Rainbow Six: Raven Shield

Maturing like a fine wine, according to Richard, who gets hands-on in this preview.

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Control Briefing: Operation Raven Shield. Earlier this evening armed members of the Ferrago organisation seized control of a preview copy of the next Rainbow Six game. Your mission is to play the simulation and cause maximum civilian casualties.

John Clark: It looks like we've got our first real look at this game. The Brits would love to send in the SAS but the word from Ubi Soft is no way, that's stupid. I don't have to tell you we're going under the microscope on this one. There are folks on both sides of the Atlantic who are looking forward to this title. Take your time and evaluate the new AI and weapons. Good luck, and God speed.

Newswire: Rainbow Six came out back in 1998 and to give you indication of its originality it was noticed when Half-Life was just appearing on the scene. It emphasised realistic combat where getting shot meant you died. Instead of sending you in on your own you could plan out a mission with eight team members armed with real world weapons. It was developed by Red Storm Entertainment which was set up by the best selling author Tom Clancy and an ex British Royal Navy Captain Doug Littlejohn, who had been a technical advisor for Clancy's book "Red Storm Rising". The intricate plot of Rainbow Six was developed with Tom Clancy to coincide with a book of the same name. Rainbow Six was a huge success and put Red Storm Entertainment on the radar of one of the big players in the market, Ubi Soft, and in September 2000 it was bought up. Any fears that this might impede the creativity of Red Storm were soon alleviated when Ghost Recon was released for the PC in 2002 to be greeted with critical acclaim and it is now being ported to all the major platforms.

It's been over three years since the last sequel, Rogue Spear, so what changes have been made to the winning formula, and has the time been well spent? The mission planning, a major part of the game, has had its interface overhauled to considerable benefit. Instead of having to go back and forth between each section, as in previous titles, you can jump to them using a menu at the bottom of the screen. The number of screens has also been reduced to just three. The first will give you a mission briefing with any appropriate background information. John Clark is still the commander of Rainbow and is joined by Kevin Sweeney who sports an awful British accent. The second screen allows you to select your team and the equipment. You can see which team members belong to which specialty, like assault or demolitions, and their relative strengths and weaknesses, such as stealth and observation. An added role playing element is introduced and abilities will grow stronger for each operative the more missions they undertake. On this same screen you can also kit out the members from the vast selection of outfits, weapons and accessories.

The arsenal of weapons, of which there are an impressive fifty seven, have been neatly organised and presented. Each weapon will fit into a specific category from sub-machine guns through to assault rifles and sniper rifles. As well as this the details and a brief description of each weapon is shown so you may compare each choice using the given values which are, range, accuracy, damage, stability and recovery. You will likely experiment with the weapon choices until you find one that it is to your liking and ironically I found the rifle that looked to be the infamous British SA80 to be excellent, but it is called a different name within the game. The weapons can also be augmented with various attachments, you can add on silencers or mini-scopes if they are available. The sniper rifles can be equipped with thermal scopes for spying through walls.