''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear'' is a 1999

tactical Tactic(s) or Tactical may refer to: * Tactic (method), a conceptual action implemented as one or more specific tasks ** Military tactics, the disposition and maneuver of units on a particular sea or battlefield ** Chess tactics ** Political tacti ...

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 ...

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 ...

developed and published by

Red Storm Entertainment Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. is an American video game developer and studio of Ubisoft based in Cary, North Carolina. Founded in November 1996 between author Tom Clancy, manager Doug Littlejohns, and software development company Virtus Corpo ...

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 ...

, with later ports for the

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

Mac OS Two major famlies of Mac operating systems were developed by Apple Inc. In 1984, Apple debuted the operating system that is now known as the "Classic" Mac OS with its release of the original Macintosh System Software. The system, rebranded "M ...

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 ...

, and

Game Boy Advance The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, 2 ...

. It is the second installment in the ''

Rainbow Six Rainbow Six may refer to: * ''Rainbow Six'' (novel), a 1998 novel by Tom Clancy *''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'', a video game franchise published by Ubisoft ** ''Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six'' (video game), a tactical shooter video game *"Rainbow Six", a ...

'' series and was the last to be published by Red Storm before its acquisition by

Ubi Soft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry (serie ...

in 2000. The game's plot follows the secret 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 Rainbow, as they investigate the emerging threat of

nuclear terrorism Nuclear terrorism refers to any person or persons detonating a nuclear weapon as an act of terrorism (i.e., illegal or immoral use of violence for a political or religious cause). Some definitions of nuclear terrorism include the sabotage of a ...

. ''Rogue Spear'' is based on a similar

game engine A game engine is a software framework primarily designed for the development of video games and generally includes relevant libraries and support programs. The "engine" terminology is similar to the term "software engine" used in the software i ...

, and features gameplay and presentation similar to, the original ''

''. ''Rogue Spear'' focuses on realism, planning, strategy and teamwork. ''Rogue Spear'' was released on August 31, 1999 to generally positive reviews from critics. A

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

port was announced, but it was later canceled. ''Rogue Spear'''s engine was later used for the 2003

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 ...

-only spinoff '' Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Take-Down – Missions in Korea''. In 2006, the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national secu ...

licensed ''Rogue Spear'''s engine for use in

training simulation In business, training simulation is a virtual medium through which various types of skills can be acquired. Training simulations can be used in a variety of genres; however they are most commonly used in corporate situations to improve business aw ...

programs. A sequel, '' Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield'', was released in 2003.

Plot

In 2001, Rainbow, led by John Clark, handles a spike in terrorist attacks conducted by various seemingly unaffiliated terrorist groups. Meanwhile, the former

Eastern Bloc The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...

has fallen into disarray since the dissolution of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

a decade prior, with conflict, crime, and corruption increasing as money and necessities become scarce. Investigating a thwarted

nerve agent Nerve agents, sometimes also called nerve gases, are a class of organic chemicals that disrupt the mechanisms by which nerves transfer messages to organs. The disruption is caused by the blocking of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), an enzyme that ...

attack in

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

, Rainbow, assisted by an anonymous

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

, sources the agent to anti-Western

oil baron A business magnate, also known as a tycoon, is a person who has achieved immense wealth through the ownership of multiple lines of enterprise. The term characteristically refers to a powerful entrepreneur or investor who controls, through perso ...

Samed Vezirzade. Surveillance of Vezirzade leads Rainbow to an illegal arms deal between a

Russian military The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

unit and Russian mobsters connected to arms dealer Maxim Kutkin and kingpin Lukyan Barsukov. Rainbow interrupts the deal and recovers

weapons-grade plutonium Weapons-grade nuclear material is any fissionable nuclear material that is pure enough to make a nuclear weapon or has properties that make it particularly suitable for nuclear weapons use. Plutonium and uranium Uranium is a chemical eleme ...

, leading them to believe Kutkin is assembling

nuclear weapons A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions (thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bomb ...

. Rainbow plants surveillance devices in Vezirzade's mansion and Kutkin's private spa, and learn Vezirzade has been supporting terrorist groups for his own gain; they also learn he is aware Rainbow is after him. Rainbow locates and raids Kutkin's nuclear weapons facility in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

, destroying the facility and recovering two nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the informant leaves to "set things right"; Rainbow analyst Susan Holt learns the informant was Barsukov himself, who was suspicious of Kutkin (his son-in-law) and needed Rainbow's investigations to confirm. Suddenly, Holt and Barsukov are kidnapped by Kutkin; worse, Clark learns two more nuclear weapons were not recovered from the Siberian facility. After rescuing Holt and Barsukov, Rainbow learns Kutkin is personally moving the nuclear weapons to the West, and they intercept the shipment, securing the nuclear weapons and killing Kutkin. With Kutkin defeated, Rainbow raids Vezirzade's personal fortress in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

, killing Vezirzade when he fights back. However, Kutkin is revealed to still be alive, having used a

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

to fake his death. Knowing his downfall is imminent, Kutkin seizes a

nuclear power plant A nuclear power plant (NPP) is a thermal power station in which the heat source is a nuclear reactor. As is typical of thermal power stations, heat is used to generate steam that drives a steam turbine connected to a electric generator, generato ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

, intent on causing a

Chernobyl Chernobyl ( , ; russian: Чернобыль, ) or Chornobyl ( uk, Чорнобиль, ) is a partially abandoned city in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, situated in the Vyshhorod Raion of northern Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. Chernobyl is about no ...

