We've all heard the hype surrounding this game, (I know I've been one of the outspoken ones). If you haven't - well, good morning, here's your coffee, it's about time you woke up!

Redstorm Entertainment has released a game that is most worthy of being placed under the heading of the Master of the military techno-thrillers Tom Clancy, titled "Rainbow Six."

Having been a Clancy fan since the first pages of Hunt for Red October, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the new novel that is centered on John Clark and Domingo Chavez (two of my favorite characters.) Once I found out that there was to a PC title to go along with the book, I was a bit skeptical it could be pulled off. We've all seen the first person shooters that are on the market today, and those of us who prefer realism over fantasy have been left high and dry.

At the start of this year we were given another very good title, Spec Ops, which was an action game based on realism. Subordinating some aspects of reality (health for example) for the sake of playability, Zombie brought us a very entertaining game. It gave us our first look at the face of "ground pounder" simulations we will see coming our way and was a groundbreaker for a new era of first person shooters.

Redstorm Leads The Way

Now Redstorm has done what I felt was impossible: they've made a realistic sim with very few concessions, and pulled it off quite successfully. Basing this game strictly around real world CT (counter terror) ops, unit compositions and tactics, you can now get a taste for what's involved in these daring rescues. Be aware though, this is NOT your typical first person shooter but a first person tactical simulation, and as such there will be a much steeper learning curve than you're used to. If Zombie's Spec Ops was a ground breaker, Rainbow Six is the foundation upon which other realistic first person shooters can build.

At E3 I got my first taste of Rainbow Six, a simulation that has you leading a multi-national anti-terrorist unit as they navigate through 16 harrowing missions that follow as intricate a plotline as the Clancy novel. The press blurb on the Redstorm site says "play as if 5.7 billion lives depend on it" and as you uncover the dramatic story underlying the game you'll understand that this is no understatement.

The game has you running through as varied an assortment of missions as you would expect for a unit of this type. From straight up hostage rescue to covert surveillance, it's all here, there are even missions where the use of deadly force is NOT authorized and you are forced to rely on stealth alone for entry and exit to the objective area.

As I stated earlier when I first heard about this game I thought "another 'counter terror team' game, oh no..." I thought this would be another game that uses the premise of real world tactics, but quickly dissolves into a typical action shooter where success is attained only through quick fingers on the keyboard and the use of the circle strafe. My fears were quickly halted when I had a preview at E3, the best demo I saw there by far. The game caused my jaw to hit the floor rather abruptly (thank God it was in a carpeted area and my jaw was padded against its hasty discovery of Newton's law.)

Last week I got the Gold master and when I saw Redstorm Entertainment on the label I ripped the package open with reckless abandon, ran to my PC, and willed my computers boot process to end quickly. I then popped Rainbow Six into the CD tray and installed it while I perused the accompanying game manual. Once installed I was treated to a very cool intro video that was done completely from within the game engine itself. All the terrorist takeovers and Rainbow takedowns use no actors but real game character animations- further evidence of the care with which Redstorm has developed this game.

Having already played through the demo I decided to jump right into the action and start a campaign, not heeding the warning in the manual regarding proper training. (I got humbled real quick and went on to the training missions afterwards.)

The first mission is the same embassy takedown in the demo, so I felt it would be no mystery to me and I tried it on Elite mode. The final version of this mission is much better than the demo version. As I mentioned above I gained some humility and headed back to the Rainbow training grounds at Hereford for some practice before continuing further.

The training missions are broken down into four "skill sets"; Fire and Movement, Room Clearing, Hostage Rescue and Open Training. Each of these skill sets is further broken down into 6 training missions where the outcome of each does not affect the campaign you're in or will play through.

Examples of some of the training missions are an obstacle course to get you used to your movement controls, and how to open doors and climb ladders. There are shooting ranges where you can engage paper and steel targets at varying distances to fam fire your weapons and also hone your shooting skills. There is single and double room clearing, and single and two story hostage rescue culminating in Open Training where you will face a hodgepodge of different missions drawn from the other skill sets. Overall, the training is well done and an important part of running a successful team as well as increasing your skills for multiplay scenarios.

