Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Score: 81% ESRB: Mature Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Red Storm Entertainment Media: GCD/1 Players: 2 Genre: Squad-Based/ First Person Shooter/ Action
Graphics & Sound: Make no mistake, the developers of Rainbow Six: Lockdown understand the importance of attention to detail when playing a game based on the concept of working as a team. As such, the graphics in Lockdown do a wonderful job of capturing true to life human animation, often times to the point where mannerisms and naturally flowing dialogue contribute to the overall experience in making the player begin to doubt that this, in fact, merely a game. Lighting and shading are especially impressive, resulting in believable explosions and weapon recoils. A commendable job was done in creating personalities for each of the members of the team, certainly a classy effort that separates this latest incarnation of the series from earlier efforts. In the sound department, Rainbow Six: Lockdown will lace cut scenes with a catchy theme song although there isn't much in-game music. The programmers took timing into consideration as well, dropping the score in at the right moments of tension to create a big budget movie atmosphere. The game is rich with life-like, well acted speech as far as orders and commands go and clean snapping gunfire with realistic echo effects.
Gameplay: Once again, the player is dropped into the role of Domingo "Ding" Chavez, one of the leaders of Rainbow Team. At the start of each mission, a squad of up to three fellow operatives is chosen to back you. A good portion of the mission work involves giving the squad orders to clear out rooms, defuse live bombs, and take down enemies. Most missions can be completed successfully even if the entire backing squad is killed off, which opens up the door for decoy or friendly diversion work with disposable members of the squad in a pinch. Some missions allow the player to assume the role of Dieter Weber, Rainbow team sniper, which provides a break in the tension with some shooting gallery style action, as your mission is to provide cover for the strike team. The entire campaign consists of 16 missions which when completed, open up further play options within the mission levels. These include: Terrorist Hunt, in which the object is to simply take out all of the enemy terrorists on the map. Lone Rush, in which the goal is to reach the extraction point before time runs out. Infiltrator, where the goal is to simply disable all of the cameras on a level before venturing toward the extraction point and lastly Sniper Campaign allows you to hone your targeting abilities on the levels that contained Dieter's sniping component. Rainbow Six: Lockdown has no shortage of options or mission variation to keep the player occupied.
Difficulty: The difficulty of Rainbow Six: Lockdown is a bit of a paradox. For a First Person Shooter, the game is more difficult than most from a tactical standpoint. Those looking for a mindless trigger-fest, would do better to look elsewhere. However, for being a member of the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series, the difficulty is surprisingly light, arcade-like even. The adaptation of the Rainbow Six series to the console market has made the entire franchise more accessible as a whole. This edition is no exception to that evolution, although die hard fans of the intense strategy/simulation aspects of the originals may be let down. On its own though, the game does require a good 40 minutes to an hour of play time to get the feel, which is a rather steep learning curve. But once it is mastered, it provides a very enjoyable experience.
Game Mechanics: Rainbow Six: Lockdown is a tactical FPS that combines play elements from many genres into a pretty exciting package. The Gamecube's controller works extraordinarily well with the game's control scheme (which can be set up with several different configurations). The accuracy of the analog sticks will certainly be appreciated by all, especially in the sniper sections of the game. Also noteworthy is the ease at which giving orders to the squad can be pulled off - simple directional taps get the job done. The Gamecube version offers 16 Missions (as opposed to the 14 found on the PS2) at the cost of a more stripped down multi-player mode. Of course, the Gamecube in general doesn't maximize use of online play and as such, multi-player mode is generally limited to 2 player split-screen action. Rainbow Six: Lockdown can be a blast in head to head competition as there are plenty of fun modes to unlock through the single player campaign, but those who plan to hone their skills in an effort to challenge the world via broadband need not apply. Overall Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is a solid entry into the series, blending various elements of action and strategy into a very polished product. So long as online multi-player isn't a top priority, the Gamecube version of this title will not disappoint.
-Jay G. Money, GameVortex Communications AKA Jason Giacchino
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