iBen's Full Review: Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations for Win...
Rainbow Six blew the gaming world away in 1997 with its realistic approach to FPS. Red Storm decided to follow it up with an unimpressive map pack, Eagle Watch. It added a few maps, weapons, and characters but really didn't change the way the game was played. As a follow up to its hugely popular sequel, Rogue Spear, Red Storm learned from its past mistakes and churned out an expansion pack that was well worth the $20 I plunked down.
I, like many gamers hackneyed by the traditional frag-a-thons that FPS were, was addicted to Rogue Spear. I played both single player and multiplayer. When the expansion pack was released, I was eager to jump into it, expecting little more than a map pack. I was very surprised by the improvements and additions aside from new maps.
The game once again puts you in control of Rainbow, an international taskforce whose purpose is to come into tense situations like hostage situations, aircraft hijackings, and bomb threats as a last resort. This time, as the title Urban Operations suggests, Rainbow has to work in crowded urban areas instead of empty areas cleared of civilians. This introduces a new twist... innocent bystanders. Rainbow troopers now have to be exceptionally careful with their shots and have to keep an eye out for guns in a crowd; many times, i found myself shooting at bystanders by accident because the terrorists blend into a crowd so well.
There are 2 mini campaigns in the expansion packs, each consisting of 5 maps. The first campaign takes you to new places including a Turkish baazar, a London subway, the canals of Venice, crowded Mexico City, and a Hong Kong hotel. The second mini campaign consists of 5 classic missions from the original Rainbow Six, for the nostalgic types. Though it may seem like there are very few missions, each mission requires much planning and can takes hours to complete if you're a perfectionist like me.
Urban Operations includes a completely new mode of play called Defend. Unlike the original modes of play, which made you the predator hunting the unsuspecting terrorists, Defend turns the tables. The hunter becomes the hunted as you stand between the terrorists and their objective, a switch located in a central location. Your objective is to prevent switch activation and clear the map of terrorists. Red Storm improved the enemy AI for hunting you down, and the terrorists will even toss grenades at you if they suspect you are waiting for them to peek around a corner. Defend is fun in both single player and multiplayer, though single player gets hectic because you cannot take more than one team member with you.
The graphics are improved in Urban Operations. Red Storm did take the time to throw in a few new anti-aliasing techniques in rendering characters. Your team members, the terrorists, and hostages alike look more realistic, but don't expect killer graphics like you'd find in Quake III Arena and Unreal Tournament. Graphics is still a secondary concern of this game, as it should be.
MODs, modifications to the game like new weapons, new skins and new maps made by enthusiasts and players alike, once cause havoc with the original Rogue Spear. Versions conflicted and caused strange errors when a multiplayer game was played with someone who lacked the MOD. Urban Operations includes much improved MOD support, allowing selective activation of mods and better support for MODS in multiplay.
Urban Operations is a great game, but it is far from perfect. Though the AI is improved, it is still very predictable. Though they now gain the ability to throw grenades, they only do so in Defend mode. The terrorists see their buddies fall right next to them and sometimes don't react. Other times, I'm standing right up to a terrorist and he doesn't react until I'm standing right in front of him. Graphical errors still exist, including one where a terrorist can be seen through a closed door (this one's been around as far back as Rainbow Six).
Though I have some small complaints about the game, the excellent gameplay and new missions have won me on this game. I recommend this game to anyone who has Rogue Spear.
Update 7/20/00:
This game is ADDICTIVE. I had played the game enough to review it before, but a few nights ago, I got drawn into multiplay Urban Operations. I spent until 4 AM on the MSN Internet Gaming Zone just playing it. The most addictive element must be cooperative mode... the competetive aspect of the game disappears and everyone has great fun working together for a common goal... My friends and I bring our computers over to someone's house and we spend hours doing coop. We kept saying, "ok... this'll be the last go at it... i'm serious... after this one, its it..." but we kept on playing... excellent game, but you've got to go cold turkey eventually, which is not such a great experience.
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