In Depth Planning

Pre-mission planning for these types of operations is a very in depth and complex affair. Hats off to RSE for creating a pretty complex and very powerful planning interface for the gamer to use to choreograph the 'death dance' you will undertake when entering your missions. Your missions break down into several phases and you should pay strict attention to each if you wish to keep your team alive and accomplish your objectives with minimal loss of friendlies.

PHASES:

Briefing: You are given a brief oral and text overview of your mission objectives along with some slides of your target. You need to pay attention here as to what your objectives are as you can easily overlook them in the desire to get on with the action, so the briefing is not just fluff. You are then briefed by the principal character John Clark (Rainbow 'Six' - using the military acronym for commander) and he will give you some further background to flesh out the plot as well as explain your ROE. Some missions will have extra briefings from other major characters to the plotline that will give you more information to help you deal with new threats.

Intel Phase: This gives you background information on individuals and organizations you will be facing or who have a direct input to the storyline. You can glean some extra info from these files that will assist you in knowing what you're dealing with as well as also furthering the plotline.

Roster Selection: Here's where you pick and choose from a pool of Rainbow operatives who will go on the mission. Each person (there are both male and female operatives) has their own distinct and unique stats, bios and history. Study these carefully to make sure you choose the right man or woman for the job, as well as pay attention to their status as they can become fatigued as missions go by. A fatigued soldier is not going to be as sharp as a well rested one and can be a danger to both himself and the team he's assigned to.

Kit Selection: Where you get to pick and choose your toys to go romping and stomping with. Here you have access to anything you'll need to accomplish the objectives. You'll need to choose both a primary and secondary weapon as well as fill 2 more slots with further equipment or weapons. Primary weapons range from the H&K MP5 (in various versions both silenced and standard) to CAR-15, M-16A2, and Benelli Tactical 12-Guage.

Secondary weapon choices range from H&K .45, Beretta 9mm and H&K .40 all in standard or silenced modes. Extra equipment for your other 2 slots range from lockpick kits, to demo kits and heartbeat sensors (a sweet gadget) to flashbangs and frag grenades. In Kit Selection you will also choose your uniform, and those choices range from woodland to standard HRT black coming in various forms of protection of either light, medium or heavy. You can easily set up one kit and select Outfit All to assign the same kit to each team member and save yourself time. Once your team is outfitted you move to the Team Assignment screen where you assign characters to individual elements of Blue, Red, Green and Gold designations. You can promote characters to different spots in the element up to leader. This is important as it's the lead position you will command individual teams from and you'll of course want the best character placed in the lead.

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Now you're ready for the meat of the preparation by going to the Planning Phase, from here you will get your first look at blueprints for your objective and assign waypoints and actions. The blueprint screen gives you a standard blueprint of your objective which can be viewed in both flat or 3D mode. This helps when trying to use your minds eye to plot out movements and assessing how to use the terrain to your advantage, as well as plotting where the tangos can use it to their advantage.

The blueprint map view also offers a zoom in and zoom out feature, and the ability to pan the map around to view from any angle you wish. The only thing missing here is the ability to do a first person perspective view as all views are only top down (not a major issue it might have been a helpful addition). Or even a virtual walkthrough similar to the sand table mock ups sometimes used for missions like these. Demanding ain't I?! :)

Two sections on the left of the planning phase screen give you further options: Recon and Orders. Recon allows you to see the last known spots for terrorists as well as their disposition, whether they are static guards, roving sentries etc., and are color coded as X's to reflect just that. You can also see where hostages are reported to be located along with landmarks you need to be aware of like insertion and extraction points, entries and exits and possible choke points that make for great ambush locations.

The Orders section allows you to issue your individual orders to each team, giving waypoints, methods of movement and actions at each waypoint. Movement modes are Blitz, Normal and Safety and ROE are Clear, Engage, Advance and Escort. Each mode reflects different team dispositions and helps you keep the integrity and safety of both the team and the escorted hostages.

Special Actions at each waypoint can be either Breach Door, Flash Bang Room or Frag Room so as to allow you a great deal of flexibility in giving individual team assignments. Each can be controlled by a Go Code (up to four Go Codes are available for coordinating your attacks) or done dynamically and continually until the unit is either dead or combat ineffective. If your teams take too many casualties they can "break" and not continue with their orders as team AI does morale checks to reflect real human behavior.

