Platform:
Xbox Genre: Tactical Shooter Publisher: Ubi Soft
Developer:
Red Storm Entertainment ESRB: M (Mature) Released: Q4 2003
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Tom
Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3
Score:
9.0 / 10
Pros:
- Amazing Xbox Live gameplay
- Improved squad command features, including voice commands
- Better graphics than either Ghost Recon title
Cons:
- Single-player game doesn’t measure up to online game
- For an M-rated title, headshots aren’t as bloodily satisfying as
they could be
- Some weapons aren’t very effective in online play
"The
third time’s the charm for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series."
For
Xbox owners looking for the ultimate tactical shooting games, look no
further than the Tom Clancy lineup of titles from Ubisoft: Splinter
Cell, Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, and the newest and best
of them all, Rainbow Six 3. While Splinter Cell may be the best-looking
of the bunch and the two Ghost Recon can stand on their own merits, the
balanced combination of a solid single-player game with an incredibly
entertaining online gaming environment places Rainbow Six 3
headshots-and-shoulders above not only its own crowd, but everybody
else’s in the growing tactical shooting genre.
Gameplay
focuses more on enclosed indoor environments as compared to the Ghost
Recon games, which targeted on the strategy of tactical outdoor jungle,
beach and urban area fighting. In Rainbow Six 3 you’re not battling
against guerilla armies this time, you’re chasing and striking at a
clandestine network of terrorists, which requires more stealth and
gunfights in confined spaces with hostage’s lives at risk in a
gameplay style closer to Splinter Cell than the Ghost Recon titles.
Although this is the same type of squad-based tactical shooter in its
single-player game as the Ghost Recon titles, how you issue commands to
your squad has been revamped for the better in a few different ways.
First, instead of commanding your squad by first going to the map menu
(as seen in Ghost Recon and Island Thunder), now you can point your
reticule to where you want them to move, hit the corresponding command
button, and they will move. No more issuing orders from a map without
seeing the terrain or environment you are sending your team into. Now
you have to complete visual bearings on where they are headed.
And it isn’t only the “move” command that’s at your disposal.
You can order them to cover, open doors and clear the room, regroup,
climb, and hold their position. Whatever the current in-game situation
calls for, you can order your team to do. And these commands are very
important, because the key to completing missions in the single-player
mode is to make your team do all the work while you stay in the shadows,
so to speak, and devise the correct strategy to beat the terrorists.
But the most ambitious addition to Rainbow Six 3’s order commands is
the ability to use your Xbox Live headset to issue verbal commands to
the A.I. squad members. The inclusion of the voice commands in the
single-player portion of the game was a great idea, but it is a bit on
the uneven side in its actual application during playing sessions,
particularly when it comes to the “move” edict. If you order the
squad to open and clear a room, it works practically every time. But
when it comes to the “move” order, the bread-and-butter command
you’ll use, the A.I. has an anarchistic approach to accepting the
order of not. It’s a great idea to have voice commands in the game,
but it needs to be refined a bit more in any future titles in the Tom
Clancy lineup before it can earn raves.
You won’t get any argument from me when it comes to debating if
Rainbow Six 3 merits its “Mature” rating. This is small-scale war
you’re involved in, and killing and being killed produces bloody
casualties. But I felt a bit of a letdown when it came to eliminating
terrorists with a clean headshot . Maybe I’m just too bloodthirsty,
but I know I’m not alone is enjoying a lot of crimson carnage in my
wargames. Rainbow Six 3 has its share, but it can’t come close to
Counter-Strike’s bloodbath or even the cranium-exploding headshots of
the much inferior Solider of Fortune II: Double Helix.
Splinter Cell set a gold standard for visuals. Sam Fisher’s adventures
where dramatically enhanced with out-of-this-world graphics, including
ridiculously realistic lighting effects. While not quite the overall
quality of Splinter Cell’s amazing visual presentation, Rainbow Six 3
is much better looking than the Ghost Recon titles and is definitely
enhanced to a new level by those same wonderful Splinter Cell lighting
effects (albeit on a lesser scale) that actually influence your gameplay
options and decisions while hunting terrorists through environments with
little light sources to guide you.
Yet another stellar visual effect is when you’re unfortunate enough to
get caught in the path of a flash grenade or worse, a tear gas grenade
without a gas mask. A flash grenade will blind you and let any nearby
enemies pick you off. Gas will produce a realistic disorienting visual
effect. You will have blurred vision, and moving around only makes
matters worse, for it’s impossible to gauge your true sense of
direction until you get away from the gas’ ground zero area and clear
your head. If you’re lucky, you will avoid any enemies until the
effects of the gas wear off, but usually (especially online) your head
will clear from the bullet that’s just passed through your skull.
Sound
effects play a big part in Rainbow Six 3. In single-player missions,
enemies making noise can alert you to their presence. You’ll also be
able to judge how far away or close an enemy is from your position based
on the volume of the gunfire and explosions relative to your position.
Speaking
of guns, Rainbow Six 3 has the expected arsenal of terrorist-killing
rifles, machine guns, and pistols as well as supporting incendiary
devices. There is also thermal and night vision goggles you can use in
the nighttime and hard-to-see levels, where danger could be around any
dark corner.
Most rifles have scopes of varying magnifications that make killing the
opposition a lot easier. But when it comes to online action, many of
these weapons are useless if you have any ambitions of winning because
of low accuracy rates or too much recoil. My advice is to find a good
reliable weapon of your liking and stick with it through Xbox Live
gaming to have any chance of success.
The single-player game and its storyline of hunting terrorists creates
an enjoyable gaming experience. But as good as Rainbow Six 3 is as a
single-player tactical shooter, it is spectacular online for those Xbox
owners with Xbox Live. If you were on the fence about signing up for
Xbox Live, Rainbow Six 3 will push you onto the side of the fence of
willing subscribers. This is without a doubt Xbox Live’s best
shooter-style title right now.
There are plenty of online modes in Rainbow Six 3: team-based, solo, or
even co-op mission modes, where you play missions from the single-player
game online with other team members. You can customize what weapons are
available, if re-spawning is allowed, time limits, and a bunch of other
options, so you can set up the game the way you want to play. No matter
what online mode you choose, Rainbow Six 3 is seamlessly smooth online
with almost no lag whatsoever and 16 players running around killing each
other on a good and well-devised selection of levels is a great online
time that not many games can match.
The third time’s the charm for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series.
Rainbow Six 3’s has the complete package for shooting game fans,
especially those that have Xbox Live as part of their Xbox gaming
arsenal. This is the best online shooting experience available today,
including the recently-released Xbox translation of the PC sensation
Counter-Strike.
