Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

"The beautiful swan that turned into an ugly duckling"

Rainbow Six was the game that got Red Storm Entertainment noticed internationally when they introduced Rainbow Six for the PC. The world went nuts with its blend of thrilling First person action, stealthy thinking and extremely good enemy AI. But there was one more thing that set this game apart from other FPS games. The fact that you could send multiple teams in at your command. You could program where they moved and how they moved to a certain destination. So basically, you could strategize so much in advance, all you would need to do is let a few commands go and let the computer do the work for you. Multiplayer was just as exciting. You could play against others around the world to finely tune your skills. All in all it was an excellent game. Unfortunately, the Playstation version didn’t strike the market as impressively as its PC counterpart. Everything that had made the PC version fun just somehow disappeared.

Gameplay

There are basically 2 modes to play in. The first is training. To get a feel for this game, you try the training course. Say.. you want to try to get some good aim. Well, its harder than you think. The reason it was so good on the computer version was because the mouse offered better accuracy. And when it was ported to PSX, the only way they could be controlled was with the analog buttons. And trust me, they are SLOW. By the time the target pops up, and goes back down, your still trying to get your crosshair over to it. Now just stick a gun in that targets hand, and you have yourself a problem when your doing missions. That’s the next part of this game. The missions. They start out simple enough. Infiltrate a house, rescue the hostage, and extract him. But they get MUCH MUCH harder later in the game. I think that if a mouse were to be available, and the teams easier to command, this game could have actually been pretty good. But under these circumstances, this game stinks. You’ll get frustrated trying to do the simplest things. Which is one reason why you shouldn’t play this game.
5/10

Graphics

They aren’t too bad. The levels are pretty detailed, and I would have to say they’re better than Rainbow Six: Rogue spear was. One thing this game does that’s worth complimenting is the level shading. The levels are not usually dark. They are usually bright enough colors that the levels are easy on the eyes. But they are by no stretch groundbreaking. They are grainy and I swear you could poke your eye out on all the jaggies. These jaggies are especially bad with the striped wallpaper used in some levels. Another thing I didn’t like about the graphics is the characters. Your team mates look like a bunch of gangly geeks that dropped out of highschool. The tangos(bad guys) look like stereotypical Russian terrorists(what can you expect, Tom Clancy’s probably still stuck in the cold war) and the hostages… well, I’m pretty sure they look like the Michelin man with panty hose over his head. Somewhat like a crude bank robber. Rent or buy this game and see what I mean! You’ll probably chuckle. I think the graphics are not only a step down from the computer version, but a step down from playstation quality as well.
5/10

Sound

The sound isn’t too bad. The background music is pretty much unnoticeable except for the odd thrilling music just to keep you awake. I would say it was pretty well done because when the music speeds up, it makes your heart pump faster because you think an enemy is around the corner. That’s where the element of surprise comes in. You’ll be expecting an enemy to pop out from nowhere, and nothing will be there. But as soon as you let your guard down. BAM! He’s right there, begging for a bullet. Just make sure he doesn’t give you one first. A few other sounds worth noting is the radio signals, which are pretty clear. The guns, which sound unique from each other. Im glad they didn’t just give all the guns the same sounds. And the menu music sets a mood of surprise and suspense.
8/10

Control

Ahh… The control in this game makes me want to throw it at the wall in frustration and stomp on it until its no longer operable. As I stated earlier, the PC/PSX conversion of controls worked out as well as a drive-thru marriage in Vegas. In case you didn’t get my point.. it stunk Where the mouse had given precise control and aim, the analog stick gave sluggish controls and took forever to aim. And if Analogue was too hard for you, the D-pad was even worse!!! If you wanted to aim up or down.. Forget it. Changing weapons wasn’t too bad. But you still had to wait while he slowly put his gun away and brought out the next one. Aghh… Why don’t I just put a target on my chest and yell shoot me?!
The only thing that actually works on the controller is shooting and pausing. The only 2 things you’ll be doing while your alive(in the game).
2/10

Replay value

Well… If you don’t throw this game away and actually try to beat it. You MIGHT… and I use might strongly MIGHT want to play it again. But at least after you beat a level, you can do it over and over. Otherwise… forget it.
3/10

Overall

This game is basically a popular series blended with a sub-par video game. Red Storm let us down with this one. And still, they have yet to give the Playstation or Playstation 2. Which is disappointing really, because they have gone above and beyond in the computer market. Hopefully someday, Red Storm entertainment will release a good Rainbow Six game for Playstation 2. But for now, our wishes go unfulfilled.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 06/13/02, Updated 06/13/02