Waypoints can be easily scrolled through using a VCR like interface and edited on the fly or after you've plotted all waypoints and wish to tweak your mission plan. This makes for a lot of flexibility and power when setting up your mission plan and is a great feature.

You then move to the Execute Phase where you choose the team and begin your mission. Sounds involved doesn't it? Well, the task of a CT team is the safe rescue of hostages and minimizing the loss of friendlies while maximizing the loss of the hostiles so planning is VERY important. Again I must say that with this planning interface Redstorm has put together a planning interface that is second to none, excellent job!

Once you've committed your team to the op you wait while the mission loads and you'll find yourself at the insertion point, you'll then be in charge of one of your elements. You can easily switch team by use of the Page Up and Page Down keys. Movement is controlled using a combination of the mouse and keyboard and believe me there's plenty to control. Everything from NVG's and Sniper mode (your level of sniper 'zooming' will depend on what weapon you have, if it's a SMG then your zoom will be closer than that of a pistol) to changing ROE mode's and whether to hold up your team in place or not.

The control interface has been well thought out and satisfies all your needs in gameplay. Once the mission is complete you are given a debrief screen with all major stats on the mission: time taken, objective achieved, shots fired, tangos killed, hit percentage and each team members status.

This is not your typical shooter

First thing you need to remember when you play this game is .. forget all other first person shooters you have played before, this is new territory! There was a small issue on the R6 forum at Redstorm.Com a couple months ago about over lack of a weapon shown in front of you onscreen. There is no need for it and you won't even notice it's not there when you play this one, you'll actually be glad it's NOT there as it would just take up precious screen real estate and hinder your situational awareness. SA is extremely important in playing this sim through, as it moves rather quickly and the slightest hesitation can get you killed.

AI? What's The Scoop?

The biggest question I had when I first saw the demo at E3 was regarding the AI for both friendly and enemy characters: will it be good enough? Will it be realistic enough? The answer is a very strong yes, but there are still some areas that need work.

The enemy acts as it should when dealing with a terrorist mentality, but at times can seem a bit overzealous, even superhuman. The AI for the Rainbow team is done very well and relieves you from micromanaging and makes you truly feel you are not alone in the scenarios. Your teams can successfully follow your orders and take down tangos and rescue hostages very well, which may leave some gamers feeling left out of the action. Remember this is a TEAM effort and not a one man operation, there are no Rambos in special operations.

Friendly characters are excellent shots and can hit both on the move and standing still, something you as the gamer will need to work on to reach the same level of expertise. Enemy AI is both intelligent and deadly, as you'll discover. Each mission will have you facing tougher enemies as the game unfolds, akin to the book. So don't be feeling let down if the first couple of missions seem easy to you, things will get tougher on you as the game progresses and the last mission has you facing some toughies in a very large environment.

The one down side I feel to this is that enemy AI seems to be some of the best shots ever. Then again, you get hit a lot in other first person shooters as well, but we as gamers have gotten used to the 'rebate on your life syndrome' where you can magically take 100 hits and still be standing. This one is knee deep in realism so think, plan and react as if this was the real thing.

A couple of anamolies I've discovered I've passed onto Redstorm and got some feedback from Producer Carl Schnurr that sheds some light on these discoveries. Flashbangs and frag grenades don't seem to have the same profound effect one would expect from them. A frag has a blast radius of about 35 meters but that doesn't seem to be properly modeled here, but that's something that is being looked at for a patch.

The feedback I got from Carl at Redstorm was about the flashbangs and their occasional lack of effect. Carl explained that, "Flashbangs in R6 have a blast radius of 8 meters and the effectiveness of flashbangs in real life is largely determined by the awareness and training of the person. If you're ready for it, it doesn't have much effect." While this can be true in some instances (and I'm sure it is accurate as Redstorm has gone to great lengths to ensure accuracy and has picked the brains of the great guys at H&K) I still cannot let go of what I call "the human factor" in a situation like this.

An example is that in one mission I noticed a terrorist on the other side of the wall using the heartbeat sensor, and there was no door to the adjoining room so I had no door to open that could alert him to my presence. I popped a flashbang into the room banking it off the wall and having it land in close proximity to him. It went off and I led my team through the door firing to the left where he was. I got hosed the minute I walked in the door, and so did my second who was held up by my body as it fell to the ground.

