Rainbow Six

Unlike the embarrassingly dummied-down PlayStation version, Rainbow Six on the DC has everything the PC game does, plus more missions. What it doesn't have, however, are intuitive controls. This is probably the most complex Dreamcast game on the market. Since you control a tactical squad of troops equipped with lots of gadgets, it takes an awful lot of button combinations to keep things in hand. After all, on the PC you have the luxury of a keyboard and mouse. For the first few missions you'll be fumbling about and sometimes you'll feel like you're fighting your control pad as much as you are the terrorists. Having the instruction book in front of you helps, but not as much as it should--a lot of the subtleties in the game aren't covered at all in the crappy manual. Once you finally get into the swing of things, you'll find that Rainbow Six is a very satisfying tactical game that is a welcome alternative to the crowd of cookie-cutter first-person shooters out there. Not only do you complete your missions by being stealthy, but also by planning ahead of time. Properly outfitting your troops and having them work together is key (through orders and planning on a map), but the game's flaky Al makes them stumble about, sometimes rendering that planning useless. Between that and the controls, R6 can be very frustrating, but if you can grit your teeth and be patient, you'll probably enjoy the game.

Oh, you'll find plenty of reasons to cringe at Rainbow Six. It's got blocky, as-seen-on-PC visuals. Control is downright grueling; figuring out the button combos to switch weapons, change views, jump to different team members, etc., is about as simple as mastering Tekken combos (I wish this game supported the keyboard). And where's the multiplayer cooperative mode? Even the N64 version's got that! But give this game a chance. It's got the infamous and intense one-hit-and-yer-dead gameplay, and the mission planner is surprisingly rewarding once you get the hang of it. lust be sure to twiddle with the training missions 'til you master the controls.

I'm blown away by the depth of this game. As a PC port nothing was compromised. In fact, there are even more options and features including extra missions. Once you get accustomed to the commands (there are many, believe me) and settle into the rhythms of this game you're going to love it. Mission plans are deep with detail and can be customized to the hilt. Characters gain skill with each successful campaign. Eventually you can simply command your boys to do the dirty work for you. It's not an easy game either--enemies are surprisingly clever most of the time. If you don't mind a steep learning curve, Rainbow Six is well worth the money.

If the N64 version of Rainbow Six is a good example of how to convert a classic PC game to a console, then Rebellion's PlayStation version is a textbook example of how not to. Fact...the 'spirit' of the Rainbow Six series is that you are part of a team that is working on each mission. You are simply one operative among many--not a lone soldier. For some reason, this fact is ignored here. There are no teams involved, and there is no 'good guy' Al that lets them get on with their business while you get on with yours. Fact...part of the fun of R6 is planning your missions beforehand. Why then, does the PS version only allow you to choose your insertion point? Fact...R6 is the perfect co-op multiplayer game (as exemplified by the N64 version). You don't get anything here. On top of this the controls are overly sensitive and complex, and the frame-rate is so bad it actually interferes with the combat. Shockingly, the bad guy Al is also atrocious. They ignore you, they get stuck on doors and they seem unable to navigate the environments. This is a disturbingly disappointing game. The story line and the level structure is so brilliantly conceived, and the presentation (especially the music) is so good, I'm shocked that the gameplay is so bad. The N64 game shames this by some considerable degree.

Funny thing about Rainbow Six: It's packed with lots of little problems, but I want to play it again and again. The graphics are rough around the edges, to say the least. Control is too touchy on the analog sticks, and don't even bother playing with the digital pad. It lacks multiplayer modes of any kind (a cooperative mode would've been awesome). But the gameplay here is so gripping and challenging that I don't mind all the flaws--much.

This has got to be one of the worst anythings I've played on the PlayStation in quite a while. I'm not sure what went wrong here, but this version of Rainbow Six went horribly awry. The graphics give you a worse headache than watching Blair Witch Project, and gameplay doesn't get much more annoying or shallow than this. To make things worse, they've raped Rainbow Six of its teamwork strategies, thus turning the game into...crap.

If Rainbow Six PS could borrow Hammerhead's 3D engine for Quake II (PS), Red Storm would have a great game on their hands. But alas. Rainbow Six has a crappy and choppy engine running it, and it affects the gameplay. Control is a bitch, with aiming as precise as a flopped NATO air strike. Plus, the big thing that everyone loves about R6, cooperative play, is not here. It's a good concept, but the game could've used a lot more time and work.

