Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game): Difference between revisions

The original ''Rainbow Six'' for the PC was a first-person combat game which was revolutionary for its realistic combat, feature slow and steady character movement and one-shot-kill gameplay, in contrast to the [[One Man Army]] approach taken by all previous [[First Person Shooter]] games. The most notable feature was the tactical planning map before each mission, in which you organized up to 4 separate fire-teams and planned out their movements throughout the map, allowing you to plan out and implement complex maneuvers using multiple teams. During the mission itself, you controlled 1 team while the computer A.I. controlled the other 3 teams following the path and instructions you laid out in the tactical planning map. Players could switch to direct control of any team and any team member on the fly. Along with its stand-alone expansion pack ''Rogue Spear'', ''Rainbow Six'' was critically acclaimed for its serious and tactically deep gameplay.

However, the series deviated from its tactical shooter roots starting with the fourth game in the series, ''Rainbow Six: Lockdown''. ''Lockdown'' did away with the tactical map for more straightforward linear levels, with the player controlling a single character (backed up by 3 A.I. controlled teammates) and moving from start to finish through linear levels while mowing down a small army of terrorists. Gameplay was much more forgiving, with players able to survive several assault rifle shots before dying, and the game played out much more like a standard [[First Person Shooter]] than the previous games in the series (although the inability to restore lost health in the middle of a mission resulted in the retention of some tactical challenge).

''Rainbow Six: Vegas'' and ''Rainbow Six: Vegas 2'', the latest games in the series, are in many ways ''Rainbow Six'' [[In Name Only]], being a hybrid first-person/third-person shooter with cover-based gameplay, somewhat similar to ''[[Gears of War]]'', and featuring a regenerating health system and standard [[First Person Shooter]]-style combat. Although ''Vegas'' was critically acclaimed for its gameplay and presentation, it's a far cry from the series original tactical shooter roots.

* [[A Team Firing]]: Attempting to blind-fire from behind cover in ''Vegas'' results in this. Outside of a few feet, the most you can hope for while shooting is to force the enemy into cover so you can safely pop out and actually aim.

* [[Cluster F Bomb]]: Not so much in the original games, but quite common in the ''Vegas'' games.

* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Averted. Even nonfatal hits are [[Game Breaking Injury|crippling]], and shots to the head or center mass are [[One Hit Kill|one hit kills]].

* [[Nintendo Hard]]: [[One Hit Kill]] (even with the heaviest armor you can get) gameplay combined with the inability to save mid-mission resulted in very high game difficulty. Additionally, characters killed during a mission were gone forever and would be replaced on the team roster by generic [[Red Shirt|Redshirts]] with much lower stats, while injured team members had decreased stats.

* [[One Hit Kill]]: In the original games, one or two bullets was sufficient to kill any character in the game, both players and enemies. This made combat much more tactical, involving slow and steady searching and room clearing rather than the standard [[First Person Shooter]] "run in guns blazing" approach.

* [[One Man Army]]: Averted in the games before ''Vegas''. Your teams are there for a reason, use them! Trying to Rambo through a mission will get you killed, even on Recruit difficulty. This is a bit easier in ''Lockdown'' and ''Vegas'' because of the regenerating health, but still punishingly difficult.

* [[Precision F Strike]]: There's a lot of swearing in Vegas...except for Bishop, who only says it twice - once when {{spoiler|Echo Team is taken out by a surprise bomb}}, and once when s\he {{spoiler|gets pissed at Gabe joking about shooting Sharon.}}

* [[Purely Aesthetic Gender]]: Bishop in ''Rainbow Six: Vegas 2''. Not really an issue, as it's a [[First Person Shooter]], not an RPG, so there's no point in the game where it would logically make a difference anyway.

* [[Screw the Money I Have Rules]]: In ''Vegas'', the terrorists take over not one, but several Las Vegas casino vaults. Most of it is left undisturbed, and none of the terrorists attempt to just grab the cash and escape in the confusion. In fact, you can overhear arguments between terrorists who are ideological and those who are mercenary.

* [[Screw the Rules I'm Doing What's Right]]: The final mission in Vegas 2 has the Bravo team acting outside orders. Later shown {{spoiler|[[The Cavalry|Charlie and Delta team did the same]].}}

* [[Walk It Off]]: The ''Rainbow Six: Vegas'' series had regenerating health, a far cry from the series' original [[One Hit Kill]] tactical shooter roots.

* [[What the Hell Player]]: Your team will call out the generic [[Oh Crap]] radio call "Murphy! Murphy!" if you throw a grenade at them accidentally.