Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (video game)

This article is about the first game in the Rainbow Six video game series . For information on the rest of the series, see Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six . For the novel with the same name, see Rainbow Six (novel).

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Developer(s)	Red Storm Entertainment
Publisher(s)	Red Storm Entertainment
Designer(s)	Brian Upton
Composer(s)	Bill Brown
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Mac OS, Game Boy Color, Dreamcast, PlayStation Network
Release date(s)	August 21, 1998 Windows NA August 21, 1998 EU October 1998 Nintendo 64 NA November 17, 1999 PlayStation NA November 23, 1999 EU November 1999 Mac OS NA December 8, 1999 Game Boy Color NA April 3, 2000 EU November 10, 2000 Dreamcast NA May 9, 2000 EU February 2, 2001 PlayStation Network PAL June 5, 2008 NA May 21, 2009
Genre(s)	Tactical shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, Multiplayer

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six is a tactical shooter computer game and the first in the Rainbow Six series. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment for the PC in 1998. It was later ported to Mac OS, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast and Game Boy Color. An expansion pack, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch, was released on January 31, 1999. The original PlayStation version is now available for download from the PlayStation Store.

Origin

Red Storm Entertainment (founded by author Tom Clancy) had originally planned to do a special operations game featuring first-person action, and a team of operators rescuing hostages and taking out terrorists. Their first concept was modeled after the American FBI Hostage Rescue Team. Later they decided to make the concept more international, as HRT would only operate in the U.S., and renamed it "Black Ops" and incorporated operators from all over the world. It was then they found that Tom Clancy was writing a book about terrorism and a special team to combat it, so they rewrote some of the missions to fit within the book plot and Clancy shared his research with the game development team. The book was Rainbow Six so the game was renamed Rainbow Six. However, by the time they finished the game, the book was not yet finished. Thus, the plot of the game does not completely match the plot of the book.

Gameplay

Rainbow Six is a tactical shooter, which focuses more on stealth and tactics than on sheer firepower. To add to the realism, all in-game characters, terrorists, hostages and Rainbow operatives, can be wounded or dispatched in just fractions of a second. Tools such as thicker body armor, automatic rifles, and grenades have little value before the player grows accustomed to the gameplay.

Before each mission is a planning stage, during which the player is given a briefing, and then chooses the operatives to be involved in the mission, their weapons, equipment and uniform/camouflage. In earlier games, the player pre-established orders and waypoints during this step. The planning stage determined elements such as the path the AI-controlled squads would follow during the mission, as well as where they will deploy devices such as flashbangs or door breaching charges.

Successful missions often last just minutes, but may require dozens of repetitions and planning changes (many more for beginners). During gameplay, the player controls only one team member directly, and can see stats for that member and all units on the Heads-Up Display. Teams not under player control follow the orders given to them in the planning stage. The player can take control of any living operative at will, making them the leader.

The game forms a campaign that is a series of scenarios, with the plot being advanced in the mission briefing of each scenario. Any casualties that occur during a mission are permanent, so the deceased cannot be used in future missions. Consequently, many players replay missions that are technically successful merely to reduce the number of casualties.

Online multiplayer gaming was popular on the Mplayer.com and Zone.com services and for a time featured a thriving competitive clan based community with numerous independent ladder style leagues.

Unlike the other versions, the PlayStation version actually showed the gun being held in the player's hands.

Plot

Rainbow Six is set in the year 1999.

RAINBOW is a newly created multinational counter-terrorism unit, composed of elite soldiers from NATO countries, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism. The organization's director is John Clark, and the team leader is Ding Chavez. The term "Rainbow Six" refers to the director of the organization, John Clark.

Soon after its inauguration, RAINBOW finds itself responding to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by the Phoenix Group, a radical eco-terrorist organization. Throughout its investigation, RAINBOW is assisted and advised by John Brightling, chairman of the powerful biotechnology corporation Horizon Inc.

