"Tom Clancy's blockbuster novel arrives to the N64!"

Tom Clancy's best seller novel based around international terrorism has enjoyed a huge amount of success on the PC,and it finally makes it's way to the 64 and PSX. Rainbow Six is a first person shooter incorporating action and real life strategy and this is why the game stands out from the usual kill-everything-that-move games that flood the FPS market. Running around firing wildly will quickly see you dead. Caution must be used if levels are to be completed on the higher difficulty settings.
The graphics in Rainbow Six are slightly bland,similar to the visuals seen in Hybrid Heaven. The textures are very plain and boring and every brick,rock,seat etc looks the same. The terrorists are well drawn and look just like the enemies seen in the movie Navy Seals. They are a little blocky but they are adequate nonetheless.
The sound in Rainbow Six is great,especially the speech samples. Your fellow team members are very talkative and each time you kill an enemy they will shout ''Tango Down!'' or if you are killed they will whisper ''Man down,need backup now!''.It's these little touches that add to the realism of a game.
Rainbow Six's main selling point is it's two player co-operative mode where you and a friend can play through the game together. This works really well and the frame rate isn't lowered at all.
However, with only 12 levels,Rainbow Six is just too short to justify purchase. The game can be completed in less than 4 hours on the first run. A number of the levels are very short and can be dispensed with in under a minute while others are so big that navigating them is somewhat tiresome.
Even with the co-op mode,Rainbow Six falls below expectations. There are no deathmatch modes and you will tire of the 12 levels on display in a short period of time. Definitely rent this game if you have a friend over for the weekend as the co-op mode is great.
6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 04/22/00, Updated 04/22/00