Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown

"Decent single player, excellent online play."

Rainbow 6: Lockdown

Overall: 8/10

Introduction: The latest addition of the Tom Clancy series if a first person shooter. There is more run and gun in Lockdown than most of the other games, so if you're expecting a hardcore strategy/action style game such as the earlier Rainbow Six games you might be disappointed. However, you're squad is still helpful and issuing orders requires only pointing and clicking. The graphics are okay, but don't compare to the likes of Halo 2 and other modern first person shooters. Lockdown has the traditional pattern of get briefed, perform the mission, then repeat for the next mission. The single player is rather short, but online Lockdown is a blast to play.

Gameplay: 9/10
Some of Lockdown can be beat run and gun style, however, proper use of grenades, vision modes, and door breaching will allow you beat the harder areas. The further along you get through campaign mode the smarter the AI will become and the better armed. Terrorist will hide in ambush spots, shoot RPGs into your squad, and lay tripwires to kill you if you're too careless. The result of these tactics is that the player has to learn and keep a sharp eye out for trouble. Squad control is very simple. All you have to do is point, press A, and then select the order on the D-pad, or if your in a hurry the A button alone will issue quick orders such as, move, breach door, and scout corner. If you have a headset you can give voice commands, which after some practice work very well to. There isn't that big of a selection of guns, and the aiming is a little funny. For an aimer you have a circle that gets smaller when you move, supposedly the bullets lock-on to an enemy in that circle. However, you will most of the time find your self aiming with the little dot in the middle of the screen, as the bullets don't lock on very well at all. The recitals which show your spread are defiantly a better form of aiming than the one provided by Lockout.

Online Play: 9/10
Unfortunately for most Rainbow 6 fans, Lockdown is an online centered game, and online it awesome. In the new PEC mode you can pick one of four classes each with their own special ability. All of the classes are pretty well balanced, despite being for specific tasks. Medics heal, Spec Ops sneak, Commandos run and gun, and Engineers lay mines. Along with these abilities all classes carry a gun that evens out the advantages they earn from their specialization. The more you play the more stuff you can unlock for your character, such as body armor, and camo suits. There is a small problem with people glitching but patches from Ubisoft have minimized that problem. Over all, Lockdown is an excellent online game.

Story: 7/10
Lockdown's single player mode follows the lead of the games before it, shoot terrorist, disarm bombs, rescue hostages. However, unlike in other Tom Clancy games, some times while you or a squad mate are trying to complete an objective you will be ambushed, forcing you to have fast reactions and find cover so you not wiped out. When you play as Webber the sniper your goal is to cover the rainbow team, this is pretty hard as the enemy will shoot at you also, and enemies with RPGs can shoot down you're helicopter or blow up your team with one shot.

Graphics/Sound: 6/10
The graphics are okay. Character models basic, textures lack any detail, guns are fairly decent, and lighting effects are good. Night vision and infrared vision are fairly realistic looking, like in real life they blur over distances making them difficult to use at far ranges. When you get shot in the face your goggles will crack up making it hard to see and you're guy will have adrenalin burst. This will usually make you tough enough to live through the encounter but leave you with so little health that you're dead if you're shot once. The sound for this game isn't very good though. Voice is okay, along with the vehicles; but the guns and grenades sound way too soft. The music pretty good if you don't listen to it for along time but after about a minuet gets very repetitive.

Play Time/Replayability: 8/10
Only about 10-12 hours in single player mode. This game is rather short and mostly is scripted, making it so once you've beat it you'll be done with the single player mode. Playing, Co-Op inline is fun and always different so even after you've beaten the single payer alone you will still have fun playing Co-Op. However, the multiplier's a blast, and doesn't start getting old for months.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 11/30/05