''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'' is a tactical shooter

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

and the first entry in the ''Rainbow Six'' series. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment in 1998 for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. It was ported to Mac OS, Nintendo 64,

PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divisi ...

Game Boy Color The (commonly abbreviated as GBC) is a handheld game console, manufactured by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on October 21, 1998 and to international markets that November. It is the successor to the Game Boy and is part of the Game ...

, and Dreamcast. Based on the

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military science, military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of ...

novel of the same name, the game follows Rainbow, an international

counterterrorist Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or el ...

organization, and the conspiracy they unravel following a seemingly random spike in terrorism. In

single-player A single-player video game is a video game where input from only one player is expected throughout the course of the gaming session. A single-player game is usually a game that can only be played by one person, while "single-player mode" is usuall ...

, the player advances through a series of scenarios by playing missions in a campaign. Every mission initializes with a briefing stage, allowing the player to choose their equipment, coordinate their attacks, and advance the plot. Throughout each mission the player directly controls one team member, and can take control of any living operative. However, any casualties cannot be used in future missions unless the mission is reset. In

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

, the game pits two teams of players against each other in order to complete objectives depending on the game mode. ''Rainbow Six''s PC versions received positive reviews from critics, praised for its audio and immersive feeling, despite being a very difficult game. However, the console versions received lower ratings. In its first year of release it sold over 200,000 copies, accounting to $8.86 million in revenue. ''Rainbow Six'' is considered a milestone in

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

s and greatly developed the tactical shooter genre. An expansion pack, ''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch'', was released on January 31, 1999. The PAL version of the game was one of 20 games preloaded on the PlayStation Classic (excluding Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong), released on December 3, 2018.

Gameplay

''Rainbow Six'' is a tactical shooter, in which characters are affected by realistic elements and can be killed in a single bullet; therefore, wise tactics are encouraged to complete missions. ''Rainbow Six'' focuses more on stealth and planning than on sheer firepower. Before each mission is a planning stage, where which the player is given a briefing, chooses the Rainbow operatives to be involved in the mission, and selects their weapons, equipment, and uniform. The operatives are divided into five classes based on their skill specializations: Assault, Demolitions, Electronics, Recon, and Sniper. In the planning stage, the player is shown a map of the area of operations to set team orders and movement waypoints. The planning stage determines elements such as the path the AI-controlled teams follow during the mission, and where they will deploy equipment such as flashbangs or door breaching charges. The game follows a campaign of 16 missions, with the plot being advanced in the mission briefing of each. Successful missions often last just minutes, but may require dozens of repetitions and planning changes to account for failures, new plans, or simply faster or more streamlined completion. During gameplay, the player controls one operative directly, and can see stats for that operative and all units on the

HUD Hud or HUD may refer to: Entertainment * ''Hud'' (1963 film), a 1963 film starring Paul Newman * ''Hud'' (1986 film), a 1986 Norwegian film * ''HUD'' (TV program), or ''Heads Up Daily'', a Canadian e-sports television program Places * Hud, Far ...

. Teams not under player control follow the orders given to them in the planning stage. The player can take control of any living operative at will, making them the leader. Any casualties that occur during a mission are permanent, so deceased Rainbow operatives cannot be used in future missions. Many players replay missions that are technically successful merely to reduce the number of casualties. Online multiplayer gaming was popular on the

Mplayer.com Mplayer, referred to as Mplayer.com by 1998, was a free online PC gaming service and community that operated from late 1996 until early 2001. The service at its peak was host to a community of more than 20 million visitors each month and offere ...

and

Zone.com MSN Games (also known as Zone.com - formerly known as The Village, Internet Gaming Zone, MSN Gaming Zone, and MSN Games by Zone.com) is a casual gaming web site, with single player, multiplayer, PC download, and social casino video games. Games ...

services and for a time featured a thriving competitive clan based community with numerous independent ladder style leagues. Most versions do not show the player's weapon in the first-person, view instead only showing the crosshair and lower HUD. The only exception to this is the

version, which displays the player's weapon being held in their hands. The

version of the game has radically different gameplay due to the platform's technical limitations. The gameplay is slowed and simplified, friendly fire is removed, and the 3D graphics from other releases are replaced by a 2D top-down perspective.

