Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six is an example of the new thinking in first person shooters. Instead of the shoot-em ups of the past, such as Doom and Quake, Rainbow Six emphasizes thinking, stealth, and read/recognize skills.  Rainbow Six was incredibly successful on PC.  Can Saffire do the same for Nintendo 64?

Rainbow Six follows the exploits of an international special operations group called Rainbow. The group is headed by John Clark, an ex-Navy SEAL and CIA operative. Clark is the "Six" or commanding officer, and is a re-occurring character in many of Clancy’s novels. The group’s mission is to take on those threats created by the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Soviet Union. The game follows the novel loosely and eventually diverges form the actual story of the book itself. The ops team is sent on various missions around the world, usually to take out a terrorist concentration or rescue hostages. 

Starting a mission in Rainbow Six is much different than most first person shooters. At the beginning of each mission the player first receives their overall orders from John Clark.  He briefs you on the particulars of the mission and gives you an idea of what to expect in terms of resistance and objectives. You are then given access to any extra info that may be pertinent to the mission: profiles of important people, particular aspects of geography, or information regarding the terrorists involved. 

After the information sessions, the most innovative aspect of the game is presented: You take on the role of John Clark.  As the "Six" of Rainbow, you must pick your team and form a roster of more than 20 various soldiers. A bio and file for each soldier is provided and vital info regarding the individual is available.  Each solder is an expert in special operations but most specialize in certain areas such as demolitions, shooting, or stealth.  Once you have picked up to 4 team members, you an split them into as many as four groups- and each can be assigned individual orders.  After you have hand selected your team for the operation, you can go with default gear set ups, or micromanage the gear set ups for each team member. The type of weapons, ammo, back up weapons, grenades, and various other gadgets can be selected for each team member.  The amount of body armor and type of camouflage is also user-defined. 

Once your team is briefed, outfitted and armed, it is up to the Six to devise a plan to accomplish the objectives set out on the orders screen. The planning screen gives the player an overhead map of the objective, complete with doorways, expected hostiles and expected locations of civilians. If the area of the objective is multileveled, overlay maps can be accessed by the user as well. On the map screen the player can plot a course of movement through the objective for each and every team, complete with "way points" and "go codes." 

Way points and Go codes are an exciting aspect of Rainbow Six, adding a great feeling of realism to the game. Through the game, the computer controlled units will either Engage, Advance, Escort, or Execute a special action.  Each of these is the computer’s prime order to carry out their mission in a particular way.  These actions can be changed at way points.  Go codes are keyed commands that a player can issue to the computer via subscreen.  By giving a go code to a CPU team, they will carry out a specific order immediately after receiving the go code.  The combination of go codes and waypoint orders can be used to pull off clockwork movements by all the teams. Once you have planned your mission, the mission is then played in a first person view. You can follow your plan, and if necessary, deviate from it. 

The control in Rainbow Six manages to use almost every button on the N64 controller. Character movement is done through Turok-style controls, where the "c" buttons move, the analog stick is aiming, and the trigger is the action button. All of the other buttons and the cross pad are related to issuing orders and activating features of equipment, like scopes and night vision goggles. Anyone who has played a first person shooter on the N64 will have no problems whatsoever with the controls of this game. Control is tight and responsive.  It must be mentioned however that this game strives for realism, and thus running and firing is not very useful.  If your character is moving while firing his or her accuracy with the weapon will be seriously hampered. Realism also extends to reloading, changing weapons, or any activities that require precious seconds to accomplish.  A small meter will pop up when an action is undertaken, it illustrates the amount of time that it will take. After some experience the player learns to reload in a safe place, and to time their actions. 

The graphics in Rainbow Six are not a highlight. They are clean and everything looks realistic, but they are not much better than GoldenEye 007. The graphics are adequate and represent the surroundings well enough. They just aren’t spectacular, or groundbreaking.  

The same cannot be said of the sound.  The sound is very good in Rainbow Six, and is integral to gameplay.  As a special ops team, stealth and silence are vital to your survival. Keeping tabs on enemies and teammates is done through audio, and differentiating between the two is obviously important. The sound effects are awesome.  Extraneous sounds, weapon and equipment sounds are very realistic and convey a real sense of immersion.  Teammates will communicate via radio of their status with the occasional "Tango Down!" to announce a kill.  Explosives set within earshot of terrorists will spook them.  Sound is a definite high point, both in quality and application.

Using the planning mode of Rainbow Six allows you to diffuse a dangerous situation like clockwork.  Suppose that there are hostages in the middle of a room with three doors.  Outfit your team with standard issue weapons and flash grenades and split your 4 soldiers into 3 teams. One team goes to each door, and "waits" for a go code Beta. The team with 2 men with two men issued and additional go code, "Alpha."  The alpha code is keyed to opening the door and tossing the flash grenade-to disorient everyone in the room. Key Beta to storming the room with an "Engage" order. All of this is done in the planning stage. Then when you go to play the mission, you pick one of the teams to control.  Once all teams have met at their way point, they will radio in and inform the other teams of their "wait status."  Then when all teams are in place, order the go code, and storm in.  One team drops the flash grenade, and everyone else goes in shooting, with a little practice you can take a room like clockwork.

Any of the missions in Rainbow Six can be played through with another gamer. A split screen co-op mission takes a small frame rate hit, but most of the time it’s not a gameplay problem. The mode take a little getting used to, coordinating movement and attacks, but the experience pays off. This is the extent of multiplayer modes however, as there is no death match. A co-op team death match would have been a definite plus, hopefully they add one to Rogue Spear. 

Rainbow Six is yet another excellent addition to the stable of N64 first person shooters. The attention to team play, timing, strategy and planning make it intriguing in it’s innovation. Replay is limited to perfecting of team skills and better operations, but the short ride is well worth the time spent.