Rainbow Six 3 follows the exploits of the Rainbow Six squad of counterterrorism commandoes. Rainbow Six is called in when hostages’ lives are at stake and it is too risky or downright impossible to send in normal police or counterterrorism units. As Rainbow Six leader Ding Chavez you’ll have to lead your four man team into a variety of hostile locations around the world to take out terrorists while ensuring that they do not make victims of their hostages.

Your team enters a village.

Rainbow Six 3 is a first person shooter, but true to Tom Clancy form it shuns many of the standard first-person shooter gameplay elements in favor of providing a more realistic experience. There are no health or ammo packs lying scattered around the map – the only ammo and equipment available is what you bring with you. And you can forget about blindly charging through levels with gun-blazing as it only takes a couple of hits to bring you down for good.

Each of Rainbow Six 3’s missions is set in the near future and is introduced by cutscenes that set the stage for the mission and puts it into context with the game’s overall storyline. After the cutscene you are taken to a pre-mission screen which provides a detailed description of your objectives for the mission. From this screen you can also select the equipment carried by your squad into the mission. Remember that we’re dealing with a realistic shooter here, so don’t expect to be able to grab a little of everything. If this sounds like too much work for you, don’t worry. Your squad is automatically equipped before a mission and the game ensures that you have the right weapons on hand to do your job.

Rainbow Six 3 is a squad based shooter, so you’ll play each mission with three computer-controlled squadmates. While it is the computer that will control your squad’s basic actions, you’re in charge of the mission and can issue several different orders to them. These orders include your basic move to location, hold, and fire at will orders, but also include more advanced actions such as breeching a door and clearing the room beyond, securing hostages, and disarming bombs. Orders are given through a simple but elegant interface where the press of a button brings up a screen overlay with the orders arranged in a circle. Move the stick to the order you want to give and your squad will immediately begin to try and carry out your orders. The location or target of your orders is specified simply by looking at it. Look at a spot on the floor and that’s where you’re squad will go. In a room full of doors, the door you’re looking at when giving a breech and clear order will be the one breeched and cleared. The game also provides you with a “Zulu” option which gives you even more flexibility when issuing orders. Your squad will not carry out a Zulu order until you give the word for them to go. This allows you to do things like simultaneously assaulting a room through two different doorways.

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