Rainbow Six delivers the most gripping two-player experience you'll find on the N64. Nothing beats the thrill of playing the campaign cooperatively with a second player, barking orders at each other, calling for help, covering each other's backs and planning strategies. The game was made for this kind of two-player teamwork. Even if you play solo, Rainbow Six packs a style of shoot-'em-up you won't find in any other first-person blaster. This ain't GoldenEye. Your character won't survive more than two or three bullet wounds. You'll attempt missions over and over until you find an attack plan that works. The mission planner itself is a little daunting at first (in fact, all the game's menus are clumsy), but you'll get the hang of it. Heck, it's just fun to program your squadmates' attack, then follow them around and watch 'em take care of the dirty work. Rainbow Six is not without its faults. Graphics are ho-hum. Control takes getting used to. Analog is touchy (using Auto Aim helps). You'll need to contort your fingers to shoot, magnify your view and strafe at the same time. Terrorist Al ain't too bright, and your own team will often walk stupidly into walls unless you micro-manage their waypoints--especially near ladders--in the planning stage. But don't let any of these gripes scare you away from this unique play experience.

This is one of those games that can make you jump a lot more than you'd like to admit. Creeping around trying to take out the very last bad guy can be quite stressful, and the game manages to build tension and suspense in a very convincing manner. As Crispin says though, it really comes into its own when you play it in two-player mode. If you've not sampled the delights of co-op play before, you should check this out.

Nintendo 64: $99. Rainbow Six cartridge: $60. The look on Crispin's face when I capped him: priceless. But even when you're not screwing around and shooting your human teammate, this is an AWESOME cooperative two-player game Sure it has rough graphics. It also has horrible, horrible Al (often, you can shoot at an enemy, but if he can't physically see you, he won't know you're there). It's no GoldenEye-killer, but it's still fun.

In a fantastical daydream, I fancy myself as a Rainbow Six expert because I played the hell out of it on the PC back in the summer of '98. That said, the N64 version is surprisingly faithful. It took me awhile to get used to the mission planner interface with the N64 controller, but hey, at least it's included. Unfortunately, some of the PC glitches, useless Al and ctippy graphics have made their way to the N64. GoldenEye fans, check this out.

It's amazing what they can cram into the Game Boy these days. Whether something is a good idea or not, you have to admire the talent that goes into cramming the major elements of a game like Rainbow Six and making it 2D, 8-Bit and portable. Somehow Crawfish has managed to capture all of the basic story elements from the first PC game and convey them adequately. Pretty amazing. In fact, it actually manages to cram in more of the strategy elements in than Rebellion's lackluster PlayStation version. Impressive indeed. The only problem is, the resulting game is nowhere near as fun or as tense as its grown-up 3D brothers and sisters. Part of the fun with the other versions is sneaking around the environments and ducking down so you're not seen. The transfer to top-down 2D kinda removes this element, and you end up just walking around maps that are too damn big, and not filled with enough bad guys to shoot at. By removing the uncertainty and the stealth aspects and neglecting to replace them with all-out action, it seems that Red Storm has missed out on something that could've been very absorbing. Unfortunately, it all ends up being rather boring instead. This is an impressive game "on paper," but you'll very quickly tire of it. Graphically it can get hard on the eyes at times too.

Rainbow Six for the Game Boy tries to cram in every feature of its PC big brother. You get all the weapons, the gear, the team members, the planning mode and the story. Trouble is, not much survived the miniaturization. Planning is a chore-especially figuring out how to place Go Codes. The game itself fails to capture the tension of the original. Hostage and teammates often get stuck on walls when following you. This thing's for patient gamers only.

This game, on this platform makes zero sense, no matter how you look at it. By taking away the "first-person" POV, you're castrating the realism, atmosphere and tension of the original. Then you give the game a bunch of sophisticated options (like organizing squads and equipping agents), and you've automatically alienated the handheld shooting fans. What other demographic are you supposed to be reaching out to? Not this reviewer.

If this was all the PC game was, I can't imagine having ever been interested in it. Who's idea was it to port this to the Game Boy, anyway? There are just some platforms you shouldn't try to port games to. It's just too limited. Rainbow Six needs the kind of immersion afforded by 3D, or needs to be completely adapted to take advantage of the limits of 2D. Some have been able to achieve it, but this just isn't enough game to hold my interest.