DESCRIPTION

Not all first person shooter games are created equal. Some rely on over-the-top action and gore galore. Others encourage a more methodical approach to your plan of attack. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six takes the latter approach by not only encouraging caution and stealth, but careful planning and resource allocation, as the lives of your team members and hostages are at stake if you muff the details.

In the game, you take control of a top secret, highly trained fighting force whose sole purpose is to prevent terrorism wherever it may spring up. With its multinational support and membership, the group is able to operate in areas where a specific country's involvement could have unpleasant diplomatic repercussions.

There are two main phases to Rainbow Six's game play. First comes the planning stage where you receive your orders and then recruit task force members and plan out their assaults. You'll plan out virtually everything for your various teams from who comes along to what weapons and equipment they're going to use. With the squad management comes frequent radio contact with the various squads. Careful usage of pre planned "go codes" is vital as you only directly control one of four squads yourself, and a squad standing around is a squad wasted.

Then the action phase will plop you into the mission proper. Then it's up to you and your squads to take down the terrorist threats. Missions range from simple embassy rescues to bomb diffusing missions on oilrigs. Most missions will have you seeing only limited engagements with protracted firefights. Each member of your group has their own special skills and stats which are visibly reflected in how large your controlled character's targeting reticle is. (For example, the better the shooter, the smaller the area in where the bullet might hit becomes.) Other factors, like a character's ability to handle stress, can end up making even a very cleverly laid plan unpredictable if they panic.

The Macintosh edition of Rainbow Six also includes an extra expansion pack. Players will also get the chance to have a go at new missions from the Eagle Watch mission pack. The game offers multiple modes like training, which is recommended just to get used to the one hit kill aspect of the action sequences. There are also other modes, such as multiplayer for Internet based squad fighting, and the standard mission driven single player campaign mode. It's a tactical squad based combat simulation, and it's now on the Mac. ~ Joe Ottoson, All Game Guide