The demo I received had 3 scenarios on it: a congo mission, an embassy takedown and an amusement park takedown. I started at the top with the embassy takedown and let me tell you something, this game is lethal! You get shot at, you die. This ain't Quake, so this one may take gamers a bit of getting used to. Once you make that adjustment it's very immersive. It's rare a game has my hands sweating at the keyboard from adrenaline, but this one did it.

Before each mission you're walked through some audio briefings as well as given access to background information on any pertinent people and places involved in the upcoming mission. From there you pick and choose your 8 men OR women from a pool of available operatives, a basic equipment kit is set for you or you can customize to fit your tactics. From different degrees of body armor to MP5's to shotguns and flashbangs and frag grenades, whatever you need is in the weapons inventory so you won't come up shy.

You then assign members to different elements : Blue, Red, Gold and Green. You can assign people as you see fit. You can create 4 two man teams or 2 four man teams or any other combination you desire.

Once you've set up your elements you then go to the planning phase where you set up waypoints on a mission "blueprint" screen. You have complete flexibility here in this screen and can decide not only where your people go but how they get there and their actions at each point.

Movement is done in Safety mode, Normal or Blitz. In safety mode your men walk in an almost shuffle step manner, being very stealthy and cautious. In normal mode they continue to move, weapons at low ready scanning for targets but movement is faster. In blitz mode... well your guys Blitz! You use this when speed is essential and security is not your major concern, this is great when dashing from one point to another over open ground. You can also order your men to Clear, Engage or Escort through each waypoint. Escort is for when you need to escort a hostage out, issue this order and the element will take the hostage to the waypoint you have chosen.

You also have actions you can specify at each waypoint. For example when entering a room you can tell a team to wait for a "Go Code" and once that's given they flashbang the room and clear it. The Go Codes are a really nice way to control what otherwise can be better called the controlled anarchy of a hostage rescue. Let's take a walk through the congo mission to give you an example of how a mission works.

I've chosen my men and used the basic inventory for my loadout, set up my waypoints and go codes and we're all set to rock-n-roll. The mission starts out in a dimly lit jungle, somewhere deep in the congo where we've been sent to rescue some high ranking WHO official. Seems some Hutu rebels have taken her hostage and we've gotta go get her back.

We hit the ground running. I have my 8 man team broken into two elements, Blue and Red, as there are two hostages to get back and we need to do this quickly and quietly so as not to alert anyone to our presence. I'm in the lead of the Red element and Ding Chavez is in charge of Blue.

I rush my guys through the dense foliage of the jungle switching on my night vision as I go, scanning for targets. Blue is moving behind me and will hit the first building to our front and from there move stealthily forward. I come around the first building and notice 2 walking sentries, so I drop into a crouch and switch to my silenced pistol and hit 'S' for Sniper mode.

I'm now getting a nice close up view of the bad guys. I wait til they're far enough apart and then with a quick succession of shots I double tap them both, dropping them silently. I then move further along the building and spy another contact, but so does Blue and I hear the radio call confirming this. "Contact…." followed by a quick silenced burst of H&K fire, "Got him!" Blue then rushes forward to the cellar opening awaiting my signal.

While they await my signal I rush Red team forward to the far end of the building. En route I notice movement off to my left. I quickly spin, drop into a crouch and let loose two 3 round bursts into 2 new terrorists who've dropped in to check on the sound of gunfire they've heard. I continue my move up to the outer door of the house. I get a radio call "in position" from Ding, letting me know they're set. With both teams set I do a quick once over on my map and check to see where the terrorists are moving. Satisfied, I start opening the door and give go code "Alpha, GO!"

From there Blue team tosses a flashbang into the cellar and waits for it to go off before descending and unleashing a hail of 3 round bursts into the tangos down below. Meanwhile I move into the hallway and toss a flashbang down towards a couple of tangos. I immediately duck into a room to my left as I toss the grenade. I quickly notice and engage a tango in the same room before moving to the far end and back into the hallway. Once there my team engages 3 more tangos milling about in the hallway, who a moment before were smoking and joking, but are now reeling from the effects of my flashbang.

All the while this is going on I am constantly being fed sitreps over my headset from Blue; "contact, got him…. Tango down." "Tango down" this and the staccato bursts of silenced small arms fire play a steady background soundtrack as the mission unfolds. Once I hear a chorus of stage whispered "Clear" signals it's time for "Go Code Bravo." I move my team up the stairs to follow on Blue as they sweep the second floor ahead of us.

I call "Bravo, Go!" and watch as Blue moves into motion up the stairs and into the rooms, only dealing with one tango as I lead Red up and to the right toward the last known position of our hostage. I see the hostage on her knees, hands on top of her head in standard prisoner fashion. I enter the room and see a tango standing guard over her. I fire on him but my shots miss; his are true and he drops me without a second thought. The rest of my team takes him down as I see the world go spinning out of control as I fall to the ground. From here I am treated to a view of a pool of my virtual blood as it spills on the floor, I can almost feel the pain of the hits.

I switch over to the next man of the Red element and switch them to Escort mode, the hostage complies and gets to her feet. In my new identity I call "Go Code Charlie and watch as Blue heads back into the basement to get the other hostage, and they head out in a Blitz toward the extraction point. I in turn lead the remaining members of Red out and into the jungle to the extraction point with our "precious cargo" in tow.

Sounds almost like a movie or a book the way these missions play out, doesn't it? It should, coming from the master of the military techno-thrillers Tom Clancy and his software team ad Redstorm Entertainment. The book is out on shelves today, August 3, and the game should be out by months end. The game plays very well even in its demo form, though there are still some areas that need improving in the game in the way of AI and pathfinding. I'm confident Redstorm will have these done by release time.

Rainbow Six is a real groundbreaker for first person sims and I think it will finally give first person shooters some respect. Unlike the Unreal's and Quake's which are quite fun but are simply arcade games, this game is an unprecedented true to life sim. The graphics are top notch and the movement animations are both fluid and eerily lifelike, making you feel like you are right in the thick of things.

Stay tuned for the full review later this month!