In Raven Shield an evil terrorist organization is about to attack the carnival in Rio. Of course
this can’t be tolerated, Rainbow is sent in to make those terrorists bite the dust. The story is a typical Clancy one, sure it’s hard to develop a Rainbow Six game without any kind of terrorism involved, but the story is not different from previous versions of the game.

For those of you who haven’t placed any Rainbow Six games before I can give you a brief walkthrough. The game is about planning and executing missions against terrorists, sometimes they have hostages, and sometimes there are other objectives that you have to complete.

Most of the games are about planning and I’ve always felt that the previous versions lack dynamic elements. You can instantly tell that Red Storm has tried to make the firefights more interesting and engaging. This time you actually have time to react to the enemy and take them out before they do.

Before each mission the briefing is presented and you get tips by John Clark as always. Then there are a couple of investigators and scientists who brief you in order to evolve the story. Personally I think that the briefings in Raven Shield are among the best in the industry.

After the briefing you select your team and the gear you want. There are a number of persons you can hire and also lots of weapons and other gadgets that can be used. A special high-tech thingy is the heart beat sensor, which can detect enemy heartbeats. It’s really neat to know how the enemy forces are grouped before moving into a room.

The game will take you to places like Norway, England and Rio De Janeiro. Overall the levels are very well done and engaging. I especially like the levels on the Cayman Islands, they makes you want to pack your bags and move there. The graphics are also well done, sure they are not groundbreaking or anything but they do the job.

If I was to complain about something it’s the AI. You have to crank up the AI level to get some kind of challenge. On the lower AI levels the enemy just stands and you have plenty of time to take them out.

Rainbow Six Raven Shield is really a good shooter that requires a lot of tactics and strategy. Too bad that Red Storm didn’t dedicate some to the AI development. This game is definitely the best in the Rainbow Six series and if you are into these kinds of shooters you should check it out.

Requirements:
Pentium 3 800 MHz, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB VRAM
Tested on:
Pentium 4 2.4 GHz, 512 MB RAM, ATI Radeon Graphics Card