This game takes the Rainbow series to the next level of co-operative, tactical game play despite all the fanboy crying.
First, When I installed the game and loaded it up I was impressed by the load times. Both in single player and in co-op the game loads very quickly. This wasn’t because of the massive machine I was running. It has a 128 AGP 8x nvidia 6800gt video card and one gig of ram. The processor is a sempron 2800. The game still loaded quickly. So, I started with a little co-operative play because that was what I always loved. A buddy and I started at the mexico streets and played until our eyes bled. As we took turns covering one another moving down the streets, listening to the faint Mexican music I was impressed. The atmosphere made you feel like you were there. I watched dust blow around on the road and I heard a baby cry. I watched a terrorist listen to a latin radio show and I loved it.
The firefights I got into were a true experience. A lot of time has been focused on talking about how the new cover system is unrealistic and destroys the tactical feeling of this game. I can only assume that they people who say that have not used it. When you stack opposing corners of a hallway and sweep around the corners, when you have your friend open the door so you have a clear shot at the terrorist in front of you, or when you get into a fire exchange and take cover before finishing them off it’s hard to say much bad about it. It’s different, yes. But it makes this game. It provides an opportunity for a tactical feeling that is far beyond anything I had ever gotten from previous rainbow games. Blind firing has been another point of concern, and it shouldn’t be. Blind firing is useful to give cover fire. It’s not a way to kill people aside from when they are right beside you. While playing through the game I can think of only about 3 times when I used blind fire, all of which were with the goal of providing a light cover fire. Having aimed shots and shooting the weapon hand of a man holding a hostage, now that has an effect. Blind firing doesn’t. It’s can be useful, but it’s not something that a lot of time needs to be spent on. As an added bonus, you can have your arms shot while they’re exposed during a blind fire. While we’re on the subject of fighting, the AI is good. In RvS the bots were dumb. The clearing of rooms felt more like just a blanket execution. These bots move and react to you. They use grenades well. They smoke and flash, they flank, and they work together. Of course, if you’re smart and you silence your weapons- they may not have the chance. I loved the sound and look of putting it on. I loved the decrease in bullet velocity, making it less damaging.
So do I have nothing but positive to say? No. I have my gripes, but most of them are patch worthy issues that don’t effect the long term gameplay. I had trouble editing a custom character and then returning to a lan game, it simply wouldn’t find it. I had to exit and restart the game. That was annoying, but not the end of the world. I experienced two crash outs to desktop. I was disappointed with the co-operative terrorist hunt game mode. The map spawns you in the middle of the battle and there is no room for tactics. It also removes the snake cam from your arsenal, turning that mode into a much more run and gun style mode, which I didn’t enjoy. It stated you pinned in a corner somewhere on all of the maps we tried (about 6 of them). I’m still disappointed that certain weapons didn’t make it into the game. I wanted to see an m4 series rifle, a 1911, and a 226 pistol to name a few. I felt that the balancing of the pistols was off. The 92fs had more range and damage than most of the other guns aside from the raging bull and the desert eagle. It also had more rounds. I think this greatly mistakes the USP 40 which has a larger and more damaging round it in to start with.
Overall, I think that this game takes a leap in the series that needed to be taken. RvS, no matter how great it was, didn’t bring anything new. This game does. It gives you the opportunity to do infiltration in a wonderful way. For the people who claim there is no tactics in this game- they may simply be trying to avoid seeing them. For the people who say it isn’t pretty, I’m not sure what to say. Overall, this is a good game and it’s a worthy sequel to any of the old rainbow games.
So, overall
This game is around a 9.2 or 9.3 in my opinion. It’s well put together and it has great offerings for online co-operative play in attack and defend. It has the sounds and feel that I wanted. The guns and stages are beautiful and most of all, it’s a real pleasure to play. And finally, if someone cynically asks why I was able to write such a long review if i couldn't get off the game- I'm installing it back at my house instead of on my friend's computer. The game is installed, and so this review is over.