Plot

''Rainbow Six'' is set from 1996 to 2000. Rainbow is a secret international counterterrorist organization, composed of elite soldiers from

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, formed to address the growing problem of international terrorism. The organization's director is John Clark, and the team leader is Domingo Chavez. The term "Rainbow Six" refers to Clark's codename. Soon after its formation, Rainbow responds to a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist attacks by the Phoenix Group, a radical

eco-terrorist Eco-terrorism is an act of violence which is committed in support of environmental causes, against people or property. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) defines eco-terrorism as "...the use or threatened use of violence o ...

organization. Throughout their investigation, Rainbow is assisted and advised by John Brightling, chairman of the powerful

biotechnology Biotechnology is the integration of natural sciences and engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms, cells, parts thereof and molecular analogues for products and services. The term ''biotechnology'' was first used b ...

corporation Horizon Inc., whose facilities are frequently targeted by Phoenix; Anne Lang, the American Science Advisor to the President and an acquaintance of Brightling; and Catherine Winston, a biological expert working with Horizon, who is rescued by Rainbow following an attack in the

Democratic Republic of the Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

. Following an assault on a Phoenix compound in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

that uncovers evidence they are committing unethical human experimentation (the fallout of which results in the U.S. government temporarily banning Rainbow from operating on American soil), Rainbow learns that the Phoenix Group is actually a front for Horizon itself. Horizon is developing a highly contagious strain of the Ebola virus called "

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...

". Viewing humanity as an environmentally-destructive "disease", Brightling plans to exterminate almost all of the human race using Brahma, sparing only Brightling's chosen few, who will rebuild the planet into a scientific environmentally-friendly utopia. To achieve this goal, he has used the scattered terrorist attacks to create a heightened fear of terrorism, which he is exploiting to gain a security contract for his own private security firm, Global Security, at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. Global Security's personnel, led by William Hendrickson, will then release Brahma at the Olympics, spreading the virus across the world when the athletes and spectators return home. After gathering intelligence and rescuing Winston from a last-ditch attempt to silence her, Rainbow captures Lang and Hendrickson and prevents the release of Brahma at the

Olympic Village An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...

, foiling Horizon's plans. Brightling and his collaborators flee to their Horizon Ark facility in the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, Amazon jungle or ; es, Selva amazónica, , or usually ; french: Forêt amazonienne; nl, Amazoneregenwoud. In English, the names are sometimes capitalized further, as Amazon Rainforest, Amazon Forest, or Amazon Jungle. ...

, from which they had originally planned to weather out the global holocaust. Rainbow assaults the Ark, kills or apprehends Brightling's collaborators, and takes Brightling into custody.

Development

The concept of the game that would become ''Rainbow Six'' came from a series of early concepts Red Storm Entertainment had conceived following the company's formation in 1996. Selected from a hundred concepts, the initial concept, titled ''HRT'', followed the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...

Hostage Rescue Team rescuing hostages from criminals and terrorists. As the concept grew, Red Storm expanded the scope of the game, adding covert operations and a more international setting, and the concept was renamed to ''Black Ops''. Red Storm CEO Doug Littlejohns, a former

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

submarine commander and a close friend of Clancy, did not want to develop an arcade shooter with "mindless violence", but also did not want a "boring" slow-paced strategy game, so the game was designed to focus on realism and action, with a strong emphasis on planning and strategy. The concept of ''Rainbow Six'', both the game and the novel, came from a discussion between

and Littlejohns during a Red Storm company outing in 1996, when Littlejohns mentioned the ''HRT'' concept. When Clancy mentioned that he was writing his own novel about a hostage rescue team, their conversation led to Littlejohns noting the protracted diplomatic delays in authorizing a foreign counterterrorist unit's deployment overseas, and he suggested the concept of a permanent counterterrorist unit that already had authorization to deploy internationally. The name "Rainbow" came from the term " Rainbow nation", coined by

Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu (7 October 193126 December 2021) was a South African Anglican bishop and theologian, known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist. He was Bishop of Johannesburg from 1985 to 1986 and then Archbishop ...

to describe post-

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

under

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist who served as the President of South Africa, first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1 ...

's presidency. "Six" came from the American rank code for

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

(O-6); though John Clark would more accurately be described as a

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

(O-8) in the novel, "Rainbow Six" read better than "Rainbow Eight". Lead game designer Brian Upton objected to the addition of "Six", believing having a number at the end of the title would affect a potential sequel, but he was overruled. Following the game's development doctrine of realism, lead level designer John Sonedecker designed each level to be as accurate and realistic to real-world architecture as possible, noting that the presence of unusual design elements seen in other less-realistic shooters, such as unnecessarily large doorways or building layouts seemingly designed for combat, would ruin the player's immersion and affect gameplay. The development team had access to counterterrorism experts, military trainers, and technical consultants, and used their advice to ensure realism and streamline development by cutting elements deemed unrealistic or unnecessary, such as jumping. These technical advisors also provided

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

for character animations. By 1997, the game was very behind on schedule, and the developers started crunching. Many developers slept in a spare room of the office. Clancy's involvement in the development process was "minimal", only sending Red Storm an early manuscript of the novel to work plot details into the game (hence why the game's plot has different characters and a slightly different storyline). Clancy would insist the developers add features his experts claimed were realistic, such as the fictional heartbeat sensor used in the novel that functions as a

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

-like equipment item in-game. In November 1997, the developers realized the game was becoming too demanding, only having single-digit

frame rate Frame rate (expressed in or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images (frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also be ca ...

s on high-end devices, so a massive two-month overhaul was ordered. Despite these setbacks, development managed to progress relatively smoothly, and a gameplay demonstration at E3 1998 that accidentally displayed AI teammates rescuing hostages by themselves boosted the game's publicity ahead of release. The game's box art, featuring a Rainbow operative armed with a Heckler & Koch USP, was not created for the game and is actually a modified image of Heckler & Koch USA sales executive John T. Meyer. The original image was used to promote the American launch of the HK USP in 1993. Heckler & Koch permitted the use of the image for the game and sent firearms instructors to provide motion capture. The Nintendo 64,

, and Dreamcast releases of the game were each developed by separate companies.

