Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Mac)

When I saw this in a shop, and having read the book, how could I resist, and the box looked so incredibly Pretty!!! I got it home, sat and waited for the install process to begin. That being painless was perhaps just a precursor to the main event, the game itself.

Now most of the reviews I have read for this game claim that it revolutionises strategy gaming, utilising the military practice and simulation software for a majority of its missions. Well I have one thing to say about that, perhaps it explains the reason why most SWAT team opperations go down the pan rather quickly. If this is the basis of the US military opertaions modelling then they have a long way to go.

You want to get into the game, you know see the plot which allegidly arcs through it all, enjoy the level design. What are you hit with, training. Where the first lesson you learn is that all your men show the same amount of intelligence. That of a labotomised rat. You learn quickly that if you move your men into strategic positions in the corner of the room, giving them maximum coverage, they get stuck, and often spend the rest of the mission continuing to run into the corner for a large period of time. Trying to get them out again is a challange in itself. Its a wonder why they didn't call it 'corner runner 6'

Then there is the farse that is some of the training missions, it is impossible to do them first time. There is a specific mission where the second you open the door, the person you are trying to protect gets shot by the terrorist. Now if you try and shoot him with the standard weapon, notmally an MP5, (you know, because they use it on the films) you end up spreading the hostages brains everywhere. This means that you have to load agian and do it with a pistol. A chance you wouldn't get in real life. But never mind that, its a game, you should be able to divine the hostage locations out of the air....or use a hidden camera which have been available to such military units since 1968...but sadly have been ommited from the game.

Once the sloggery of training is over you learn rapidly that your men are all the more stupid for it, and most of the missions rely on you completing all the objectives from the man you are controlling, making the game rather like Quake, with one shot kills. You spend hours planning the perfect logical ambush and attack on a site, you spend hours doing it. You expect your men to at least follow basic instructions. However, sadly, even this seems to be beyond them. They prefer screwing up. Order a flash bang to be thrown in at a certain time, you wait....you wait..your entry team goes in with no cover and dies. What has happened you wonder? The man that was meant to through the flash bang ran into a tree and is still trying to run through it at that moment....great!

If ever there is an example of a game being great graphically and fun initially this is it. Then you realise that controlling your incredibly banal men and running around doing the whole job yourself is rather tedious. The one shot kills makes the game realistic. However total realism is not always what you want, especially when the men you are contorlling behave like such morons. Come under fire...they...run into corners....and then continue running and running, until they are killed, as they have yet to figure out that the best way of moving out of a corner is turning around.

This game is what happens when you concentrait on the graphics rather than the game play, and what makes it even worse is that even the graphics appear dated by todays standards. Save your money and go buy the sequal or indeed the new Police Quest Swat game....which frankly has it all, but so much better and all the more fun.