Rogue Spear (Mac)

Rating:
Summary: Fan-friendly evolution of R6. Now what?
Review: Every few years, the gaming world is shaken by a new arrival that breaks the mold and sets a new standard. The original Rainbow Six (R6) was such a game: a thinking person's, full immersion CQB shooter, with heavy doses of planning and stealth.

How to follow up on that monster hit? Evolution or revolution? RedStorm opted to tweak and probably did the right thing. Rogue Spear is a fan-friendly, incremental improvement on R6. And the fans are loving it for what it is: R6 as it should have been.

Rogue Spear satisfies as both a sequel and a stand-alone game. R6 veterans buy Rogue Spear for "more of the same, but better": new missions, a few more loadout options, dedicated snipers, and fixes to some gripes.

For newcomers, Rogue Spear rivals prequel R6 as the most realistic, brain-intensive shooter on the market. Truth be told, if you like one game, you should buy the other, too; but play them in the order of release, to appreciate Rogue Spear's improvements.

What next? RedStorm has a real money-making franchise on its hands, and on one level, they'd be fools to mess with it. They can doubtless keep cranking out new missions, maps, and tweaks once every year. Not a bad prospect, but not exactly earth-shaking, either.

On the other hand, one can imagine creative expansions that *would* make the Rainbow series more exciting and challenging. The ability to change plans on the fly, during mission execution. Parachute or helicopter insertions. Rock climbing and rappelling. Water-based missions (SEAL/SBS). Fighting against conventional military units. Calling in friendly conventional military units or air strikes for support. Observing the game through the terrorists' eyes. Enemies who communicate with each other by radio -- making them harder to surprise. Traitors. Hand to hand combat. Knife fighting. Picking up weapons from fallen enemies. Ambushes, booby traps, and claymores. PDA communications during pure stealth missions, as in Traitors Gate. Spying missions, with eavesdropping gadgets and dialogue. Civilian garb. Car chases and shootouts. Desert missions. Unexpected changes in orders in the middle of a mission. Contextual, optional AI advice during the planning phase. Detailed performance critiques from Clark after each mission.

The possibilities are many ...

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distraction!!!
Review: I think this is the most entertaining game for a computer that I have ever played. After the first game I played, I was hooked! I just won Rainbow Six and will now take on Rogue Spear. Just buy it!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distraction!!!
Review: Rogue Spear on the Mac is for the most part awesome but...what hurts it is the feeble online multiplayer support. Graphics are good and game play is fun and intense (especially when you know you have three snipers drawing a bead on you). However, to play others online you're limited to GameRanger that finds online games for Macs (unless u can get IP#s to play on) where you can find all of 8-10 people serving games. Ugh. The toughest part of the game is trying to get in on an online game. If you do succeed, it is fun. Nothing beats running around in immense maps with a small band of counter terrorists knowing your enemy could be just around the corner. Fun missions (run through bunkers, a hotel, a 747, city streets, winter chalet, subway etc.,) and lots of diversity and strategy. But again...not many people serving up mac games. This is however, probably the closest we'll get to Counter Strike or Half-Life on the Mac, as those companies don't have any plans for a Mac port. Still a good buy. Highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome but...
Review: Rogue Spear on the Mac is for the most part awesome but...what hurts it is the feeble online multiplayer support. Graphics are good and game play is fun and intense (especially when you know you have three snipers drawing a bead on you). However, to play others online you're limited to GameRanger that finds online games for Macs (unless u can get IP#s to play on) where you can find all of 8-10 people serving games. Ugh. The toughest part of the game is trying to get in on an online game. If you do succeed, it is fun. Nothing beats running around in immense maps with a small band of counter terrorists knowing your enemy could be just around the corner. Fun missions (run through bunkers, a hotel, a 747, city streets, winter chalet, subway etc.,) and lots of diversity and strategy. But again...not many people serving up mac games. This is however, probably the closest we'll get to Counter Strike or Half-Life on the Mac, as those companies don't have any plans for a Mac port. Still a good buy. Highly recommend.

Rating:
Summary: 100 Percent Challenge
Review: This game has been one of the best buys of my life! Even if you are so talented that you beat the game on the hardest settiing, Urban Operations comes with it and thats even harder!! My friend down the street owns the game and we play eachother online, sometimes on a team and others opposing.