At about this time last year, a start-up game developer named Red Storm Entertainment located about two miles away from Raleigh-Durham International airport released Rainbow Six. The game won immense critical acclaim for originality as well as gameplay. And now, only a year later, Red Storm releases the sequel: Rogue Spear.
Normally, only having a year between a game and its sequel is a bad omen-such products frequently do not receive the thought or the attention they deserve. But Red Storm was committed to taking player comments and turning out a sequel that captured the same feel as the original game, a task that requires far less effort than a complete rewrite.
And the results are solid. The game is aesthetically pleasing and downright fun, and it's hard to ask for more from a computer game.
Rogue Spear picks up where Rainbow Six left off: The player controls a squad of up to eight members whose duty is to thwart terrorism in various exotic locations.
The environments in Rogue Spear consist of lush, captivating natural scenery as well as richly detailed indoor scenes-definitely a step above Quake's 80,000 shades of brown. And the environment is hardly static; soldiers leave footprints as they traverse the snowy Siberian landscape, grenades leave black scars and glass shatters and falls to the ground.
Terrorist IQ has apparently improved since the team played out its role in the original game. No longer do they blindly stand in the face of danger. Now they flee from grenades, yell for help and run for cover.
Taking a cue from the developers of independent Rainbow Six add-ons, Red Storm decided to release a host of new weapons with Rogue Spear. Included among these are three sniper rifles, several high-powered pistols and an automatic shotgun. The weapons actually add new dimensions to the game, offering the chance to explore new tactics and strategies on an individual and team level.
Playing against human opponents and with human teammates is as much fun, if not more so, than the original. New options give game hosts the opportunity to improve the speed and quality of their games by identifying and removing the players on bad networks who make the game slow and unpredictable. Lots of scenarios and some degree of freedom and unpredictability keep the multiplayer experience fresh for a long while.
Despite a host of improvements, though, the changes are largely cosmetic. The core of the product is largely unchanged, which is certainly not bad. The product, however, won't win any more awards for novelty and originality.
Neverthless, after having played the original Rainbow Six for a good amount of time, Rogue Spear has more than enough variety and improvements to bring any player back for a hefty second helping.
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