Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 [Xbox & PS2] - Impression

Written by MuadDib:

In Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 You play as Ding Chavez, leader of an elite international anti-terrorist unit code-named Rainbow. Your mission is to neutralize the terrorists and save the world.

You don't go save the world alone, the realty is harsh, there are 3 other member in your team, Eddie Price, Louis Loiselle and Dieter Weber, to back you up. Your Boss, John Clark, gives you your mission and activities from headquarters.

Rainbow Six 3 (short RS3) is an FPS (First Person Shooter) released by the publisher Ubisoft and developed by Red Storm Entertainment. Fans of the original franchise will know that RS3 us the console port of it's PC counterpart, RS3:Raven Shield. However the Xbox and PS2 version of the game played much more differently than it's PC cousin.

The main differences are : You only control one team, you can not choose different memebers for your team, the levels resemble their PC counterparts but were redesigned specifically for the Xbox and PS2, RS3 is semi-realistic compared to the PC version and lastly, but not the least, the xbox and PS2 version supports voice recognition support.

The baics of RS3 is pretty much likeother fps in the market, what differentiate it from other fps is that it is a squad-based tatical shooter. Unlike other fps where you can go all gun blazing, but RS3 requires you to be more stealth, cooperate with teammates and know how to command your team effectively.

RainbowSix 3 is my first try on tatical shooter and I find it difficult to master, even on the easiest skill level, those darn Terrorists really can give you a headache, and on higher difficultiy settings you'll find yourself having a tough time surving the first few minutes of a mission. But regardless of all the frustration it may cause, I find RS3 very compelling and fun to play.

The controls are pretty tight and very reponsive and is easy to pick up. RS3 features an intellignet reticle system that allows you to issue squadmembers with orders corresponding to the object the reticle is pointing at. Even better if you have a headset you can give vocal command rather pressing buttons. One thing though, is you have to try and talk in American accent otherwise your AI teamates will have troubles understanding you.

The level of details in RS3 lacked some of the "WOW!!" element of games like Splinter Cell. But still the visual is impressive, the weapon models, character models and Enviroments are painstakingly detailed. The special effects such as flashbang, teargas and night vision never cease to amaze me. And my favourite is the use of dynamic lighting effect sort of like the visual effect you see in splinter cell where when you move toward the light source your shadows looked larger and when you move away it becomes smaller. The ragdoll physics doew their job nicely but too often the corpse felt like boneless when they drop dead, and too bad the enviroment are not very interactive like those in Half-life 2.

The PS2 version looked some what uglier than the Xbox Version, but managed to look just as good, however the sacrifice is that the levels are a lot smaller and are split into 2 sections. It also lacked ragdoll physics seen in the Xbox and PC version.

The game offers 14 mission, 15 for PS2 version, of Single player campaign with plenty of intresting objectives to accomplish, some may get abit repetitive, and some fierce firefights to fall into. Some serious downside of the game is that the position of the terrorist and hostage in the campaign mode are fixed, this has a serious impact on the games replayability. Another is the AI, I find the Terrorist AI very dumb, sometimes they will try to take you down on their own and never bother to worn others, other times they may use hostages as human shield but that is as smart as they get. On the otherhand your teamate AI are a lot ( and I mean "A lot" better!!) than the Terrorists.

In terms of multiplayer the XBox version supports co'op with 3 other players online, deathmatch and team deathmatch of up to 16 player online. While the PS2 version only supports up to 6 player online and only supports deathmatch, team deathmatch and elimination.

Overall:
Despite having a long learning curve and some serious AI issues Rainbow Six 3 is still an excellent game, not a perfect game by all means, but if you are looking for a serious tatical squad shooter this is definitly the game I would reccomend.
　

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