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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $15.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Old Fomula Refined
Review: In a nutshell Raven Shield does a lot right in a pretty package but suffers from the same pitfalls of past games. The game sticks to the same winning formula of the past titles. For the most part this is a good thing.

The first thing the player sees in the game is a number of slick looking menus. These have been revised from past games to make them more player friendly. They are all well done with dramatic music and familiar voice over. R6s' famous planning phase is intact and still not as easy to use as it should be. Clicking to place waypoints for your team seems easy enough until you click on an area that you can't put a waypoint at, like overlapping another waypoint. There is no indication that you can't do this, and in game it doesn't matter one way or another, there isn't a good reason why the game won't let you. It can get picky about other things, such as putting waypoints too close to walls or doors. Assigning your team to toss a [explosive item] in to a room can be tricky. You might want them to toss it clear across the room and find out that it's out of range or there is some object blocking LOS that is not obvious on the map. So you have to keep clicking on the map until you find a spot that the game will let you assign a [explosive item] toss waypoint to. You can avoid this pain in the neck if you use a default pre-made plan. There should be nothing that makes your own planning such a hassle however.

Of course the actual meat of the game is the action. Rainbow Six really shines here for giving you a mix of stealth, suspense, loud gun battles, impressive [explosive item] effects, and team tactics. The new first person gun models look great. The vast number of [firearms] all sound distinct and are very impressive. The HUD has been cleaned up and better laid out. Another new feature is adding other equipment to your [firearms], like a scope or a silencer. Your team can now be given dynamic orders outside the plan via an easy to use pop up menu. Watching them breach, flashbang and clear a room is interesting and just plain cool. With Ghost Recon it seems that Rainbow isn't going to be outdoors much. With the Unreal powered engine one would think they could toss in a few missions hunting down [criminal] camps. So most of the time you play a high tech SWAT team rather than a real spec-op unit.

Not all is well. The AI is a hit or a miss, and this is usually a weak point for Red Storm. The enemy AI is very good. It will try to flank you, flush you out with [explosive item], and go for reinforcement or when they know they are out gunned they will surrender. Yet it doesn't do this in any clever manner. A [criminal] might run from a frag [explosive item], and run in to your team and get chopped down. Often they will [destroy] them selves with their own [explosive item]. Other things about how the AI reacts are erratic and break the illusion of competent enemies.
However inconsistent the enemy AI is, your team's AI is worse. A lot worse. From getting stuck on doorways, grenading them selves, getting in your way, to just plain not paying attention and getting killed by a trigger happy bad guy. For some reason they all use full automatic with whatever gun you assign them. It's terrible to see your team fire off rounds and simply not hit anything. Nor can they slowly open doors. They just fling them wide open for all the tangos to see and fill with lead. Much of the game I had to plan my assault based on what my team couldn't do very well rather than what they could. Since they [end life] so easy, and you can't replace them, you might have to reload a dozen times before you get it right.

Still this is done with some good graphics. Character models are made with lots of polygons and great textures. Some of the faces look photo realistic. The environments are richly detailed, even if you are indoor most of the game. Little things like footprints, steam from pipes (or bullet holes in pipes), detailed shadows, reflections in car windows, animated tree limbs and seeing the breath of your teammates on winter maps all paint a realistic feeling world. Oddly it seems that with the newest 3D engine they could have pushed it further. 3rd person [firearms] could use some more polygons, the sky is a simple skybox, nor are shadows as good as in Splinter Cell.

One area that has really been improved is multiplayer. No longer are you bothered to log in to MSN to play. The game comes with an in-game search and browse screen. Setting up filters makes it easy to find the kind of game you want. Of course if MP isn't your bag, there is a nice single player custom mission option too.

Overall this is solid game that features a range of features and great action worth checking out for weeks.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield is choice and where it's at
Review: This game, frankly, is choice above all else. The single player is amazing. If you dislike planning out and assembling an entire team yourself, click on the option to skip right into the mission as I do. Routing the team on a map, then selecting men for 15 minutes isn't exactly what I call fun, and it's great that you can take the lazy persons' way out and skip right into the action with a pre-assembled team and routes already drawn up.

Pros:
+Sound is supachoice
+Graphics are orgasmic, so to speak
+Hey, it's a Tom Clancy game!
+Realistic and life-like
+Overall, very sexy. If a babe catches you rockin' this title out, sex time.

Cons:
-Ragdoll physics! What the "heck"?! Sounds cool at first, but then you can get guys that completely crunch in two when you approach and view their dead bodies. The poses some guys manage to fall into under these so-called "ragdoll physics" is absolutely amazing, in a bad way. But occassionally you get some awesome death-falls, such as you shooting a guy and he falls against the wall, then he slides down into a sitting position dead. THAT's hot! Not waist-bending freaks of nature.
-Difficulty. Even under Recruit it's a difficult game, and death often lurks around every corner unexpectedly. Don't get me wrong, it's a FPS and you're supposed to be challenged.. but come now. You walk out in front of a window for one second too long and you get sniped. That makes no sense!

All-in-all, great game. If you enjoy squad-based tactical FPS games, then this is your title. Multiplayer is choice, and single player is hot ... .

