The obvious appeal of Athena Sword is its multiplayer. The expansion adds about 16 new levels--eight from the single-player campaign, five multiplayer-only maps, and three classic levels from earlier Rainbow Six games. That almost doubles the complement of maps from the original game. The single-player maps translate well in the multiplayer arena, and the huge size of the levels offer much more room to maneuver, especially to some of the relatively confined levels on Raven Shield. And the large amount of tactical variation on each map means that there's a mix of close-quarters and long-range combat that can take place, thus forcing teams to be a bit more balanced in terms of weaponry.
There are nine new weapons in Athena Sword, bringing the total number of weapons to more than 50, all of which are customizable with silencers, expanded magazines, and more. The best of the new weapons is probably the Beretta M93R, which can fire a three-round burst and has an expanded 21-round magazine. It's remarkably useful in close quarters. Like in Raven Shield, all the new weapons sound exceptional, and the sound effects in the expansion are what we've come to expect of the franchise. (Indeed, Ubisoft touts that they enlisted the sound effects wizards from The Matrix movies to handle the game's weapons.) Positional audio, as always, plays a critical role, since knowing which direction footsteps are coming from can mean the difference between success and failure. About the only complaint we have with the sound is that the European neofascists have the same habit of speaking in broken English as their South American counterparts in Raven Shield.
Stop! Or my commando will shoot!
Athena Sword also includes five new multiplayer modes, most of which are variations on the existing team-versus-team modes, but there are a couple of notable additions. The first is capture the enemy, which plays exactly like it sounds. Instead of killing one another, you have to capture one another. When you shoot someone, they won't die. Instead they'll put their hands up in the air to surrender. You then have a few seconds to run up and cuff them, or else they'll lower their hands and will get to move and shoot again. Once they're cuffed, they'll kneel on the ground. However, they can escape if a fellow teammate can free them. The round isn't over until an entire team is captured and subdued, so there can be wild battles as survivors try to rally to rescue captive teammates. The other interesting new multiplayer match is kamikaze, which is a variation on the pilot mode from Raven Shield. One player gets to play the bomb carrier, who's got a bomb strapped to his person. His team has to protect him from harm, but it also has to prevent the other team from reaching a detonation computer and triggering the bomb. If the bomb carrier can get to a detonation computer first, he can disarm the bomb. This forces the team on defense to aggressively spread out instead of camping around the bomb carrier.
If you're a fan of Raven Shield multiplayer, Athena Sword is pretty much a must-have if you're going to want to keep up with the rest of the player community--the vast majority of which has been starved for new content. However, as much as we like the single-player maps, we can't help but feel disappointed with the plot. Yes, the story in Raven Shield was a thin pretense to hang the missions on, but couldn't the developers have at least tried to come up with something original and interesting? Yet for all the flaws, Athena Sword makes a worthy addition to Raven Shield, and that's what you'd expect from an expansion pack.
What You'll Pay
- See All Prices
- Set Price Alert
- Price History