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While having the second guy killed by me being in his way is realistic, the tangos actions I felt were not. A flashbang is used to deafen, disorient and temporarily blind the target allowing you to have a greater chance of taking him out. In this sim the flashbangs seem to not always work in this way and do nothing more than piss him off.

Even if a person was prepared for the flash of light and sound as well as concussion, he would still have to turn away from the explosion, close his eyes and hold his ears. This would still give you an advantage on him when you entered the room, as he would have to reorient himself on the door where he is expecting you. But these characters seem to not exhibit any of these "human factors". I think this is a combination of some tweaking needed in both the AI and weapons modeling factors of the game. While it's a bit of a drawback it doesn't hinder the game in the least. To be fair, this IS the first in what I hope are a series of Rainbow games, and as such there's always room to improve on what already is great AI and weapons modeling.

I also hope this is the first in a series of Rainbow books from Mr. Clancy as well. I really love the idea of reading one of my favorite authors books and then being able to act it out on my PC. It's a great combination of literary and virtual entertainment. There are other signs of greatness in the AI. If you are entering a room where a couple of tangos are holding a hostage at bay, one will shoot at you while the other may turn and shoot the hostage in the head! Now that's great realism, and it causes you as the commander to think these consequences through as you plan out your mission. Your teams show intelligence as they can pick locks, open doors, climb and spot and engage targets on their own to great effectiveness based on the characters strengths and weaknesses in his or her stats.

The reaction of the tangos, on the other hand, is more of a mixed bag. When you fire at them or become engaged in a room close to them, there are a variety of different reactions, so I cannot say the AI is flawed as much as it just needs a bit more tweaking.

I've engaged targets in one room and moved down the hall only to confront a terrorist running right for me having heard the engagement and moving to investigate and assist his buddy. Nice touch! Then I've had situations where I've shot a terrorist once with a pistol and he just kinda bends over for a second and then resumes walking as if it was just a mosquito bite and not a bullet he took. He doesn't even always turn to investigate or call out an alarm. This could use some work.

Other times I've fired on tangos with an unsuppressed weapon and missed him but he keeps walking on by without missing a beat. If you've ever heard the sound of ripping burlap as a round whizzes past you you'll investigate, after hitting the deck of course!

While sniping at sentries I've noticed another weird anamoly. You can have a couple of sentries right next to one another and they show no reaction when you drop one of their buddies. Sometimes I've seen a sentry stop what he's doing and stare in your direction as if trying to pick you out, but there should be some alarm sounded or a more aggressive defensive posture taken. Other times I've taken out one sentry and the other sentry next to him fires on me. The issue may be less weak AI than complex AI, sometimes almost to a fault!

It might seem that I'm being very nitpicky with the AI. I think the problem lies in the fact that Redstorm has tried to model so many AI functions that weirdness can result. Possibly my ideas would just make matters worse! In some games the AI is judged as either good or bad based on several variables the AI processes. In R6 the AI routines seem to be a lot more intricate, as morale and belief factor a great deal into how the enemy may react.

When it comes to the hostages the AI is on target, with some nice touches. When you enter a room with a hostage and engage a terrorist the hostage will noticeably flinch at the gunshots. Sometimes the hostage may panic and run away from you, which can be dangerous if there's bad guys around the corner. All in all the AI is very strong in this game, but there are a few little things that need to be looked at.

Some Of The Best AI Today
Don't overlook the fact that as I said the AI is so good you can let your teams run through the missions with no micromanagement. The abundance of things your teams can do on their own like lock picking, engaging, escorting hostages etc, makes you truly feel in command of a team of highly skilled professional soldiers.

Awesome Looks Department
In the graphics department Rainbow Six using Direct 3D is both simple and unbelievable. While the hostages look a bit less streamlined than characters in other FPS games, the animation and little details are really sweet. The motion captured animations are the best I've seen to date, the brilliant creations really spring to life on screen and draw you right into the action giving you a great realistic feel. So while some characters may not look as nice as those we've seen in other games, it's more than compensated by movement animations that are second to none.