...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Surpasses my love of Counter-Strike
Review: Yes, i know, the games aren't very much alike, but a FPS is a FPS, and Raven Shield surpasses the experience of Counter-Strike. From the single player perspective, I'm not one to talk, check out another review. But what I am able to talk about is the multiplayer. Cooperative Terrorist Hunt and Missions online, pure bliss. it's amazing how the computer Terrorists manage to be in a different place most of the time, or react differently, preventing repetition. Controls are very easy to get used to, making it easy to be in the top 3 on your first day of playing. The guns and extra weapons are increbily real, and the fluid motion of opening doors with the mouse wheel is very realistic, being able to slightly open a door and take out the terrorist guarding the area. The only problem is that the computer AI doesn't notice a firefight in the next room, and doesn't get ready to shoot when smoke from a smoke grenade is flooding a door. Overall though, A FANTASTIC GAME.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Raven Shield - Possibility for Game of the Year
Review: As a huge fan of the Rainbow Six games, I was truly ecstatic to find out that a new installment was coming out. I was not disappointed. This game is awesome.
This new Rainbow Six vastly differs from the previous ones. It now is much more realistic in terms of how real counter-terrorism teams operate, the way the terrorists collapse after you kill them are much more realistic, there is a multitude of new guns, and on each you can put an attachment, making a lot of combinations possible, and the graphics in general are much, much better.
Although it is rather expensive with a $$ price tag, it is definitely worth every penny. For all of you FPS junkies out there, your collection is not complete until you get this one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Tom Clancy is at it again!
Review: What can I say? Ubi Soft, Red Storm, and Tom Clancy, oh my!!! This baby sounds unbelievable with my Klipsch system :D

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great game.
Review: I had pplayed the original Rainbow Six for N64, and loved it. I
also purchased Ghost recon for PC and got to used to planning on the fly. Its sort of nice to be able to sowly move other teams in without switching.
Not to down the gameplay, though. The graphic detail is amazing. Movement is great. The "fluid posture" system is great, too- you can make slight movements in the angle of your posture. Everything is so realistic- almost too realistic. I guess that's my only complaint is the redunancy of the mission objectives. But playing and planning are both fun, although it's hard to practicaly plan, but it comes with experience, I guess. (Just got the game)(HQ plans already on the game can be pretty weird). There are a lot of weapons to choose from, all with very good detail. Same great Rainbow Team, with a new plot (although its neo- fascist, seems game makers are afraid to indulge in current affairs).
Great, great game. I guess I over anticipated it a bit, but I guess it gets four stars (very close to five), for a few things I've mentioned (there are a lot more controls than on Ghost Recon, also).
But anyways, if you're an R6 fan, you definately should get this. Well worth the money.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent
Review: (breif review)...

I'm a huge fan of the rainbow six series, and this latest release doesnt let me down. Nearly every aspect of the game is very well done and pollished..... the gfx, sound, gameplay, maps, weapons, and gadgets are all superb.... the UI and the AI arnt perfect, but they arnt poor either... nothing a patch cant fix.

Bottom line is this is a *very* fun game to play online... i love it more than counter-strike... i would argue it has more depth and requires more stratigy.

If you are a fan of online FirstPersonShooter games, then get this game.... you wont be disappointed.

- duck

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must buy
Review: OK, so the game has some minor imperfections such as the fact you can only shoot through some doors and the bad guys sometimes are just staring at a wall instead of at you. On the other hand, as a current SWAT team member, I can tell you that this is the most realistic of all the 1st person sims that I've played, including the SWAT series by Sierra. A few other minor problems like the fact you arent already equipped with a gas mask, you have to equip it taking up valuable space. Overall, a must buy with some super realism.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gotta love it!
Review: I own all the Rainbow Six games and all mission packs. Red Storm does a magnificent job with their games. I think Raven Shield is a very good update from Rogue Spear. The weapon choice is great, while allowing you to put a silencer, large ammunition cartridge, or a scope on almost any gun. The AI is very good in this game, which is a major update from Rogue Spear. The men don't get caught on corners and follow your every order. The graphics in this game are also amazing. I thought the graphics in Ghost Recon were outstanding, but Raven Shield topped them.

This is one game I know I will play for years. Thank you Red Storm.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun Game, but not my Fav
Review: Rewrote this review after playing a couple of months. This game is a lot of fun: The graphics are great, the online play is better that others cause of the level of graphics and weapons choices. Can't switch weapons while playing multi-player, but the best time to change weapons, if you want to, is after you've died in a match and your waiting for the next round to start, press tab.

Single player is fun, but your teammate bots are dummer than Ghost Recon bots if that tells you anything. The enemy bots are too smart sometimes though( they still do an occasional really dumb things)--they will shoot you from a way far away when it seems impossible that they would even know you were even there...jokingly, the bots should have a higher amount of FF casualties since they normally shoot you with just your head peeping around a corner.

You'll hear the same enemy comments too many times to in single player, "hello", "what was that", "that was odd", I'm getting out of here", "I need help". Might've been funny if the enemy bots had of used more colorful comments.


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