Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown

Written by Troy Matsumiya  on February 22, 2005

First Impressions: Will Ubisoft find another pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow?

Tweet

Comments

Before some little-known guy named Master Chief quietly jumped online back in November, the undisputed champ of Xbox Live was Major Ding Chavez and his deadly Rainbow teammates. Combining classic FPS elements with the slower, more realistic pace of tactical squad-based shooters, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 and its standalone Уexpansion packФ sibling Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow were the definitive online action games with tense, exciting matches sucking up Internet bandwidth daily.

So needless to say, gamers are eagerly awaiting the next sequel in the series, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown. And since the entire Tom Clancy franchise (which of course includes the Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell series) is such a huge cash cow for Ubisoft, developers Red Storm Entertainment and Ubisoft Montreal are no doubt under enormous pressure to not only meet the high expectations of their customers, but their shareholders as well Ц and disturbingly, they may be cracking under the weight.

With only a month to go before the official release, Lockdown is disconcertingly unpolished, especially the Xbox version. The AI is very inconsistent: sometimes your teammates will take out enemies with lethal precision, other times they will stand stupidly out in the open and be riddled with bullets. They will also attempt to shoot through walls or move to unsafe positions even with enemies in plain sight. The Xbox version comes with an auto marker feature which highlights enemies with bright white brackets that turn yellow when they see you; naturally, this makes things ridiculously easy for you to spot enemies, but luckily you can turn it off. However, when it is disabled, it becomes frustratingly obvious that enemies have superhuman vision enabling them to see you long before you can see them. There are several other bugs that affect gameplay (and hopefully the notorious lean bug will not return) which is not unusual in a work-in-progress, but is definitely not expected in something that is slated for release in only a few short weeks.

Let's all hope that Red Storm and Ubisoft burn the midnight oil to iron out the bugs and tighten things up because if they can deliver on their promises, Lockdown could be the best game in the series.

Single Player

In the original Rainbow Six PC games you were able to play different characters, something which was lacking in the console versions. In Lockdown, you still can't choose your character but as a compromise, you will play as Dieter Weber during the half-dozen or so sniping missions, a cool new addition to the single player campaign. As the team's sniper, your job will be to take out enemies and protect Team Rainbow as they infiltrate the mission area. You will need to be careful to change your position as enemies will shoot back (sometimes with RPGs) and you will need to keep an eye on the clock, as you will only have a limited time to clear out the bad guys. As in the previous versions, damage varies depending on where you hit an enemy, but will be improved Ц so for example, the coveted headshot will still be an instant kill, but hitting a limb will only irk them.

When you successfully complete the sniper missions, you will automatically transition to Ding Chavez for the up close and personal battles we all know and love. In fact, the Rainbow Team really is taking it personal this time, as the terrorists are directly targeting them. Your job throughout the single player campaign will be to find out who these bad guys are and why they're being such pests.

To further personalize the game, each of your team members will be more distinctly recognizable with more detailed profiles and backgrounds, along with their own unique personalities. Gamers will appreciate the new ability to customize each team member's weapon load-out before each mission, similar to Ghost Recon. The familiar point-and-command interface is back for you to control your team but unlike Ghost Recon 2, you can only control them as a group and not as individuals. However, you will have new room breaching options like blasting a door with a shotgun or ramming it with a breaching hammer.

The new HUD is also designed to make you feel as if you're really in the action rather than just controlling a pair of hands holding a gun. By looking at the world through a visor, you really do feel as if you are looking through someone's eyes Ц and cool visor effects like rain splatters, dust accumulation, or how it will occasionally steam up really adds to the effect. The visor will also crack as you take hits, something you definitely do not want to see.

Gunplay will also get a boost of realism: when looking down the sights of your gun, your vision will blur at the edges of the screen as you focus on your target; as well, gun recoil will be much more pronounced than before.

In previous versions, enemies essentially used the same AI, making their behaviors pretty predictable; in Lockdown, there will be three УtiersФ of enemy AI. The Militia are basic, untrained yahoos with guns Ц in other words, they'll be easy pickings. The Terrorists have some training, meaning they can work in groups, will duck behind obstacles and will hide in ambush. The top tier Mercenary has the same level of training and intelligence as Rainbow, so they will attempt flanking maneuvers, throw grenades (including flashbangs), and can clear out a room using the same tactics as you. The different levels of enemy AI will no doubt present some interesting challenges as you progress through the 14 single player missions, which have a more open design than in previous iterations Ц and as a result, have become more dangerous.

You will be able to replay the missions by yourself or up to four player cooperative via split-screen, System Link or Xbox Live. Terrorist Hunt returns from RS3, where your objective is simply to kill everything that moves. Reverse Terrorist Hunt is the same thing, except you play through the map from back to front. Black Arrow's Lone Rush mode is present as well, where you try to clear out terrorists by yourself and complete objectives like rescuing hostages within a certain time limit.