after one or two good hits, you might appreciate the option to let dead players respawn, but this option takes away the last bit of tactics in coop as it allows you to rush through and either kill everybody or die yourself and just hop back in into the slaughter.

Bottom line is, if you are looking for a relatively uncomplicated but still demanding first step into the genre of tactical shooters or if you are a die-hard fan of the series and need to play every entry into the series you'll want to give Lockdown a try, but do not expect this game to be ultra realistic or the epitome of variation.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/05