Description:
There is no doubt about it, the original Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear titles are fantastic games and still manage to captivate action strategists. The latest offering from the Clancy gaming world is Covert Ops Essentials, a bizarre mixture of education and entertainment. Covert Ops provides two new elements to the Rainbow Six world: a clutch of new levels and training missions and an encyclopedic look at the world of counterinsurgency. Covert Ops is a standalone title, so you don't need the original game to run it. Running on the engine of Rogue Spear, Covert Ops has the same overall game structure--you examine the intelligence, and proceed to plan and execute your mission. The Bolivian jungle level is graphically impressive and has all the atmosphere of the original titles, but gaming wise it adds nothing new. The training side of things is highly captivating and there is an abundance of material to absorb. The more you learn, the better prepared you are to tackle the challenges on the gaming side. Perhaps this would have been useful as a teaser for Rogue Spear rather than a follow-up, but at any length, the information resource will captivate fans of the Rainbow Six experience. The graphics and gameplay are still as gripping as its predecessors and have the same attention to detail. And therein lies the beauty, and perhaps the problem. Gamers familiar with the Rainbow Six universe can instantly jump into familiar surroundings, but there is little new material to satisfy their thirst for action. For special-forces enthusiasts, the wealth of information will be well received, but it will leave the hard-core gamers wanting more. Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials provides a reminiscent spattering of new levels, but does not truly satisfy the want of more gaming action. --Chris Hall
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