Rainbow Six (Game Boy Color)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.4 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 05/01/2000
• Updated on: 05/08/2000
• Released on: 04/13/2000
• Originally published on GameSpot: Rainbow Six (Game Boy Color) Review

The rise of terrorist activity has thrown cities, nations, and ethnic groups into a state of paranoia. As commander of the Rainbow counterterrorism unit, you must disperse hostage situations, collect intelligence, neutralize hostile actions, and bring some semblance of peace back to the world. This is a heavy job, to say the least, but you're up to it. Succeed through 16 diversely involving missions in Red Storm's rendition of Rainbow Six and you might end up as the world's greatest counterterrorist operative.

As you can imagine, being the commander of a counterterrorist unit makes for a unique gaming experience. The console and PC Rainbow Six titles conveyed the experience with 3D visuals, free-roaming gameplay, and insatiably thick plot undertones. In the Game Boy version, the visuals and gameplay are scaled back, but the engrossing plot remains. Since each mission begins the same, here is a synopsis of what you can expect. First, there's the briefing, in which you learn about the situation at hand. Ignoring the information in these briefings will hurt you, so pay attention. After the briefing, you must choose your combat squad. Eight operatives will be your eyes, ears, and hands in the field. As the commander, you know their strengths and weaknesses in a variety of areas, so it's easy to choose the right man, or woman, for the job. Once you've chosen them, you will sort them into three or four small teams of up to three members each.

After the selection phase, you must equip your soldiers with their necessary arms. Each member can have one of six different rifles, one of six different handguns, one of 24 armor/camouflage types, and two extra tools, such as grenades, door charges, heartbeat sensors, or electronics kits. In the first few missions, the default equipment is fine. In later missions however, you have to take the time to equip your staff or risk failure. After this, it's on to the planning stage, where you must choose a variety of waypoints with which to guide your forces. In the first three or four missions, you can pick random waypoints, but later on, some semblance of flow is a good idea. For many, the details of setting up the pre-mission options will be detrimental to their enjoyment of the game, as getting to the meat of combat is something gamers are accustomed to. Still, Rainbow Six is about realism, plot, and attention to detail, and without these nuances, the game wouldn't be Rainbow Six.

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