Gaming Target - Xbox: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3

Written by Bryan Montford on January 12, 2004

Second Look: Up close and personal, personified.

I thought about making this review really simple. I'd write УTom Clancy Ц buy itФ. But I thought you might like a little more information than that. So here it is: This is a Tom Clancy game. It's good. Buy it. I hope that clarifies things for you. I mean, what more do you really want to know? What more do you need to know? Every title that's hit the Xbox so far with the Tom Clancy moniker slapped on it has been a raging hit. Why waste time on the details when you could be out playing as УDingФ Chavez, leading your team of elite professionals in outright combat against world terrorism. Why sit here reading this column when you could be issuing voice commands to your three team members in single player mode, or fragging up to 15 opponents in a game on Live?

Do I have to tell you the graphics are gorgeous? That you can nearly pinpoint where your enemies are by sound alone? That the online play is possibly some of the best released to date on the Live platform? Have I got to spell every last little detail out to you?! Okay, I can do thatЕ.

This game understands more commands than my kids do, and acts a lot faster to boot. Nothing against my kids, but this game makes it seem that ridding the world of terrorism is easily doable, compared to getting the toys in the living room cleaned up. And you know what? That's cool. It's great to be able to yell, УGO, GO, GO!Ф at the TV a watch your three team members pop a door at start Уneutralizing hostile elementsФ. That rocks. And does it work? Pretty dang well. You've got to keep in mind that you don't want to be staring at wall issuing commands. The game takes into consideration what you're facing and bases it's compliance upon your command being something that is possible. So if you are staring at a wall and you tell your guys to Breach and Secure, you're going to get a УCan't do that captainФ right back in your ear. And, if you have the headset on giving voice commands (kind of a prerequisite) that's where you'll hear the team members and mission objectives. My wife was a little freaked out by that.

УWho's talking to you?Ф she asks. УWell, they are honeyЕФ as I gesture at the TV. She glances at the TV, and back at me, УThose aren't people.Ф УYes, right.Ф, I say, nodding slightly. УSo, who's talking to you?!Ф

The wife doesn't ask me too many questions about games these days.

The missions are not easy. Saving the world is probably going to be a little more than a single afternoon for you and team Rainbow. If you did well with games like Ghost Recon, you may be in for a rude surprise. This is close quarters combat. Urban warfare. The stakes are high, the battles short, and casualties can add up fast. Including your team. And the game isn't too forgiving. There is no respawn, you can't change characters, and while there are one hit kills possible; the damage model is pretty conservative. You can take hits, but they add up. And you aren't going to take too many. I was a little disturbed the first time I played the game to turn around and see blood on the face of one of my team members. Another had some on their back near their kidneys. I was already being pretty careful, but it pointed out a fact easily overlooked in many games. These may be characters in a game, but they are my team, and I'm responsible for them.

Some of the missions seem almost impossible, but there is a solution. Personally I didn't have to apply too much cussing, but it sure took a lot of tense time trying to factor all the variables and get through alive. You have to exploit the skills you're given and make the most of your team. You also have to think on your feet. You can pretty well assume NPC's are going to be relatively in similar places, but they do not spawn in the same place every time. And while they don't act like real people, they react to environmental changes, like the noise you make, or a door being open. Granted, they still do some really stupid things. Artificial intelligence isn't quite where we might like it to be, especially when it comes to video games. Behavior is a tough thing to script. But it is interesting to finally shoot at NPC's and watch them take cover. Sometimes they'll even drop their weapons and surrender. (Hint, you get more points if you cuff Сem instead of kill Сem)

You can choose from the single player linear mission, custom missions, or online play. And the latter is a treat.

There are three main modes for online play. Team survival, Sharpshooter, and Co-op. In co-op you can only have 4 players max, but in the other modes you can play up to 16 at a time if your upstream bandwidth permits. You can also use or set up a machine as a dedicated server. This really helps to maximize performance for a group playing together. Besides, if you host a dedicated server, you may not be able to play in the match but you can play god with the players in the match.

Online play adds an entire new dimension to the game, as you can imagine. There are some bandwidth related issues, but Ubi has done a pretty good job balancing gameplay and bandwidth needs on this one. There is also a well-rounded set of features for handling games; including map changes, server size, grenades on or off, player ejection, and more.

The only major complaint I've seen from people is use of the M82 .50 cal in online matches. Pretty much it's one shot, one kill. That can make game play very unbalanced. Now anyone reading my reviews on a regular basis knows, I'm a sniper man. That's what I'm good at. I figured people were just being biased and over-reactive, but it turns out that it does indeed offer a potentially unfair advantage. Rumor has it that it will be updated in a future patch, but I wouldn't hold out for it. Until then, don't be surprised if you are told to choose another weapon, or risk being banned from a server.