Addictive? Sure!

Rainbow Six is a first-person-shooter ( FPS ) game with planning and built-in tension; it is MUCH different from the myriad of games where you run through corridors, grab 'power-ups', and shoot everything that moves....no, no, no, you're in the wrong house if you want that.

In Rainbow Six you control a group specific group of soldiers ( from different countries, but the details aren't that important ) formed after a wave of terrorist incidents in 1999; you go from one mission to the next, planning the mix of people you want, their equipment, and route in the battle area ( I would a better term if there was one ).

Each scenario/mission takes place in an area small enough for the soldiers to move about within requiring transport. Some of the battle areas are the size of a medium sized building, others are a fairly wide expanse, such as a compound or dam.

The objectives of your mission vary; you may have to rescue a hostage, disarm explosives, or sneak into a house to gather information. Each mission has reconnaisance information ( info gets more borderline as you progress ) on the 'tangos' ( terrorists/enemy soldiers ), hostages, explosives, etc. After reviewing the info, you plan the mission, chosing soldiers, placing them into teams ( small groups ), assigning them weapons, armor, and other equipment; then you give your teams waypoints ( routes to move along ) on the map of the battle area.

The consequences of a mission carry to the next mission; a soldier who's killed is ( obviously ) unavailable for any more missions; a soldier fatigued from a mission will tired if used for the next mission.

Near the end of the game, missions get quite tough ( too tough for some people ).

The game is very memory-intensive; a computer below Pentium II level will have troubles running the game at an acceptable speed; graphics are considered modest; it's a partial wonder where the 'work' of the computer is being used.

The game can be played in single player mode or multiplayer mode ( up to 16 players! ); having many people play causes very slow game play.

Bugs, problems

The terrorists/enemy soldiers are a bit 'stupid'; if you shoot one ( non-fatal hit ) from a location where you can't
be seen, the target will look around, see nothing, then go about his business as if his bloody wound doesn't exist.

The release version of the game has some bugs: sometimes there is 'mouse ghosting' ( after-image of mouse ); a terrorist may be able to poke his leg THROUGH a door, then withdraw it.