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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Review for Xbox
Posted on Wednesday, November 26, 2003 @ 06:52:00 pm E.S.TThe latest installment of the acclaimed Rainbow Six series has made its way
to Xbox with the recent release of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3. Plenty of
improvements have been made to attract a whole new audience of gamers, as
well as bring back the veterans of the series. And though a little more
multiplayer depth (like… uh, split-screen play) and some buggy enemy AI
plague Rainbow Six 3, there’s really a lot of fun to be had here.
Graphics: One of Rainbow Six 3’s greatest features is its visuals. Upon
completion of the first few campaign missions, it will become amazingly
apparent to players that this game is utterly jam-packed with an amazing
level of detail put into nearly all aspects of the graphics, like
well-designed character models and the simply stunning lighting effects that
Ubisoft provides like no other. Two particular aspects of the graphics
seemed to be especially impressive: the amount of detail given to every
environment and every weapon. Both look entirely photo-realistic and really
give the player a sense of being in the game, not just playing it.
Rainbow Six 3 gives the gamer access to a wide variety of weapons to choose
from, ranging anywhere from your standard assault rifle to a large machine
gun. Each of the many weapons is beautifully detailed and really makes you
feel like you are looking at the real deal. Ubisoft has not stopped there;
on top of having some of the most beautifully detailed weapons you will also
find some gorgeous environments as well. Rainbow Six 3’s environments are
all wonderfully done, and much of this is due to Ubisoft’s ever-gorgeous
lighting effects – both lighting and shadows in Rainbow Six 3 are just plain
amazing. Together, these various aspects of Rainbow Six 3’s visuals come
together to form a pretty tight visual package. This game is without a doubt
one of the best looking Xbox games to come along this year.
Design: Something truly great about Rainbow Six 3 is the wonderful response
you get from its easy-to-follow control scheme. It seems that with many of
the recent squad-based shooters, issuing orders to your team while in combat
becomes tricky, and for most gamers this is a major problem. Ubisoft seems
to have completely eliminated this problem with Rainbow Six 3’s team orders
menu. With only a few presses of a button, you can issue any command ranging
from having your team toss grenades into a room to spraying bullets in from
another door. If having to click through even the simplest menus seems
troublesome for you, you’re in luck. Ubisoft has included voice support for
the single player game. This means that your team will respond to the
commands you shout through your Xbox Live! headset, completely eliminating
any difficulties (of which there aren’t many) of having to use the menu
system to issue orders to your team.
There are two main components to Rainbow Six 3. The first of these is the
single player campaign mode. Much like its predecessors, players battle
their way through a series of missions alongside computer-controlled
teammates. However, there are many improvements aside from the visuals this
time around. Possibly the best of the changes is the loss of dull planning
sessions before each mission. In this game, much more takes place in
real-time, which makes for a much more fun and intense game while you are
doing battle. Another great improvement is the way your teammates act in
combat. Your comrades are definitely smart, and they will not disappoint you
in the field. Ubisoft has done a great job providing quality team A.I. in
this game. The only problem I can find in the campaign mode is the slightly
buggy enemy A.I.
Now, single-player mode is great, but the multiplayer aspect of Rainbow Six
3 has never been a mode to be forgotten, and in Rainbow Six 3 it is
ever-present and more intense than it has ever been in the past. That brings
us to the next major component of Rainbow Six 3’s gameplay.
One might complain about the lack of a split-screen mode of multiplayer.
Now, I don’t mean to say that these complaints are unfounded, but Ubisoft
has more than made up for it with its 2-16 players LAN and Xbox Live play.
Over Xbox Live, there are a wide variety of game types ranging from
cooperative to your classic death match-style game. What really shines in
the multiplayer department are any of the various types of cooperative game
types. The combat in these matches can get intense, and relying on your
friends to cover you just adds to the excitement. In the first week of
playing this game I have logged over forty hours on Xbox Live, and I’m still
not at all bored with it. Although there are some noticeable problems with
the online play, such as slightly unbalanced weapons, it does not seem to be
too much of a problem. Some may not enjoy the slightly slower-paced
multiplayer gameplay, but if strategy is your thing, Rainbow Six 3 is a
must-own game, and a true multiplayer masterpiece for your library.
Sound: Surprise! If you thought Ubisoft was about to stop at wonderful
graphics and gameplay you were horribly mistaken. Not only is this one of
the best looking games in its genre, but it is positively one of the best
sounding games as well. The sound of combat in this game is the very
definition of realism. Nearly every weapon has a distinct sound, and this
goes for every single grenade as well. The sounds of this game really put
you into the action, and you just find yourself enveloped in this incredible
game.
Addiction: The more slowly-paced action of the campaign mode probably will
not bring you back for a second run through, but aside from this Rainbow Six
3 still has plenty to offer. Although the Xbox Live play could have offered
a few more modes and some weapon balancing, you can access statistics and
rankings for all players, and you will most likely find that this is
actually quite a competitive game. There is not a whole lot to unlock here,
but the current downloadable content and the promise of additional content
in the future will not disappoint to keep things interesting. If this game
is your thing, it is sure to keep you coming back for quite some time. Review By: Kent Mackowiak - 2246 Reads
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Review Scores for Xbox :
| Gameplay |
| 9 |
| Graphics |
| 9.5 |
| Sound |
| 9 |
| Replay |
| 9 |
| Overall |
| 9.2 |
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