Rainbow Six 3 review (NGC)

Squad based shooters are something of a rarity on the GameCube. Whilst PC, PS2 and Xbox owners get the opportunity to indulge in such titles on a regular basis, the pickings are considerably less plenty for ‘Cube owners. Unless Shigeru Miyamoto decides to develop Mario and Lugi: SAS Survival Experience, Nintendo fans must make do with a trickle of third party titles, the latest being Rainbow Six 3.

Sir! Yes Sir!

The Rainbow Six series follows the adventures in counter-terrorism of the titular squad of international, globe-trotting soldiers. These guys are the best of the best of the crèam of the crop. As team leader Domingo “Ding” Chavez it’s your job to lead your three team mates (yes maths fans, technically in these console conversions you control Rainbow Four) through a number of hostile locations rescuing hostages, defusing bombs and shooting terrorists, or ‘tangos’ as the game would have it. There is a plot – some Clancy cobblers involving oil routes, Venezuela and chemical weapons – but it’s overly generic and marred by some bellow par FMV cut scenes.

This GameCube conversion, like its console counterparts, differs in design from the PC iterations. A linear approach to level progression removes the need to plan a mission in advance. Now you jump straight into the action, issuing orders to the rest of your team via a simple but effective context sensitive command system.

Press and Play

Every part of the environment has a default action associated to it, which can be triggered by a simple button press. Through this system your team can be told to move, open doors, defuse bombs and secure hostages. More specific instructions can be issued by holding down the A button and using the thumb-stick to select an order, for example to tell your team to flash a room before entering it, or to breach the door with explosives.

It’s a simple but effective system, aided by some strong AI from your team-mates, who move, take cover and return fire in an intelligent fashion. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for the overly scripted enemy AI, which combined with the linear level design, makes Rainbow Six 3 feel more like an on-rails shooter than a tactical squad game. If you’re replaying a tricky section you can normally line up shots in advance, knowing exactly where the enemy will appear from.

Hostage Down

Repeating half a level becomes common practice as the difficulty level in Rainbow Six 3 is rather inconsistent. Whilst it’s possible to coast through most of a mission, each normally has one or two difficulty spikes that rudely hinder your progress. The most common - and annoying – example of this is when you must clear a room of terrorists before they execute a hostage. With no tactical map or means of advanced surveillance, completing sections such as these comes through trial and error; learning where to aim and practicing an entrance until you can pull it off.

The level design has its moments, in particular the Alcatraz mission that borrows heavily from the film The Rock. However many of the missions feel drab and unexciting, presumably in an effort to maintain the series’ ‘realistic’ credentials, but they lack the flair and incident that pepper the big budget first person shooter productions. A risible stealth mission is also worth a mention for its mind-numbing awfulness.

From A to B

It’s a shame the design didn’t present the player with more options. You can understand the need to streamline play for the console market (I personally couldn’t be doing with the tactical planning aspect of the PC version), but turning the gam into such a linear duck shoot curbs the possibilities the squad dynamic initially presents. Using your team to open a series of doors from one end of the level to the other is not really a test of your tactical mettle.

Whilst you do have the option of issuing a Zulu command, allowing you to set up an order that can be triggered by a later button press, having the opportunity to split off from your team is rare – making it a pretty redundant feature. Rainbow Six 3 gives you the tactical tools to work with but not a lot to do with them.

Debriefing

Rainbow Six 3 is not without merit. Graphically it’s solid enough. The weapons feel chunky and realistic, enemies drop in a satisfying manner and there are some nice visual effects to enjoy, even if the frame rate does get a bit choppy at times. It’s also strangely addictive; perhaps because the end of the level or a checkpoint is just round the corner, tempting you to have another yet another crack at a difficult room. An enjoyable two player co-operative mode, that requires genuine teamwork to succeed, adds some welcome multiplayer content.

It’s not quite enough to distract you from the fundamental design flaws though. In trying to be both a realistic squad based game and an arcade shooter, Rainbow Six 3 has sub-machine gunned itself in the foot, making too many concessions to each style to play very proficiently in its own right. As such this is fun for a weekend but not much more.