Publisher: Ubisoft
Ages: Teens & up
Parental
Advisory:
Violent fighting
Terrorists, cutting-edge weaponry and deadly viruses: it's all in a day's work for Team Rainbow. Ubisoft's amazing and popular team shooter returns in Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown. The game generally offers more of the same kind of action that was delivered in earlier versions with a few improvements. But when it comes to the Rainbow Six franchise, this is a good thing.
In the game, a global terrorist network threatens to strike an unknown target with a dangerous nanotech virus. It's up to Team Rainbow, an elite counter-terrorism unit, to save millions of innocent lives threatened by these terrorists.
In a team shooter such as Rainbow Six, players control a team of operatives and send orders to other team members who carry them out. As before, the game equips players with the latest weaponry. New items this round include motion trackers, battering rams and the MTAR-21 micro assault rifle. A sensor allows you to detect the enemy, which reduces some of the tension of entering a closed room-players can already tell if combatants are waiting.
The single-player campaign offers dual perspectives as gamers play as Ding Chavez, the confident team leader who never leaves a man behind, and Dieter Weber, the team's arrogant, relentless sniper. Weber's segments offer arcade-style shooting activities.
The multi-player modes are excellent, action-packed and fun to play. Here, the game offers split-screen cooperative play for two and supports up to four players via Xbox Live. The Xbox version also offers a fun character generation mode that supports multi-play.
The artificial intelligence continues to improve and computer controlled bad guys are smarter than ever, employing tactics such as flanking, suppression fire and room clearing. At times, the computer controlled guys can do odd things, but their responses are quite good. The graphics are first rate. As one would expect, the game is a violent one.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is an excellent franchise that is worthy of new episodes. This one will satisfy longtime fans of the series, and those who have never before experienced the joys of a team shooter can find lots to like.
-Wayne N. Kawamoto, Managing Editor
