Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2792 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: UBI Soft
• Released on: 2006-12-15
• Platform: Windows XP

Manufacturer's Description
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six makes its next-generation hardware debut in the most dramatic instalment of the renowned first-person shooter franchise to date. Rainbow operatives take to the chaotic streets of Las Vegas as an escalating terrorist siege in Sin City threatens to take world terrorism to new, uncontrollable heights. The future of global security hangs in the balance as you battle to defend classic Vegas locations and environments like Fremont Street, the Strip, and casinos.

Experience Las Vegas like never before through revolutionary next-generation technology as you work against the clock to keep one of the world's most recognizable cities from utter devastation.

Key Features :
New leader, new team Team Rainbow ushers in a new breed of heroes. With a new team comes added responsibility. Tactics play a MAJOR role in your team's success, as each member comes equipped with his own skill set.

Special order location Experience a new level of squad-based realism as your team-mates, Michael and Jung, offer you real-time tactical suggestions like busting through walls or hacking computers, all in a race against time to locate the heart of the terrorist cell.

Observe plan assault Use tactical planning to manoeuvre through multiple-path Vegas environments, while utilizing high-tech equipment such as snake cams to strategically tag terrorist targets to your team-mates, prior to entering a room.

Real-time immersion Prepare yourself for a new level of in-game immersion with real-time mission briefings, all in the midst of the most intense combat ever played.

Advanced gameplay animations Motion-captured assault and recon techniques such as fast roping, rappelling, window entry, blind-cover fire, and more. All captured by an experienced Hollywood animation expert.

Next-generation artificial intelligence Next-generation technology brings a higher level of artificial intelligence to Rainbow Six. As you get past the grunts and advance closer to the centre of the terrorist cell, encounter deadlier, more skilled enemies who work together as a group to counter every move you make.

Customizable multi-player experience Create your own multiplayer character that evolves as you play online, unlocking new equipment and achievements as you go.

Ubisoft Montreal returns Rainbow Six is back in the hands of Ubisoft's Montreal studio, creators of the award-winning and highly acclaimed Rainbow Six 3.

Customer Reviews

Fun, but old fashioned game design
Ok, well.... You control squad leader of a 3-man team and have to fight the terrorists as usual. The emphasis is on action and the shoot-outs are fun and explosive. You can give basic orders to you men, asking them to stack up on doors or move to cover, just by looking and tapping the space bar. From a door your team have different orders depending on their current 'Rules of Engagement', whether to go in guns blazing or quietly using smoke or distractions. Mention must be given to the use of rappelling and bursting into room via ropes; through windows, either fast down through skylights, or swinging in from the roof. The controls... Most of the time you spend will be using cover. A button press on the mouse allows you to place you back against a wall using the cover sensibly to fire blind or pop out and take a pop shot, before ducking behind cover. This is key to the game, and is a slick and intuitive system once you're used to it.

If I have gripes with the game it's that the design can seem forced. Although the AI is reasonable, (they do hear and try to flank you for example) and the levels do allow you to engage from different points and in different ways at times, there are obvious triggers which spark off events. As soon as you walk past certain points the baddies pop out of nowhere (literally) and you can be surprised and caught out, maybe die. Next time you know exactly when and where they will appear making it more a test of memory than sharp awareness and reactions. The game saves after passing set checkpoints and at one point there is a level and you can see a mile away its a clear trap. It seems really odd to have no other tactic open to you apart from walking into this trap and watching as the bad guys pop out in the same manner over and over again. You are even left fairly open without much cover and it saves just before this event! Also some rooms are just full of guys with guns on the other side just pointing at the only door you enter from, waiting for you to trigger them into action. It feels so false and you will die just through forced to walk right into a trap, not due to a bad choice of tactics on your part. It's not very convincing in its realism. Some games do operate the same way but are better at concealing this so you won't feel so cheated. This is game design from the early 90's... its now 2007. But for all that it is good fun though, and it does play well.... if you can forgive the obvious traps and memory test gameplay.

A significant improvement!
This game is such a huge improvement on Lockdown that it cannot be emphasised. It is not as back to the same quality that Raven Shield had but it is on the right path.

Firstly the graphics. They are superb. The detailing is amazing and the images are crystal clear. The sounds are spot on and the facial patterns and expressions are really top notch. This however does mean that you will need a fairly descent pc. Firstly do not buy this game if you have an older graphics card than an Nvidia GForce Fx6600 as it will not play cos the game needs a shader 3 model which older graphics cards don't have. Also a lot od ATI Radeon do not support these models. So you've been warned.

Now to the other stuff. They appear to have brought back the one shot and you are dead gameplay. At least in the harder mode. They have also included the ever more common automatic health rejuvenator. It is true that it does make it easier to play but in my opinion it takes away from the realistic feel that these games are supposed to have. Also they seem to have put just a few too many bad guys in the game to make it realistic. By the end of the game you have killed near a whole battallion. It just seems over the top.

As always there is a large array of weapons and gadgets you can use (although not nearly as much as Raven Shield). The way you control your teammates resembles SWAT 4 but does not give you anywhere near as many options.

Also you cannot pick your team or their kit. There is also no tactical screen where you can plan you entry and checkpoints like you could with Raven Shield. These are all points that made Raven Shield such a great game and should not, in my opinion, have been left out.

Finally this game like lockdown has a linear design just like lockdown. In the context that this game was made it is the most suitable design but i personally preffered the Raven Shield and Swat 4 design. One level circular with a few bad guys. Simple, realistic as it should be.

Having said all of the above i have had a lot of fun playing it. The one aspect that i have to emphasise is the IMMENSE improvement in the AI. It is superb. The AI in Lockdown was appaulling. One of the worst i have ever seen. But here it is superb. In fact it i possibly the best AI in an FPS that ia have seen to date. And that is saying a lot considering the AI in games like Half Life 2 and FEAR. You opponents use real tactics and they keep trying to surround you even coming round the back of a building and shooting you in the back. You will often see bad guys rappelling from higher floors if the hear you shooting beneath them. It really impressed me.

Overall although this is not as realistic as i was hoping for it is a huge improvement on Lockdown and hopefully the next one will be a further step in the right direction.

Another botched port
Its often the case when a console game is ported to the PC, the people responsible for carying out that task make a hash of it. Resident Evil 4 is exemplary in that regard. While Rainbow Six Vegas isn't quite as bad, it is nevertheless very poorly optimised for the PC.

My specs are: Core Duo @ 2Ghz, 2GB of RAM and a Mobility Radeon X1600. Yes, I can hear you cry 'he's running on a notebook!' but let me say that I can play Counter-Strike Source at 1680x1050 averaging 70-90fps, Oblivion averages 30 fps (anything above 25fps in that game is smooth) and FEAR plays fantastic at mostly max settings on 1280x768 (only just got it so I've yet to benchmark). This game however is a shuddering mess even when most of the effects are turned off. No motion blur, no HDR, no AF, playing at 1280x768 and the game runs far from smoothly. I was expecting at least a decent level of performance on low settings but I can't even get that. Therefore, I'd only recommend this game if you have at least a desktop 7600GT or notebook 7800go to run at 'OK' settings or a desktop 7800 and 7900go on notebook for any kind of eye candy. I wish I could comment on the gameplay aspects but the abysmal performance prevents me from doing so.

The bottom line is only buy if you have high end specs - most mainstream GPUs won't suffice.