Release

''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'' was released for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

on August 21, 1998 in North America and October 1998 in Europe. The other releases of the game were released gradually over several months between late 1998 and early 2001; the final release of the game, the Dreamcast version, was released on May 9, 2000 in North America and February 2, 2001 in Europe. The game was published by Red Storm Entertainment in North America and Take-Two Interactive in Europe. Several weeks prior to the game's release, early copies of the game were leaked onto online piracy websites. The users that uploaded the game files reportedly "took credit for 'cracking' a game with no copy protection in it", angering the developers; network programmer Dave Weinstein recalled going on a profanity-laden diatribe in the office, only to be pulled aside by Littlejohns for his volume, having been heard from three offices away. After the release of the game, Tom Clancy offered to sign copies of the game for Red Storm employees. Several members of the development team were frustrated by this, as Clancy was relatively uninvolved in development, yet offered signed copies as if it was his product.

''Eagle Watch''

''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Mission Pack: Eagle Watch'' was released on January 31, 1999 as an expansion pack to the original game. It adds five new missions, four new operatives, three new weapons, and new multiplayer modes. The new missions take place in the year 2001 and are a series of scenarios unrelated to each other or the original game, following Rainbow's high-profile operations in landmark locations across the world, such as the ''Buran''

spaceplane A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes ten ...

, the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is a Chinese palace, palace complex in Dongcheng District, Beijing, China, at the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City of Beijing. It is surrounded by numerous opulent imperial gardens and temples includ ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The expansion was packaged with the original game as ''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Gold Pack Edition'' in 1999.

Reception

In the United States, ''Rainbow Six''s Windows release sold 218,183 copies during 1998. These sales accounted for $8.86 million in revenue that year. The computer version's ''Gold Edition'' release sold another 321,340 copies in the United States during 1999, and was the country's 12th best-selling computer game that year. According to ''

Gamasutra ''Game Developer'', known as ''Gamasutra'' until 2021, is a website founded in 1997 that focuses on aspects of video game development. It is owned and operated by Informa and acts as the online sister publication to the print magazine '' Gam ...

'', ''Rainbow Six'' and '' Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear'' together sold 450,000 copies "during the first half of the 2001/2002 fiscal year". ''

Next Generation Next Generation or Next-Generation may refer to: Publications and literature * ''Next Generation'' (magazine), video game magazine that was made by the now defunct Imagine Media publishing company * Next Generation poets (2004), list of young ...

'' reviewed the PC version of the game, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "In the end, ''Rainbow Six'' takes small steps into new territory, succeeding admirably. A brave attempt at something new and an overall fun experience." ''Rainbow Six'' was met with mostly positive reviews on PC. However, the console versions received lower ratings upon release.

GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...

gave it a score of 82% for the PC version; 74% for the Nintendo 64 version; 73% for the Dreamcast version; 54% for the Game Boy Color version; and 48% for the PlayStation version.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave only the PC version a score of 85 out of 100. ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

'' described the PC version as "actually a pretty good game, albeit very hard and extremely frustrating", and its "audio cues, background sounds, and other various noises are also represented very well; the immersive feeling of ''Rainbow Six'' is perhaps one of the best seen in a game." CNN, working in partnership with Games.Net, named ''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'' as one of the "Top 25 game downloads of 1998". Mike Wolf reviewed the Nintendo 64 version of the game for ''

'', rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "A fantastic game with some significant flaws, ''Rainbow Six'' is worth playing, but it's not a must-have." Garrett Kenyon reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for ''

'', rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "An impressive PC translation that Dreamcast owners should certainly consider owning." The

Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) is a non-profit organization of video game industry professionals. It organizes the annual Design Innovate Communicate Entertain summit, better known as D.I.C.E., which includes the presentation ...

nominated ''Rainbow Six'' for its 1998 "Action Game of the Year" award, although the game lost to ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

''. ''Rainbow Six'' was a finalist for ''

Computer Gaming World ''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...

''s 1998 "Best Action" award, which ultimately went to '' Battlezone''. The editors wrote that ''Rainbow Six'' "deftly mixed strategic planning with nail-biting action as it brought the world of counterterrorist operations to life." '' PC Gamer US'' named ''Rainbow Six'' the best action game of 1998.

References

External links