TomClancy&#39;s RainbowSix : Lockdown

Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Red Storm Ent.
Genre: Modern Tactical Shooter
Release Date: Feb 16, 2006
ESRB: MATURE
ESRB Descriptors: Blood, Violence, Language
Number of Players: 1-16

The newest game in the Rainbow Six shooter series, Lockdown, has finally arrived on the PC. What you won't find in this version of the game are elements of a straight console port. The game's environments are as large and detailed as you'd expect from a PC shooter, while extraneous elements from the console versions, like the hokey cutscenes and hidden briefcases scattered around the levels, have been toned down or removed entirely. Most importantly, the game feels like a PC shooter, with all the precision in aiming and movement that mouse and keyboard control can afford. While the developers have done a great job in ensuring Lockdown for the PC didn't end up just being a sloppy port, it bears mentioning that the game has definite arcade underpinnings. Lockdown is still a lot of fun, though.

As in all the other Rainbow Six games, you play the squad leader of an elite counterterrorist force called Rainbow. You'll start each of the game's 16 single-player missions at a nicely presented briefing screen where you get the lowdown on the situation, some maps of your objectives, and an equipment setup screen for your four-man team. Lockdown includes a great variety of assault rifles, submachine guns, combat shotguns, and pistols to choose from, many of which are based on real-life guns such as Kalashnikovs, MP-5s, and Desert Eagles. You'll also be able to outfit each operative with frag or flash grenades and entry tools like hammers and breaching charges. The best part is that each gun can be outfitted with one accessory, ranging from red-dot sights and scopes to silencers and high-capacity magazines. There's a noticeable difference in feel and utility between the various weapons, so choosing the right tools for the job is not just a cosmetic feature in Lockdown. What's missing from the mission-prep screen is the tactical planning portion that used to be such a staple of Rainbow Six games on the PC. However, with the ability to direct your team to do room-entry maneuvers in-game, there's less need for a planning phase.

The missions in Lockdown for PC are based on the same missions in the console versions of the game for the most part, but the mission order has been jumbled around a bit. You'll see a variety of different environments, including desert towns in the Middle East, the Parisian catacombs, the Scottish Parliament building, and a French ferry ship. You'll also ply through lots of underground terrorist bases. (Anarchists hate sunlight, apparently.) All of these areas are similar in layout to the ones on console, but in many cases, the levels are much more expansive and intricately detailed, with sharp-looking environment textures. But you won't participate in any shooting-gallery sniper sequences, which played a big role in the console versions. In many of the terrorist base levels you'll find lots of interconnected rooms to clear out and more than one pathway to get from one side to the other. There are also a lot of knickknacks and debris that can get knocked over by gunfire. In one level featuring a shootout in a police station, we were actually able to shoot boxes and other obstacles off a desk in order to get a clearer shot at the terrorist hiding behind it.

Some levels require hostage rescue and escort or bomb defusing, but in every case you're going to be taking out terrorists, and lots of them. Even on the normal difficultly level you'll be taking out upwards of 100 or more terrorists on a single mission. Most weapons you carry come with just under 500 rounds of ammunition. Do the math, and realize that if you're not relying much on your teammates to do the shooting, you better be thrifty with the number of rounds you're expending. You could easily find yourself down to your pistol at the end of a long mission. You and your teammates can survive several glancing shots before dying, but it's very possible in Lockdown to go down in a single hail of gunfire if you get careless.

The threat of immediate death adds to the tactical nature of the game and encourages you to go at a slower, more measured pace. Aside from your quicksave and quickload keys, you'll rely a lot on your motion tracker in Lockdown, which lets you see behind walls. You can also use your tactical commands to have your teammates peek around corners or stack up on doors for dynamic entry. Your teammates can open doors in a variety of ways, ranging from simply opening an unlocked door to placing an explosive and blowing it open, or using a shotgun to blow off the hinges. They will then toss in a frag or flash grenade before going in to clear the room. In most cases this works well, but from time to time you'll see your squadmates screw up a dynamic entry. We've seen team members muff a grenade throw and blow up the whole squad. We've also seen teammates take more damage than they should when entering a hostile room. Flashbangs and violent entry don't seem to have the stun duration and stun radius that you'd expect either, so you can't rely on these measures entirely. The enemy artificial intelligence in the game is pretty decent, seeking cover when possible and peeking from around corners. They'll pop smoke grenades to obscure their positions, or even throw frag grenades. They're not always very perceptive at detecting you if you peer around a corner, though, so it's possible to get quite a few cheap headshots on unsuspecting bad guys.

Minimum System Requirements
System: Pentium 4 1.5GHz or equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
Video Memory: 64 MB
Hard Drive Space: 7000 MB

Recommended System Requirements
System: Pentium 4 2.0GHz or equivalent
RAM: 1024 MB
Video Memory: 128 MB
Hard Drive Space: 7000 MB

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