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> Results: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
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The Best Rainbow Yet, Go-Go-GO!
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is to Red Storm what the Tomb Raider franchise is to Eidos. If it weren't for Rainbow Six and its iterations, there might not be a Red Storm today. Red Storm produced some creative but flawed titles like Politika and Ruthless.com, some stinkers like Freedom, some mediocre titles like Bang! Gunship Elite and Force 21, some underrated titles like SSN and Shadow Watch, and perhaps wisely canceled a project called Planet Texas. But it was Rainbow Six that put them on the map, it's Rainbow Six everyone thinks of when they hear "Red Storm," and it's fitting that the third and latest generation of the franchise is also the best.  Raven Shield (what are they going to do when they run out of "RS" combinations?) is easy to misdiagnose at first glance as more of the same, as the core game and interface remain largely unchanged from Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear. Players still play a series of missions with command of counter-terrorist commandos, creating a tactical plan for each mission, and then executing it in the form of a first-person shooter. As you play, however, you notice several tweaks that are individually mild but collectively powerful in thoroughly improving the product. When Rogue Spear was the height of the series, it rightfully took a back seat to Sierra's SWAT 3 in teammate artificial intelligence. Rogue Spear's operatives were good at following a plan, but didn't always watch your back well, couldn't adapt to a dynamically changing situation, and players had limited control of them in the tactical mode. That's all changed in Raven Shield. Now your team follows the plan, but they can be given direct orders during the action. You can direct them to move to a certain spot or to open a door and clear the room behind it. They're still limited; if one of the teams in a multiple team operation completely dies during a mission, the other teams don't know how to compensate to finish it without your direct input. But since you're normally always going to be involved in the action, this is an issue you can work around. The team members are still excellent shots and have now improved their rear guard techniques, so you can manage action at the point and confidently know that the guy in back is doing his job.  Other minor enhancements do an excellent job of rounding the game. The beefed up visuals add tremendous detail and depth, the ability to slowly open doors an inch at a time while peeking around them gives players a more cautious option and better chance of survival, and refined modeling of weapon stability and handling gives each weapon a personality. Even something as simple as the way dead bodies fall can make a difference. When one of my operatives died on a mission, I was entering the room she was shot in from a different direction. Seeing the blood splatter pattern and how her body slumped against the wall told me where the danger came from and what direction I should be watching. The Raven Shield experience is clearly a much deeper and more fulfilling one than that of its predecessors. Raven Shield adds several new maps and weapons to the franchise's arsenal, though the basic gameplay modes remain the same. The campaign is a linear tour through the new maps with a story backing them that I suspect most players will simply ignore. The extra play modes from the earlier game are back, including the terrorist hunt and the suspenseful lone wolf modes. Of course, Raven Shield supports multiplayer gaming, but its anti-copy protection scheme that causes maddening problems for LAN gamers.  There are some oddities and disappointments in the game outside of the copy protection hassles. After three generations of Rainbow Six, players expecting new game modes will have to wait for the Athena Sword expansion pack. I also witnessed some 3D modeling sloppiness in a few places. I used to think the game modeled bullet penetration through doors and walls, but couldn't confirm that in playing. The only time I could shoot someone behind a door was if I could see his legs churning through it as if he was stuck trying to open it. I wasn't sure if this was because the bullets penetrated the door or because the collision detection failed and thought there wasn't a door there. But that's a pretty small nit to be harping on in an otherwise fine action game. Kid Factor: No way. Sorry, but it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that this one is to be kept from the little ones. There are gunshots everywhere, blood pools, splatter patterns, dead bodies...you get the idea. The mentally balanced adult that needs a little break from the daily churn of quiet desperation might find taking out virtual terrorists a nice bit of cheap therapy, but that's ok because come morning the unyielding presence of work, taxes, mortgage payments, insurance costs, idiots that drive, and real terrorists are there to center them. Kids don't have that and don't need any help from you to speed up their passing of innocence. For that they've got TV and their peers. Do your part and wait until they're teens and can prove they're not out for Darwin awards before you let them at this one. GamerDad's Take One other thing to consider, re: Teens playing. Rainbow Six does go a long way toward encouraging strategy, teamplay, and even a bit of research. Your teen will have to wade through information, come up with a plan of attack, execute it and hopefully keep his team alive. The other benefit is that the game encourages rescuing innocent people. It might be a violent game, but you could say that its heart-monitor is in the right place. Ages: 14+ ESRB Rating: Mature Producer: Ubi Soft Developer: Red Storm Entertainment 
No way. Sorry, but it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone that this one is to be kept from the little ones. There are gunshots everywhere, blood pools, splatter patterns, dead bodies...you get the idea. The mentally balanced adult that needs a little break from the daily churn of quiet desperation might find taking out virtual terrorists a nice bit of cheap therapy, but that's ok because come morning the unyielding presence of work, taxes, mortgage payments, insurance costs, idiots that drive, and real terrorists are there to center them. Kids don't have that and don't need any help from you to speed up their passing of innocence. For that they've got TV and their peers. Do your part and wait until they're teens and can prove they're not out for Darwin awards before you let them at this one.
Kid Factor by Bernie Dy
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