Rainbow Six

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
Extensions to Game
Screen Shots

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.

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.

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.

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.

This site was last updated 10/22/06