The first Rainbow Six game was released for PCs back in 1998 and soon found itself ported to all the various consoles of the day.
Conversely, the release of the latest title in the Tom Clancy-based tactical shooter series seems to have been prioritised for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360; PC gamers have had to wait a couple of months for a desktop version.
In fact, if our initial experiences with the game are anything to go by, some players may find themselves wishing Ubisoft had taken even more time over the PC edition.
A number of installation issues as well as in-game control and graphical glitches significantly marred our enjoyment.
A quick check on a few forums confirmed that it wasn’t just us, either a v1.01 patch is available but it didn’t entirely resolve our problems.
Should you be able to look past the game’s technical shortcomings, then you’ll find an enjoyable albeit fairly predictable shooter with plenty of crack covert action to indulge in.
The single-player story campaign is the weak link and occasionally feels like a bit of a re-tread of previous Rainbow Six games, specifically 2006’s original Las Vegas-set title.
The novelty of the glitzy Sin City environments has worn off a bit and the ‘story’ itself effectively translates to little more than covertly battling your way through casino after casino filled with faceless AI enemies.
The best aspect of the offline modes is that, thanks to the game’s ‘Persistent Elite Creation’ system, any experience points you gain can be used to build online characters.
In addition to excellent multiplayer, with support for up to 14 players, there are some interesting extras, including some fun co-operative modes and the ability to personalise your character by pasting your own face onto him or her using a webcam.
