Fans of Tom Clancy’s long-running series Rainbow Six worry no longer. After numerous delays and technical difficulties,
Here’s the good news. The majority of defining aspects in the Rainbow Six series are left unaltered here in “Lockdown”, that way gamers familiar with previous installments will feel right at home when picking up the controller for the first time. However gamers that are new to Rainbow Six need not fret, the controls are relatively simple as far as first person shooters go.
The rest of the good news falls under the category of Multiplayer, which has always been the strong suit of the franchise. While playing with friends on one X-box or linking up more systems is always fun, the game truly shines on X-Box Live with the addition of Persistent Elite Creation Mode (or PEC as the cool kids call it.)
This mode allows gamers to create a character from the ground up to play with online and build career wise. Things like physical appearance, profession, and equipment are all fair game when creating your online persona, however gamers will find themselves altering their appearance and equipment a lot as leveling up characters is also possible.
As gamers play more and more online, characters gain experience points and money that in turn allows users to upgrade for better skills and purchase new weapons and clothing pieces. The better gamers perform online, the more experience and money is earned. PEC Mode is truly one of the best features in recent memory for keeping gameplay fresh and exciting, as it really makes the game feel more like an online RPG rather than just a typical first person shooter.
While praising the multi-player this whole review is quite possible, gamers buying or renting “Lockdown” for the sole purpose of playing single-player should pay close attention now because here comes the bad news.
“Lockdown” sports 14 brand-new missions for gamers to knock some terrorist skulls together in, although after about the 3rd or 4th mission they’ll discover why this isn’t necessarily a good thing. The main problems have to do with both enemy and the team A.I.
The terrorists’ intelligence level can range from 3rd grade class hamster (as they can be shot in the face from nearly point-blank range) all the way to inherently all-seeing demigod (as they can shoot gamers in the face with one bullet from 300 yards away.) This makes it extra frustrating when halfway through a mission some random terrorist makes an impossible shot, thus sending gamers back to restart the entire mission over again.
Even more frustrating is the lack of any signs of intelligence from the 3 other squad mates that are there to support gamers. An example of this is a new feature that is integrated in Lockdown single-player: the Voice Communicator. This allows gamers to verbally give commands to A.I. squad mates, but don’t think for one second that they’ll understand anything ordered to them.
Telling them to open a door usually results in them holding their position, while ordering them to secure a hostage tends to result in suppressing fire that can inadvertently kill the hostage. If gamers are looking for a responsive SOCOM type voice-command system, better start looking elsewhere as this one is incredibly buggy and annoying.
“Rainbow Six: Lockdown” is still a great addition into the Rainbow Six franchise, but just don’t expect “Rainbow Six 3” caliber material here. Gamers that play a lot of X-Box Live or PS2 Online will be greatly impressed with the new PEC Mode and other online goodies, while gamers looking for a fun single-player romp will find themselves on the slightly disappointed end of the equation.