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.
Click for larger
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.
Click for larger
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...)