However, RAINBOW eventually learns that the Phoenix Group is actually a front for Horizon Inc itself. Brightling's company is developing a highly contagious strain of the Ebola virus, called "Shiva," with the ability to kill every human being on the planet. In order to protect "mother nature," John Brightling is planning to kill the entire human race, sparing only Brightling's chosen few, who will re-emerge and rebuild the planet into a scientific and environmentally-friendly utopia. To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create fear of terrorism, which he then exploited in order to get a security contract for his own private security firm at the Olympic Games. Brightling's plan is for his "security personnel" to unleash the virus at the games, spreading it to all the countries of the world.

RAINBOW succeeds in preventing the release of the virus at the Olympics, and Brightling and his collaborators retreat to their Horizon Ark facility in the Brazilian jungle, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust. RAINBOW infiltrates the facility, killing all of Brightling's collaborators and capturing Brightling himself.

Reception

Gamespot.au described Rainbow Six as "actually a pretty good game, albeit very hard and extremely frustrating", and "Rainbow Six's audio cues, background sounds, and other various noises are also represented very well; the immersive feeling of Rainbow Six is perhaps one of the best seen in a game." In 2001-2002 Rainbow Six and Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear together sold 450,000 copies.

Organizations

• Rainbow

• Phoenix Group

• Horizon

• Global Security

• Free Europe

• Neo-Marxists

• Hutu Rebels

Characters

• John Clark - born in 1944 is commander of Rainbow, and arguably the closest thing to a main protagonist the game has. Although he almost never physically appears he appears during the planning stage, during which the player can get a briefing from him. Unlike most characters Clark can give briefings on every mission throughout the game. His physical character appears during the closing cut scene when John Brightling is being interrogated by the FBI. At the end he commends the soldiers for their bravery.

• Catherine Winston - born in 1965 is a bio-hazard expert who becomes involved with Rainbow after being kidnapped by Hutu rebels in Africa and rescued by Rainbow. She briefs the characters on most mission but not all. Unlike John Clark, Catherine makes more physical appearances than him on levels 2 and 10. Ironically both of these levels she has been kidnapped (she is kidnapped by Phoenix Group after discovering their plan). She is last seen viewing Brightling's interrogation.

• John Brightling - CEO of "Horizon" and the games main antagonist. He organised Horizon as a cover for "Phoenix Group" and had some members in Global Security. He is and adviser on levels 2 and 4 but goes into hiding after Rainbow begin to unravel everything. However after his plan fails, Lang and Hendrikson are captured and put in Rainbow's custody. Brightling barricades himself in the Horizon Ark itself. After Rainbow storm the ark, they find Brightling to which he said "I see the Cavalry has finally arrived. He states that the guns aren't necessary as he will come quietly. Once in Rainbow's custody, he tells Clark that it's not over and in 100 years there wont be a creature larger that a rat alive anywhere on the planet.

• Anne Lang - Adviser for Rainbow and Horizon and main supporting antagonist. She is rainbow's security leak and gave away all their Intel to Brightling and she orders Catherine's capture. Clark said that he never trusted her or Brightling. Anne herself is put into Rainbow's custody after a failed attempt to fake her own death. She is last seen arguing with Clark saying that this is outrageous.

• Bill Hendrikson - head of operations of "Global Security". He is captured after he is discovered to have ties to Phoenix. He reveals that bombs to release the virus were place in the air speculation is Sydney, Australia during the Summer Olympic Games as he was in charge of security for it. His fate after the interrogation is unknown.

• Ramon Calderon - A drug trafficker living in exile in Brazil. He is set up by Horizon so they can gain Rainbow's trust and is killed by them which is a fact not discovered by Rainbow until they hack Horizon's computer months later.

• Roland Kunst - born in 1979 is a defector form the Phoenix Group who decides to give information about the virus that Phoenix intends in unleash if Rainbow can rescue him and give him protection. They successfully do so and discover a facility were the virus is being manufactured. His fate afterwards in unknown.

Eagle Watch

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch was released on January 31, 1999 as an expansion pack to the original game. It adds 5 new missions, 4 new operatives, 3 new weapons and new multiplayer modes. The expansion was packaged with the original game as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Pack Edition in 1999.

External links

• Rainbow Six official website