Introduction
Rainbow Six, released August 23, 1998, is a companion game to the
Tom Clancy Ryanverse novel Rainbow
Six. The game was developed concurrently with the novel
and, while it tracks the novel rather closely, the plot lines are
slightly different. Rainbow Six combines the strategy elements
of planning assaults (down to even picking the people you want on
the mission) along with the first-person tactical play of putting
your plan into motion (while other teams continue on the plan you
originally developed).
As with the book, Rainbow is the name of a group composed of NATO
and other allied country special operations personnel. "Six" refers
to the commander of the group who, in this case, is John Clark. If
for no other reason, Tom Clancy fans must buy the game to see what
John Clark and Ding Chavez really look like.
There are 16 missions in the game ranging from "simple" hostage
rescues to planting bugs and disarming bombs. The scene rendering
is excellent. The missions begin in an embassy but includes
a high rise office building, offshore oil rig, ship, amusement park
ride, and others. The heartbeat sensor, which Clancy talked
about on the newsgroup, is a central (and necessary) equipment item. Primary
weapons include H&K MP5's, M-16's, CAR-15's, and others.
Truly, this is one of the best games to appear in some time.
For the best information relating to Rainbow Six, I suggest this link. This
is by far the best site on the web about Rainbow Six.
Patch Files
As with virtually all software packages, patches and updates are
usually required soon after release to address certain items that
could not be fully tested in the "lab". Red Storm
Entertainment has provided these patches in less than 3 weeks from
release. There is one required patch file and one file containing
sound files which is not necessarily required.
Required Patch - Rainbow Six 1.04
Even if you previously downloaded and installed other patches, you
will need to download and install this patch: r6104.exe. This
patch will handle all of the prior versions of Rainbow Six including
the original.
This patch file was downloaded from the Red Storm ftp site and reposted. It
has not been modified.
Sound Files
There were missing mutliplayer sound files on the original CD. If
you get on the internet or other network for multiplayer games, you
will need this file. Download and install the files in this
zip in your \windows\system directory: voxware.zip.
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Extensions to Game
Some real enterprising gamers have started adding weapons to the
game. Best source for all things Rainbow Six is http://www.rainbowsix.net.
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Screen Shots
Many people have commented on the quality of the renderings in the
game and I cannot say enough about the impressive, and thorough, scenes. Most
of the comments seem to center on the oil rig which is fully rendered
and just really good. My personal favorite, though, is the WorldPark
ride. Screen shots of both are available below. Click
on the thumbnails to show the large image.
Oil Rig
The oil rig is Mission #3. Phoenix Group operatives have taken
over a North Sea rig and are threatening to blow the thing up causing
an environmental disaster.
WorldPark
In addition to being a Tom Clancy fan, I'm a huge fan of Disney World. The
WorldPark ride is a work of art, for sure. The first screen
shot shows why. This is sunlight (artificial of course), beaming
into this room of the ride.
This is the main room of the ride (Pirate Wreck Room?). Note
the hostages kneeling in water. The tangos are now underwater.
This is a picture of the two children you save in this mission. This
is still in the Pirate Wreck Room.
This is a picture of all the hostages in a service corridor on the
way out of the building.
I will try and post more screenshots as I find interesting things
in the game.
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Red Storm Entertainment
The best source of data about the game remains the Red Storm Entertainment
site. Links to other R6 related sites are also available there. Follow
this link: Red Storm
Entertainment Rainbow Six Website. Additionally, this link to
planetrainbowsix also has a wealth of information.
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