That leaves the second disc, which, according to the box, includes nine new missions. This is only technically true. What's actually included are three new single-player missions and six very small training missions. The three single-player missions are all of high quality. The first one takes place in a jungle. It is the hardest of the three and is made harder by the fact that camouflage hides the terrorists but grants you no reciprocal benefit - they can pick you off as if you're wearing neon-orange hunting gear. The next two missions take place in an Arctic research station and a missile silo in North Dakota. Both are also well done, though much easier than the jungle level.
No new weapons are included, the enemy artificial intelligence has not been improved, and the Rogue Spear graphics engine has not been enhanced. The only feature carried over from the Urban Operations mission pack is the excellent defend mode, but it's available on only three of the nine maps.
Red Storm announced recently that it would finally release the Rogue Spear map-making tools this November. This means that in the coming months, the active Rogue Spear mod community will start distributing custom maps free of charge, thereby significantly lessening the value of new, officially released Rogue Spear levels. Red Storm's newest Rainbow Six game is a full-priced product, but it contains little more than three decent maps and a mess of unusable information. Therefore, Essentials is anything but.
What You'll Pay
- See All Prices
- Set Price Alert
- Price History