-esque

nuclear meltdown A nuclear meltdown (core meltdown, core melt accident, meltdown or partial core melt) is a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term ''nuclear meltdown'' is not officially defined by the Internation ...

to take as many lives with him as possible. Rainbow storms the plant, killing Kutkin and preventing the meltdown. The threat finally over, Clark debriefs Rainbow and notes that Kutkin's spa has been sold to Barsukov, who claims he has retired from crime and will settle down to operate the spa legally; however, Rainbow continues to monitor Barsukov with a

hidden camera A hidden camera or spy camera is a camera used to photograph or record subjects, often people, without their knowledge. The camera may be considered "hidden" because it is not visible to the subject being filmed, or is disguised as another obje ...

, and it is implied he has not retired after all. While discussing his plans with an aide, Barsukov suddenly turns his attention to the hidden camera and, after rebuking Clark for invading his privacy, shoots it with a pistol.

Multiplayer

''Rogue Spear'''s

online 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 ...

consists of two modes: cooperative and adversarial. Cooperative mode has players team up to complete missions against AI-controlled enemies in formats similar to the single-player missions. Adversarial mode pits players against one another in

deathmatch Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

and

team deathmatch Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

modes. ''Rogue Spear'' does not support

dedicated servers A dedicated hosting service, dedicated server, or managed hosting service is a type of Internet hosting in which the client leases an entire server not shared with anyone else. This is more flexible than shared hosting, as organizations have f ...

, with games being limited to sixteen players per server.

Add-ons

''Urban Operations''

''Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations'', released on April 4, 2000, was the first expansion for ''Rogue Spear''. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It added eight new maps and five classic ''Rainbow Six'' maps from the original game, as well as three new weapons. With the release of ''Urban Operations'', a built-in

mod Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...

system was added. ''Urban Operations'' was later re-released by Kama Digital Entertainment in South Korea, including two exclusive missions and two new weapons.

''Covert Ops Essentials''

''Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials'' is a stand-alone expansion pack of ''Rogue Spear'', released on September 28, 2000. Developed as an

educational game Educational games are games explicitly designed with educational purposes, or which have incidental or secondary educational value. All types of games may be used in an educational environment, however educational games are games that are design ...

and a training simulator, ''Covert Ops Essentials'' was developed by Magic Lantern Playware and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It includes nine new missions, six of which were made by

Zombie Studios Zombie Studios was an American independent video game developer. It was formed in 1994 as Zombie, LLC by Joanna Alexander and Mark Long, formerly of the Sarnoff Research Center. Alexander and Long founded Zombie after they completed the design o ...

and three of which were made by Red Storm. ''Covert Ops Essentials'' features the ability to read educational materials such as actual military field manuals, view video interviews from counterterrorism experts, take multiple-choice tests to progress in rank, and see live-fire demonstrations of the weapons included in the game. For the live-fire videos, Sergeant Anthony Levatino, a

SWAT In the United States, a SWAT team (special weapons and tactics, originally special weapons assault team) is a police tactical unit that uses specialized or military equipment and tactics. Although they were first created in the 1960s to ...

team leader of the Santa Ana Police Department, was contracted to provide content expertise for the educational material and for the on-camera demonstrations.

''Black Thorn''

''Rogue Spear: Black Thorn'' was developed by Red Storm Entertainment and published by Ubi Soft as a stand-alone add-on on December 15, 2001, featuring new singleplayer and multiplayer maps, along with new weapons and a new multiplayer game mode. The singleplayer plot features a mentally disturbed ex-

SAS SAS or Sas may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers * ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series * Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...

operative challenging Rainbow with reenactments of real-life terrorist attacks, such as

Operation Entebbe Operation Entebbe, also known as the Entebbe Raid or Operation Thunderbolt, was a counter-terrorist hostage-rescue mission carried out by commandos of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) at Entebbe Airport in Uganda on 4 July 1976. A week earl ...

and the

Japanese embassy hostage crisis The Japanese embassy hostage crisis ( es, Toma de la residencia del embajador de Japón en Lima, ja, 在ペルー日本大使公邸占拠事件, translit=Zai Perū Nihon taishi kōtei senkyo jiken) began on 17 December 1996 in Lima, Peru, when ...

Reception

''Rogue Spear'' was met with positive to mixed reception 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 ...

and

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 it a score of 85.97% for the PC version; 75.77% and 76 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version; 72.62% and 75 out of 100 for the Dreamcast version; and 60.07% for the PlayStation version. John Lee reviewed the PC version of the game for ''

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 ...

'', rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "More of the same, but then it's hard to ask for anything more." Greg Orlando reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for ''Next Generation'', rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "A title that works on many different levels, ''Rogue Spear'' is a must-have for the Dreamcast-owning shooter fan." The editors of ''

PC Gamer US ''PC Gamer'' is a magazine and website founded in the United Kingdom in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future plc. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games mag ...

'' named ''Rogue Spear'' the best action game of 1999, and wrote, "Congratulations, Red Storm... in a loud market, you made the quiet revolution." ''Rogue Spear'' was a finalist for 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 ...

' 1999 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to '' Half-Life: Opposing Force''.

''Black Thorn''

Expansion packs of the PC version received lower scores than the original release. The most recent was ''Black Thorn'', which currently has a score of 71.92% on GameRankings, and 67 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Sales

In the United States, ''Rogue Spear''s sales reached 240,503 copies by April 2000. In the same country, the game's ''Platinum'' re-release sold another 240,000 copies and earned $7.7 million by August 2006, after its launch in October 2001. It was the country's 85th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006.

References

External links