The Video Game Revue

Rainbow Six

The original Rainbow Six was one of the first FPSes to be as realistic as Rainbow Six is. The first obvious difference between R6 and other FPSes of the era (we're looking at stuff following Quake II, roughly) is that in R6 you only need to get shot once to die, and not even necessarily in the head. I'm sure a lot of developers at the time would have been skeptical with thoughts along the lines of "so you get shot once and you die--where's the fun in that?" R6, on the other hand, considers itself more of a simulation and less of an action game, so the high lethality level makes sense at least in theory.

It's apparent that the original inspiration for Rainbow Six was to create a tactical counter-terrorist squad game. There is a planning phase before each mission in which you choose equipment, create teams from your available operatives, and lay out way-points for the teams with action flags, go-codes, and the whole works. In more modern incarnations such as the PC version of Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, you don't even need to join in on the action; you can just click the start button and watch your plan play out. Of course, the fact that you can jump in and join the fight changes R6 from a simulation into a sim-action game. There's no mistaking it for anything other than an FPS game.

The gameplay in R6 is solid, although far from epic-making. What I mean to say is that it is functional and free from obvious faults, but other FPSes of the time, like Half-Life, had much better gameplay, and I would say that that's a big part of the reason why Counter-Strike (a Half-Life mod) became such a wild success, even though Rainbow Six had staked out the whole counter-terrorism theme first.

Where R6 really shines is in atmosphere and mood. There are few, if any, other games that made me feel like I was really "saving the world" as R6 did. It's one of those games that's so immersive and realistic feeling that you honestly feel bad when your teammates are injured or killed, and you get genuinely nervous while turning a corner, waiting to see if there is a terrorist lying in wait for you. To put it another way, when you get into R6, you really get into it. It's one of those games that cries out for you to personally involve yourself in it.

Another strong point for the original Rainbow Six is the storyline, which was developed (co-developed?) by Tom Clancy. I'm not a huge Tom Clancy fan, but that's entirely beside the point: Rainbow Six has a solid storyline for a video game of its kind, and it really drew me in.

When all of the cards are down, it's fair to say that Rainbow Six was the game that originally made me into a fan of counter-terrorism as a theme for FPS games, and I am confident that there are many gamers out there who can say the same thing. No matter how you look at it, Rainbow Six broke a lot of ground, and the effect that it had on the gaming industry is still felt today.

posted by Parappa @ 3:59 PM