Even breathing is modeled, so you see a characters chest expand and contract with each breath. (When this stops there could be a problem!) Other little details, like hand signals used when you call a halt for one of your teams, are an atmospheric touch. From the graphics and effects you definitely get the "you are there" feeling.

Death animations and blood spray are nicely modeled and realistic. Nothing better than seeing a bad guy take a double tap to the head and drop like a rock. Run up to him and you'll see a nice neat pool of blood spread out from his wound as seconds pass. (Blood can be turned off in options if you are averse to this kind of thing)

When you fire your weapons you see a nice patch of bullet holes in the walls, and they stay there throughout the mission. But there is no damage modeling to the objects other than that. I would have liked to have seen the ability to interact with the environment a bit more, allowing say lights to get blown out when you pop a grenade in a room. This could give you an advantage by switching to night vision and having a better sight picture than your enemy.

< You can, however, blow out windows and they can actually work against you as your first burst at a terrorist behind a window will most likely be deflected by the glass forcing you to take another shot. Again, this is a realistically modeled sim based on true ballistics and it's done well and accurately.

Going back to the game controls, control is done through a combination of keyboard and mouse input. You move using your arrow keys with mouse, look capability and targeting done also with the mouse. Your targeting reticule is a simple reticule with a twist, it changes size based on your ability to hit while moving or standing still. If you are running, for example, the reticule crosshairs will be further apart then if you are standing still. In this way you know if you have a stable firing platform, a very nice implementation of this realistic feature.

Immersion Factor 100%

You can also manipulate objects using the keyboard and accomplish things like picking locks, opening doors and using ladders. Picking locks is something you can do either freehand or with a lockpick kit and the time it takes depends on your characters stats.

Add to all of this excellent weapons sounds and constant radio chatter from your team members as they call out "contact, tango down", "in position", (to signal they are set and awaiting a Go Code from you) "escorting precious cargo" and sitreps like that. All these factors make for complete immersion and will have you sitting at your keyboard with hands sweating, heart pounding and brain constantly going through the same mental checklist a commander in the field would have.

The missions themselves are a greatly varied assortment of scenarios that will have you operating everywhere from an embassy in London to the jungles of the Congo to the Outback of Australia, even an oil tanker takedown! The missions have great variety, giving you a breath of fresh air and a new tactical challenge each time.

There are even a couple of missions where you send in one Rainbow soldier and the objective is to not kill anyone but gather intel. For example, one mission tasks you to enter a residence of a high ranking official (I won't tell you and ruin the storyline) by getting past roving patrols, defeat an alarm system and then get past roving patrols inside the house to set a bug on the phone. You must do this and get out and to the extraction point without firing a shot or being detected.

I don't know which missions were worse, being under fire or just trying to sneak past the guards and get to the objective. I guess it would be the sneak and peek missions because my hands tended to be a bit more sweaty during those ones. A great balance of brains and brawn this game has!

With this game Redstorm has placed themselves squarely and firmly on the map as a player, and no one who wants a realistic first person shooter should go without this sim! This should also serve as a wake up call to other developers that not everyone wants a Quake clone for a first person shooter... gamers want realism. Give us realism and the opportunity to use our brains to plan things out as well as the brawn to pull it off. Redstorm took on a big task with this game and has done a truly outstanding job, this is not only an instant classic but one that will be a benchmark for future efforts. This is the easiest Top Pick award ever!

Get It!

Put together the typically classic plotline from Tom Clancy and the hyper-realistic depth of gameplay and some of the best AI today, and you have an instant winner. Redstorm, hats off to you! There are also full multiplayer options that allow play on Mplayer (which supports multicasting, which will help with the in-game voice chat feature). I've yet to test out the multiplayer so I cannot report on that at the moment, but I hope to do so in a follow on early next week.

It's about time a "ground pounder" game got the same attention to detail previously seen only in flight sims. Redstorm has done us a great service by leading the way with Rainbow Six! The game is set to hit store shelves on August 27th, so make sure you're there when the stores open to grab this one. (Ed. Download the patch now...)

COMBATSIM.COM RATING : 95

Core Rating : 100
Gameplay : 95
Graphics : 90
Sound : 90
Intelligence/AI : 90
User Interface/Mission Planner : 100
Fun Factor : 100
Learning Curve (in hours) : 8-10 hours
Overall Rating : 95