Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game)

Infobox VG
title = Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six


developer = Red Storm Entertainment
publisher = Red Storm Entertainment
designer = Brian Upton
engine =
released =Microsoft Windows

August 21, 1998
Mac OS, PlayStation & N64

1999
Dreamcast & GameBoy Color

2000

genre = Tactical shooter
modes = Single player, multiplayer
ratings = ESRB: T
OFLC: MA15+
OFLC: G8+ (GBC)
platforms = PC, Mac OS, Dreamcast, PlayStation, N64, Game Boy Color,Playstation Network
media =
requirements =
input =

"Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six" is the first in a series of first hird person tactical shooters computer and video games. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment for the PC in 1998. It was later ported to Mac OS, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast and Game Boy Color. An expansion pack, "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch", was released on January 31, 1999. The original Playstation version was put up for download on the Playstation Store for £3.49 on June 05, 2008.

Origin

Red Storm had originally planned to do a special operations game featuring first-person action, and a team of operators rescuing hostages and taking out terrorists. Their first concept was modeled after the American FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Later they decided to make the concept more international, as HRT would only operate in the US, and renamed it "Black Ops" and incorporated operators from all over the world. It was then they found that Tom Clancy was writing a book about terrorism and a special team to combat it, so they rewrote some of the missions to fit within the book plot. The book was Rainbow Six so the game was renamed Rainbow Six. However, by the time they finished the game, the book was not yet finished. Thus, the plot of the game does not completely match the plot of the book.cite web
url = http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20000121/upton_01.htm
date = 2000-01-21
accessdate = 2007-08-06
title = "Postmortem: Redstorm's Rainbow Six"
publisher = Gamasutra]

Gameplay

"Rainbow Six" is a tactical shooter, which focuses more on stealth and tactics than on sheer firepower. Terrorists (or "tangos") can be dispatched with one or two shots, as can the player or any teammates.

Before each mission is a planning stage, where the player is given a briefing, and then chooses the operatives to be involved in the mission, their weapons, equipment and uniform. Then, the player gives orders that each team will follow during the mission. The planning stage determines elements such as the path the AI-controlled squads will follow through the mission, as well as where they will deploy devices such as flashbangs or door breaching charges.

In the mission itself, the player takes control of one team leader, and can see their plan of action on their Heads-Up Display. The teams not under player control follow the orders given to them in the planning stage. The player can take control of any living team member.

The game forms a campaign that is a series of scenarios, with the plot being advanced in the mission briefing of each scenario. Any casualties that occur during a mission are permanent, so the deceased cannot be used in future missions. However, the player has the ability to "rewind" to retry a successful but disastrous mission.

Online multiplayer gaming was popular on the Mplayer.com and Zone.com services and for a time featured a thriving competitive clan based community with numerous independent ladder style leagues.

Unlike the other versions, the PlayStation version actually showed the gun being held in the player's hands.

Plot

It is the year 1999.

RAINBOW is a newly created multinational counter-terrorism unit, composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism. The organization's director is John Clark, and the team leader is Ding Chavez. The term "Rainbow Six" refers to the director of the organization, John Clark.

Soon after its inauguration, RAINBOW finds itself responding to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by the Phoenix Group, a radical eco-terrorist organization. Throughout its investigation, RAINBOW is assisted and advised by John Brightling, chairman of the powerful bio-tech corporation Horizon Inc.

However, RAINBOW eventually learns that the Phoenix Group is actually a front for Horizon Inc itself. Brightling's company is developing a super-virus, codenamed "Shiva", with the ability to kill every human being on the planet. In order to protect "mother nature," John Brightling is planning to kill the entire human race, sparing only Brightling's chosen few, who will re-emerge and rebuild the planet into a scientific and environmentally-friendly utopia. To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create fear of terrorism, which he then exploited in order to secure a security contract for his own private security firm at the Olympic games. Brightling's plan is for his "security personnel" to unleash the virus at the games, spreading it to all the countries of the world.

RAINBOW succeeds in preventing the release of the virus at the Olympic games, and Brightling and his collaborators retreat to their Horizon Ark facility in the Brazilian jungle, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust. RAINBOW infiltrates the facility, killing all of Brightling's collaborators and capturing Brightling himself.

Eagle Watch

"Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch" was released on January 31, 1999 as an expansion pack to the original game. It adds 5 new missions, 4 new operatives, 3 new weapons and new multiplayer modes. The expansion was packaged with the original game as "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Pack Edition" in 1999.

References

External links

* [http://www.rainbowsixgame.com/ "Rainbow Six" official website]