Rainbow

The Rainbow six series has always been our favorite series in all of video games. We're all for realism and tactical shooters, and Rainbow takes the cake. As a kid I loved playing Rainbow Six on the Nintendo 64 with Stefan. Then as years passed we went on to the Xbox, and..

Rainbow Six: 3. This is the first game I remember playing and being completely amazed. The graphics were top notch (and still are, compared to some games released today), the action was intense, realistic and loud. The large selection of weapons were incredibly modeled, and the reloading of their magazines have never been beat by any other game, in terms of realism. The map designs were very diverse and gritty. On one map there is Opera music playing over some speakers within a tropical estate type building. In any other game this may have came off as comedic, in this, it only added to the cold hearted feeling that you are a killer; tactically moving through this house, commanding your team, and leaving a bloody mess in your path. The only downside is there was no co-op, split screen play, for me and my bro.
Replay value: Excellent
Ruling: 9.2 out of 10

Rainbow Six: 3 Black Arrow. Now this one was made about a year or so after RS:3. Stefan and I first saw an advertisement in a magazine about this game, which showed a small screenshot of some split-screen action, which hyped us up. Well we got it when it came out, and to our horror you couldn't see your weapons when playing the co-op. But we tried to ignore it and find other things to amuse us. That only led to the discovery of worse graphics, and bad map design, that kind of made us depressed feeling. So we returned it after a while, and returned to playing RS:3.
Replay value: Sorta good
Ruling: 6.3 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Lockdown. (Not made by the same team as RS:3) I'm going to sum this up in one sentence. A horrible nightmare of cheapness.
Replay Value: None
Ruling: 1 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Critical hour. Pretty much the same as Lockdown, but with old Rainbow Six music to try and make it feel more tactical. It didn't work.
Same as Lockdown

Rainbow Six: Vegas. (Made by the RS:3 team) In the utter embarrassment of Lockdown and Critical hour they try to make up for them with a new revamped Rainbow Six game, for next-gen consoles. It worked. The action, weapons, tactics, and sounds are great, and you CAN see your weapons on the spit-screen co-op! The level designs are ok, but a bit too repetitive. The ability to take cover behind stuff and going to a third person view works well. We had loads of fun on this until this newest one came out...
Replay Value: Very Good
Ruling: 8.9 out of 10

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. I know, the title is a bit cheap, but the game is going pretty good. The addition of the P.E.C (persistent-elite-creation) to the single player, and co-op really help this game a ton. And the level design (although repetitive) is fun, and more open that Vegas 1. The newly added weapons are a bit cheap, but cool. But there is this one reading animation that is VERY cheap where your character takes a mag out and puts another one in very stiffly, ok, but then he hits it again with NO SOUND EFFECT ADDED!!! AAHHHH!!.. sorry. We are almost finished with the campaign, and are on a very cool, tropical map that is refreshing after the mazes of Vegas buildings. So, I will put the verdict up for this one when we are done with it.
Cya then.
OK, we just finished it and it was pretty good. At the end there was a battle between you and a helecopter that was tough, and very skippy, and glitchy. But it was still good fun.
Replay value: quite good
Ruling: 8.8 out of 10

- Joey