Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
A whole lot more of the good stuff you crave.
Tags: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Categories: PC Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 10th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (title page) | 1 - 2 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Squad-Based Shooter | No | ||
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Rainbow Six three may have one of the most unwieldy titles around, but it’s rock solid at the core. From the ground up, it sparkles with all the glittery touches that make PC gaming worth while. It installs easily, configures with no hassle, and has almost no visible bugs. Sadly, it’s such a rarity these days that this fact earns Rainbow some points right off the bat. It’s a class act.
The interface here is vastly improved. One of the most difficult, yet rewarding aspects of the Rainbow gameplay is the planning phase. Naturally, that’s still here, but the interface has been redesigned. It’s a refreshing change and works quite well when you get into it. It’s much easier to set go-codes, waypoints, and actions on the map before you go into battle.
There are more weapons and equipment to use here now, too. Loading out your team for battle is more reminiscent of Mechwarrior than of Counter-Strike. Lots of options, lots of modifications to choose from.
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Using all those weapons is what the game is for though. While the maps and situations are much more contrived than in the original two games, they’re still interesting enough to keep the game’s pace up, and balanced well enough to make play exciting when online. The actual worlds are slightly more barren than in the past, but the layouts are the only thing that effect gameplay.
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With the Russians basically gone, Clancy’s boys have run out of bad guys. Thankfully, there’s nothing here about Arab terrorists or Iraqi defense ministers. The plot follows neo-Nazi’s as they storm towards a reign of terror and death. The cut scenes that punctuate the story are quite lame. The in-game graphics have gotten so good that the cut scenes basically fall limp unless they’re coupled with decent voice acting. Here, unfortunately, they’re not.
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Each level now feels more like a first person shooter map: Lots of crates and twisty tunnel systems. previous games have offered some much more realistic maps, but the object here is merely to extend the Rainbow gameplay by adding three times as many enemies to every scene. Whereas previous games could leave you at the end of a level with only single digit kills, in this third installment, you’ll reach the hundreds after only a couple of levels.
This all serves to make the game feel much more like Doom than Counter-Strike. That is, if id Software had given the player a couple of retarded teammates to follow them around.
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Yes, the AI is easier to control. However, as in the last two games, when the computer is left to its own devices, teammates will generally behave properly. But the moment the player takes control of one of the squad members, everything goes to hell. Your squad won’t clog doors, and they are generally good at not getting killed, but they will still get lost and confused when you stray too far from them. Of course, the AI is vastly improved from the previous two versions of the game, but it’s still not ready for quality interaction with bizarre human beings.
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Online play is excellent. As always, playing levels cooperatively is a blast, and versus play is almost Counter-Strike worthy, but not enough to warrant quitting Valve’s masterpiece. Also, Rainbow Six Three does not have a built in game finder, so you’ll have to use Ubisoft’s abysmal mess of a connection program. They really should just give it up and hand everything over to the teams themselves. The game finder does work, but it’s just a horrible slop of corporate hugger buggery.
So, when you get right down to the heart of the matter, this is a logical next step for fans of Rainbow Six. There’s not much new here, just refinements of the old. If you liked either Rainbow Six or Rogue Spear, go for the third. It’s earned your money.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
| A solid shooter, with excellent production values. | 9.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
| Ubisoft's lame game finder. | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| You want more Rainbow? Here it is! | |
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Tags: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3
Posted by Harold Foundary on Aug 10th, 2003 and is filed under PC 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.
