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RAINBOW SIX 3
Sound: 10
Gameplay: 9
Value: 10
Reviewer's Tilt: 10
Overall: 9.4
First of all you are getting one tough and lengthy campaign with a dozen or so missions for you to enjoy. When you finish that, you can load up any of these maps and do a custom mission with them. For example you can have a terrorist hunt in the garage level, or improve your tactics in a practice mission in the Alpine level. Getting tired of playing by yourself? Why not go on Xbox Live and get up to 16 players going against each other in survival mode? Want to play co-op? No problem. You can choose to play terrorist hunt or you can actually do your story-scripted missions with up to 4 players. By now you can already figure out that this is a must-own without me evening mentioning the downloadable maps.
The gameplay of Rainbow Six 3 is similar to Ghost Recon, only in urban environments. It's not the one-shot kill game style that we saw in Ghost Recon, so if you are a newcomer to the tactical shooter genre, Rainbow Six 3 is a good place to start. My favorite part of this game is choosing the perfect weapon for killing your enemies. If you play this online (which you absolutely must), you may find that the G3A3 is good for long range shooting, but you will want to stick with the TAR-21 in close range fights. Or maybe you want to clear out a room with a grenade launcher (if the server allows you to). There are all these weapons for you to choose from and you'll probably never find the "perfect one." In case you're wondering though, I love the M4, the AUG and the TAR-21.
The graphics in Rainbow Six 3 are mostly incredible. The bloom lighting effects carried over from Splinter Cell are present in this and almost any UbiSoft game. The curtains, sheets and chains move when you walk through them...blah blah. It's Splinter Cell in first person. And it works. Remember the thermal vision you had in Splinter Cell? Well it's here and you will constantly be using it. It's a wonderful thing to have when you're in a cloud of smoke picking people off. You'll notice all sorts of subtle details in this game. Water dripping from the sewers in Alcatraz, frost on windows, and an awesome flashbang grenade effect. The textures themselves might not be incredibly detailed, but in a weird sort of way, it makes the game look better. You'll see what I mean.
The audio is just as great, if not better, than the graphics. The guns sound impressive and sometimes scary. Hearing the AUG start blasting through the halls is a pretty intense experience, especially if you're receiving the bullets. The voice acting is done really well in the cutscenes (even though the volume is too low!) and the terrorists all have voices unique to the region. The music works well; it's not used much but when it is, it's very effective.
So there you have it. Buy Rainbow Six 3 right now if you haven't already. It's an addictive game that is sure to please any shooter fans, regardless if they have Xbox Live or not. This game is great to have for offline play (unlike Counter-Strike) but online is where it's really at. My highest recommendation.