DESCRIPTION

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six was PC Gamer's choice for 1998 Action Game of the Year. Based on novels by Tom Clancy, it placed players in the role of the leader of Rainbow Six, a covert international counter-terrorist team. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear throws players back into the fight against terrorism in this, the sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six.

Single Player mode is made up of 18 missions and divided into two phases: planning and action. During the planning phase you will receive the mission briefing, review all intelligence sources, study the roster and choose the eight best men for the mission, arm the operatives with weapons and other useful equipment, break the group into smaller fire teams, and plan where each operative will go, what they will do, and how they should do it.

The action phase plays out like a first-person shooter. Players take control of one of the team leaders and can switch between leaders at any time. A watch option is also available allowing users to watch their plan unfold without taking part in it. When controlling an operative, a first-person or third-person view can be used. Operatives can sneak, crouch, climb ladders, peek around corners, and perform a number of firing tactics. A mission comes to an end when either you choose to abort, your entire team is killed, or the objectives are completed. While the planning phase can take more than a hour, the action phase may be completed in as quickly as a few minutes.

Once one mission is completed a variety of new features appear. A completed mission can be practiced, played over, played as Lone Wolf, and played as Terrorist Hunt. Lone Wolf is a mode where players play on the same map as the mission but without the same objectives. With only one operative, the objective to go from the insertion zone to the extraction zone without being killed. Terrorist Hunt requires you and your team to eliminate all 30 terrorists on the map without having to worry about hostages.

Multi-player games allow players to team up together and play out the single player missions. This mode also has a number of new styles of play, including: Survival, a free-for-all deathmatch game; Team Survival, the same as survival except that you are on one of two teams; Scattered Teams, like team Survival but the teams do not begin together in a base; Terrorist Hunt, in whichnteams compete against each other as well as attempt to get the most terrorist kills; Scatter Hunt, same as Terrorist Hunt except teams do not begin together; and Assassination, where teams attempt to kill each other while guarding a general.

Other multiplayer modes include Scatter Assassination, where teams are spread out and must locate their general and protect him; Save Your Base, teams race for their base and must disarm a bomb faster than the opposing team disarms their bomb; Double Bluff, each team begins the game with a hostage and needs to get their opponent's hostage away from them and into their own base; Stronghold, one team defends a base while the other attempts to break in; and Double Stronghold, both teams defend a base while trying to get into their enemy's base. ~ Jonathan Sutyak, All Game Guide