Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
Team Rainbow finally hits the Cube, yet is it ‘too little, too late?’
Tags: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews
Posted by David Hinkle on Jul 15th, 2004
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Squad-Based Shooter | No | ||
The year is 2007 and the United States is caught in a crisis due to many nations boycotting their exportation of oil to the U.S. Venezuela, one of the last remaining nations supplying the United States with oil becomes the target at the forefront of anti-U.S. terrorism. The U.S.’s best equipped group to handle these terrorists is Team Rainbow.
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Tom Clancy, who wrote such famous books as The Hunt for Red October and Clear and Present Danger, brings you another installment in the Rainbow Six franchise. You will once again take control of Team Rainbow’s leader Domingo “Ding” Chavez and guide your teammates through a diverse array of missions ranging from rescuing hostages to defusing bombs. Much like in his books, you will use the latest military gear and tactics to stop terrorists from wreaking havoc on the free world.
Yet, before you can start shooting terrorists off the face of the earth, you must go through the tutorial mission. Here you will learn how to use your teammates and handle almost every situation that will pop up in the game. Before you embark on this make sure you have enough space on your memory card as this port does not allow you to save anytime you wish; it will automatically save for you at every checkpoint.
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Your teammates are pretty smart and rarely ever move without you giving them the go ahead. You’ll interact with them by using several similar commands. For instance, say during a mission while rescuing hostages in a villa mansion your team comes across a closed door that leads to where intelligence has placed the hostages. You can set them up to flash bang the room and take out any hostiles through a ‘zulu code.’ The zulu code is a fancy way for telling your teammates to go ahead and perform the requested action(s). Strategically, this allows you to essentially be in two places at once. If there are entrances to a certain room you can have your team cover one door while you move to the other, than storm the room at the same time, covering two sides, and basically having the element of surprise. Giving out these zulu codes and other such orders is achieved by using the A button. Just point your reticle at a wall and hit the A button to make your teammates move to that location. Also, you can hold in the A button to receive a list of other commands the team can perform. Move to a door, hold the A button in, and you can just open the door and clear the room, open the door then flash bang the room then clear, or open the door and frag grenade the room. You have a pretty healthy supply of choices for your actions.
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The graphics in this game are pretty detailed. Not as strong as its PC and Xbox counterparts, but definitely a shine above the PS2 version. Frame rates will drop in situations where there are a lot of things going on(explosions and the such), and will severely drop in the multiplayer missions. Night and Thermal vision look fine, as well as the accurate recreation of the firearms. Also, the backdrops for the missions look like they should as well as the Rainbow’s attire.
The Gamecube controller sadly isn’t very helpful when playing a first-person perspective game. The C-stick’s dwarfed size is the biggest setback in the control department. I found my thumb slipping off several times in crucial situations of the game. Other than that major gruff, the controller does what it is supposed to do.
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Sound in this game is one of the perks. Sound is dead on, with every bullet sounding as it hits flesh and surroundings properly. Dolby pro Logic II compatibility is there for you home theater buffs, and believe me you’ll want to take advantage of that. Hearing the gun fire, explosions, and ‘hostile eliminated’ in crisp, beautiful sound will bring a tear to your eye. Sadly, this isn’t enough of a grace to save it from its worst setback: multiplayer.
This is really where this port falls short on so many levels. Lacking all the online functionality of the original PC titles and other console ports, you are left with playing through the single-player missions in co-op mode(which means no lovely death match mode). Also, there is no voice command support like in the PC and Xbox version.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
+ Still the same great missions + Excellent sound + Challenging gameplay + Intelligent A.I. |
7.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Multiplayer leaves a lot to be desired - That damn C-stick - Fluxuating frame rates |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| This port is basically for those people who only own a Gamecube and haven't played the game anywhere else. | |
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Tags: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Posted by David Hinkle on Jul 15th, 2004 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
