Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3

"A shell of a once great series"

My first memory of computer gaming was Rainbow Six:Rogue Spear. It was the defining moment for the Tactical shooter, because it upped what the original Rainbow Six had started. I was in anticapation for hearing that Rainbow Six: Raven Shield was coming to the Xbox, and hoped that the planning of your routes before the game was intact, as well as many other things that other games barely touched. The best thing about the Rainbow 6's of old where that they were anal retentive in playing to the T, which made them very fun as well as demanding. I later come to find they massively streamlined the system, and made t just another game with terrorists.

Graphics are very good I must say. From the broken glass on the street to the character, detail, this is pulled off very well, and a compliment for the Xbox's power.

Sound is also very good, but slightly lacking in some parts. But its a very minor detail.

Now, the gameplay is where the game goes downhill. This is a pretty game, but it stays at that. The pre-game planning, which made the game so tactical and fun, is gone. Its replaced by a pretty bare bones voice recognition system, which pales in comparison to the PS2's SOCOM II system. Its mostly comprised of attack; attack on zulu. Breach; Breach on zulu. SOCOM II has things like overwatch, where teammates call enemies out for you to snipe, lead to '''', stealth to '''', attack to ''''. Also, you could interact with the npcs who you needed to help WITH the voice recognition system. If Xbox had implemented SOCOM's voice system, while retaining the preplanning system, this game would honestly be a reason to sell your gaming system to buy an Xbox.

The selection of a huge roster, which specialities used to include stealth, sniper, demolitions, recon, and others is missing. Now, you get stuck with the same people over and over. Gone is the ability to change players when you die. Gone are the things that were in the Rainbow Six book (by Tom Clancy), such as Heartbeat sensors and the like. I also liked having guns be fixed to you, such as bullet type and fire rate. And you can't even choose your armor type, which each had its own restrictions and freedoms.

Online play is where its at, and even then, the fact of playing with others is diminished. Add to the fact that Xbox Live is p2p gaming, which helps make the online less unplayable with more people. Servers for Xbox live would have been nice, but chose to go the PC route for online.

I am dissapointed by this change, as is many R6 fans. Console gamers who are having there first experience with R6 with this game, or have only played the earlier console R6 games, then I suggest you play the PC versions, which are a vast improvement. Still, this game can and is considered great by most. If it had a different name, then I could say yes. But this game just seems to be wasted talent to me.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 01/03/04