Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

By: Kirk Hiner

Genre: Action/Strategy

Format: CD

Developer: Red Storm Entertainment, Varcon Systems, Inc.

Publisher: MacSoft

Minimum Requirements: 200 MHz PowerPC 604, 275MB hard disk space, 64MB RAM, CD-ROM, Rage Pro 3D hardware accelerator with support for OpenGL

Network Feature: Yes

3Dfx Support: Rave and Glide

Retail Price: $44.89

Availability: Out Now

I've never been much of a fan of Tom Clancy's books. It's not that I don't like them, I've just never read any. I've never even seen The Hunt for Red October, for that matter. I wanted to, and was planning on taking my girlfriend Kathy to see it, but she suddenly swerved me stating she'd rather see Iron Eagle II. This struck me as odd because I know she hated the first Iron Eagle, despite "One Vision." I would soon learn that she'd already seen The Hunt for Red October with some guy named Jimmy.

Jimmy.

So perhaps it's because of the association with being dumped that I've never checked out Tom Clancy's works. For that, I'm sorry, Tom. Blame Kathy. But I do have some good news. Courtesy of MacSoft, I've finally given one of your products a try. And high school girlfriends be damned, Rainbow Six is excellent.

Well, mostly excellent. This game is not for everyone, but then, what game ever is? I know of some that are for absolutely no one, but never the opposite. I think the distinction can be made this way; if you'd rather read one of Clancy's books than see the movie based on the book, then you'll enjoy Rainbow Six.

Although it's a first-person shooter at heart, Rainbow Six extends quite a way beyond that. Imagine if Duke Nukem had to choose only a couple of weapons before starting a new level, had a pool of soldiers from which he could solicit help, had to study his enemies before facing them, and had to carefully plan and execute his attack to complete the mission with minimum casualties and pinpoint accuracy, and you've got the basic idea behind Rainbow Six.

And oh yeah...no clever catch phrases. Sorry Duke. Sorry Lo Wang. Sorry practically every first-person shooter on the market.

Nope, Rainbow Six is all about realism, and it's a refreshing change. As fun as running around Egyptian tombs fragging space miners can be, sometimes I like my animated violence with a more civilized edge. In games where I can take multiple hits and where health packs abound, my strategy tends to be quite simple; confuse the enemies by running straight at them. If that doesn't work, confuse them even further by typing in the invincibility cheat code.

In Rainbow Six, there are no health packs, one bullet can kill, and I have yet to find any cheat codes. So how does one survive? With the three Ps; planning, patience and...praining. Luckily, the praining (that's FBI code for "training," I'm told) section of Rainbow Six is quite extensive. The difficulty ranges from climbing up and down a ladder to clearing terrorists out of a three story office complex and rescuing the hostages (not all that different from Safety Town, really). Training also teaches you how to control your team, which is helpful for two reasons. First, because most missions in Rainbow Six cannot be completed with just one member or even one team, and second, because the manual offers practically no instruction on how to do this. Instead, the manual asks that you "see ready reference card for details" on how to perform a basic function. This card is actually the CD jewel case liner, so make sure you keep that handy.

The planning phase of Rainbow Six is, of course, the most important part of the mission. So naturally, it's also the most difficult and probably boring. This is the part where the Quake III: Arena and Unreal Tournament diehards will lose interest. But to strategists, this is the meat. After being briefed on the personalities, organizations and locations involved, it's up to you to pick which personnel will execute the mission. Each member comes with his/her own strengths and weaknesses, of course, and it's your responsibility to outfit him/her accordingly. Pick their uniforms, choose their weapons...it's dress-up for mercenaries. G.I. Joe as paper doll, counterterroist Barbie.

Once you've got your team selected and outfitted with the latest in weaponry (at least I assume it is...I've never actually fired anything more solid than a BB gun), it's time to plan the mission. You're provided with a blueprint of the building that shows the location of the terrorists and of important landmarks (bombs you must diffuse, hostages...stuff like that). You then guide your teams through the building, setting up waypoints for them to hit. You can change their objective between waypoints, ordering them to clear out the area, pass through undetected, escort hostages, etc. And finally, a team can be ordered to stop at a certain point to await your orders. This affords other teams the opportunity to finish a task before the mission proceeds.

Keep in mind that those are just the basics. But just like within the game, I'm getting impatient and want to hop into the action.

You can execute the mission in either first or third person point of view. Quite often, switching back and forth between the two is the most effective method. And like with most first person action games these days, a combination of mouse/keyboard control is the best way to go. You'll need the precision of the mouse for better movement and aiming, although an auto aim feature is available.

The gameplay in Rainbow Six is considerably different from normal action fare. Enemies often drop with one shot, but so do you and your team. Staying hidden and waiting for the right time to attack are the keys to survival (and provide the most nerve wracking moments of the game), as is knowing when to not attack at all. I'm also happy to report that the AI of your team members is the best I've seen. If you fire and miss, they will hit. Quite often, your teammates will kill an enemy before you even know he's there. That's good to know if you're busy planting explosive devices or waiting to pick off a guard.

The graphics of Rainbow Six are certainly up to today's standards. They won't turn the same heads that Unreal Tournament currently has spinning 'round and 'round, but this game is more about substance than flash. This is especially good news for those with older Macs or Macs without very good graphics cards. Gameplay doesn't suffer if it doesn't look pretty.

So if you're the type who just loves to run around and kill everything that moves, you'd best stay away from Rainbow Six. Actually, you could take advantage of the multiplayer capabilities and still run around and kill everything that moves, but there are other games tailored specifically to that purpose. Rainbow Six is aimed at the strategist who likes a little action as well. If you've ever played Myth and wished you could join the fray from the point of view of an archer, then Rainbow Six will not disappoint. Well, except that there are no archers to be controlled. I'm afraid the bow and arrow just don't get much use from government operatives these days.

Oh, and I'd be wrong to not point out that MacSoft built the Eagle Watch Mission Pack into the game. Once again, what the PC users had to pay for, we get for free. Thanks MacSoft. Now where's that Operation Kathy's A Skank mission pack I've been hoping for?

I'm really not bitter about losing Kathy, I'm just still not over how bad Iron Eagle II was.

.

February 09, 2010