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Rogue Spear: Hands On Preview
by Bubba "MasterFung" Wolford
 

Sounds

Spectacular! Don't expect the Tango's to go down now without alerting their fellow buddies. Many times now when they are falling they start screeching in pain. This of course alerts their compadres that something is amiss and then they come to evaluate what is happening. If the Tango's showed up in singles that would be OK but often times they show up in groups of two or more and WORK IN COORDINATION TO HUNT YOU DOWN!

The Rain effects I talked about in the Kosovo map are almost downright scary. I found I was extremely jumpy while playing this one the first hundred times or so just due to the effects of the graphics and gloomy "environment" created by the rain.

Another thing I noticed is that many times while moving around through rooms you can hear the Tango's saying, "Huh?" or "Is someone there?" when they think they hear you moving around. Footprints have now become an even more important way to locate your opponent. 3D located effects are very well done.

Altering the male and female voice pitches was another new addition that Red Storm thinks will be a big hit with players. Make your man or woman scream in high or low pitch. Setting the voices to either extreme makes shooting someone a humorous event.

Artificial Intelligence

Even with all the new update features I have discussed above, I believe it is the AI that has made the most progress. WOW! No longer do your partners get in your way. No longer are the terrorists just sitting ducks all the time. When Tango's see one of their own go down they either run away immediately, duck down and look for you or run, hide and stalk you.

If it is a hostage mission, don't expect a terrorist to stand around and duke it out with your team if he is alone. This time around if the terrorist feels he is out-gunned, he will run and alert those terrorists holding the hostages that you are trying to rescue them. Unless you can run him down and gun him down before he makes it to alert his buddies, you are going to lose that mission.

Opera House

In the Opera house, this happened to me several times. A terrorist would run in a door, see me, turn around immediately and run straight toward the hostages and tell all his buddies to kill them. I always had to chase his butt down and "cap" him before he could get out of sight.

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Rogue Spear

Let me share some more examples of the AI at work. This particular example happened to me in the Kosovo map. A terrorist spotted me as he saw me dart through some buildings. He did not fire right away or come straight after me. Nope, he was smarter than that. He simply walked into a building doorway (knowing I was still used to the no-so-smart AI from Rainbow Six) and waited for me as he called for reinforcements.

When I saw him disappear from sight I was thinking, "This is going to be a cake walk. That Idiot did not even see me!" I strolled across the street (like I am so smart) and just walked right into that doorway. Well, to my great surprise there was my "Idiot" waiting for me with his weapon drawn and pointed right at the door. He had set up an ambush! Just as he fired three more terrorists came running through the door with their weapons already pointed straight ahead. SHOOT, that never happened in the original!!!

One point from the original that used to get me really irritated was when the terrorists would simply look at you and then you were dead. They never aimed or raised their weapons. They would smoke cigarettes and kill you all within a split second. That glitch is no more! Now all the terrorists react like humans. Drawing their weapons, aiming, and firing realistically. Dying has never been better!

Another very cool change is the way the terrorists die. They never seem to fall the same way twice. Sometimes they fall flat on their faces, other times they fall to their knees, and then fall over. Sometimes they fall backwards. It is totally varied now and often times quite humorous.

Not only do they not fall the same way they also start in more dynamic positions. Playing the same map twice in a row almost guarantees that the terrorists will be in different places.

In fact, most will move around constantly unless they are guarding hostages. Clearing an area does not mean it is safe the next time you pass through. A wandering terrorist may enter the area, see his fellow terrorists down and stalk you from the rear!

Go to Part Four: Multiplayer

 

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