Pros: nicely designed maps, nice gun additions, great multiplayer additions
Cons: not enough guns added, too few maps, enemies are still not the sharpest knives in the drawer (neither are your teammates), and with all of R6 series multiplayer games are fairly unstable
mustangman5's Full Review: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Expansion: Eagle Watch fo...
OMG, Rainbow Six returns to action in this nicely designed mission pack. This is not merely a mission pack because it upgrades the enemy AI (barely) and adds new weapons and operatives. Eagle Watch has mixed reviews, but overall, it's a great expansion pack.
Eagle Watch includes five new single player maps, two new training maps, and two new multiplayer maps. It provides new weapons and new operatives to kick around. The stories of each level in EW are completely not related to each other, and many people have complained about that, but then again, I wouldn't want to buy an expansion pack where a terrorist group is beaten in only five missions anyway. It's like they put Rainbow up against a bunch of pansies all of a sudden.
EW takes place in five exotic locations that are highly accurate representations of the real life locations. These new locations are the Taj Mahal, Forbidden City, the Big Ben, the U.S. Capitol building, and even a Russian Shuttle launch facility. The one location where I first noticed how accurate each are is the Taj Mahal. After playing that level many times over, I had every square inch of the map in my mind. Then I saw extensive photos of both the inside and outside of the Taj Mahal. To my amazement, all the objects and structures in the photos looked remarkably identical to the equivalent area in the game.
The game improved on it's previous AI by making them a bit more responsive and they do certain things to end your mission rather than simply standing there and wait for you to get in range. They're still pretty stupid, well, I'm spoiled from Rogue Spear, but still provide ample entertainment for anyone that enjoyed Rainbow Six. They now quickly kill the hostages if you don't get them fast enough, and that sometimes becomes a pain, because you'll have to restart the entire mission.
The graphics in the game are crisp and a bit better than in Rainbow Six, but since it uses the same 3D engine, have the same basic look. The addition of three new weapons truly add to the fun of the game. New additions are the H&K G3A3 which is really accurate and ideal for sniping, but only hold 20 rounds so using it at close range is almost suicide. Another is the H&K G36K which is another German technological marvel. The last addition is a sidearm, Arnold's gun straight out of Eraser, the Desert Eagle .50 caliber handgun.
Multiplayer action is enhanced because through EW, you can play all of Rainbow Six's maps, plus the seven new maps included for Eagle Watch. Among these is City Streets Large which provide long periods of fun. The addition of the guns make it that much more interesting also. I personally stick with the G36K, which is fairly accurate at long range while maintaining good performance in close quarters battles. Also, if you're bummed out about needing to wait to download that 9mm patch file for Rainbow Six to work online, don't have to worry, because Eagle Watch has the patch included, and automatically patches it up during installation. It is playable online out of the box.
All-in-all, this expansion is a terrific expansion for Rainbow Six. Although the missions are completely unrelated, the gameplay is as fun as ever. Many of the aspects of Rainbow Six has been improved, and made the game more challenging. This is a must have, even for people who do not own Rainbow Six because it now comes in the Rainbow Six Gold pack, which is both games plus strategy guides for both games, all for about $25-$30. This game is sure to provide a long time's worth of fun and will not disappoint.
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