Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Rainbow battles a bioweapon threat across Europe and Africa.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is a 2005 tactical first-person shooter published by Ubisoft for multiple platforms. It is the fourth game in the Rainbow Six series and follows the counterterrorist organization Rainbow as it confronts a terrorist group wielding a stolen bioweapon. The game is notable for its departure from traditional Rainbow Six gameplay, which contributed to average critical reception.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Red Storm Entertainment; Ubisoft Montreal (Xbox)
- Producer
- Stuart White; Deke Waters
- Designer
- Clint Richards; John E. Slaydon
- Programmer
- John O'Brien; Jim Van Verth
- Artist
- Tommy Jacob; Tony Nichols
- Genre
- Tactical shooter
- Series
- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
The player controls Rainbow team commander Domingo "Ding" Chavez and leads a single squad through levels in real time. Orders such as breaching a door or tossing a grenade can be issued to team members. Missions are broken into linear levels rather than taking place on a single non-linear map, and the player can save progress at any point during a level. Console versions include sniper missions where the player takes control of sniper Dieter Weber, shooting terrorists from positions like a small room or a helicopter while an AI-controlled squad enters an area. These versions also feature cutscenes that develop the personalities and backgrounds of Rainbow members, as well as collectible suitcases hidden in levels that unlock bonus material. The Windows version removes the sniper segments and storyline cutscenes, and its levels are redesigned to be less linear. Elements such as helmets on character models, absent from the console versions, are restored in the PC version. Lockdown is the first game in the series to eliminate the planning phase. The Xbox version includes an exclusive Xbox Live mode called Persistent Elite Creation (PEC), where players maintain a persistent character in online multiplayer who gains levels. Four careers are available: Commando, Medic, Engineer, and Spec-Op, each with distinct abilities and equipment. Bonuses such as new weapons and items are unlocked by achieving goals, and stat points can be distributed across skills. The PlayStation 2 version lacks PEC but has its own online mode called Rivalry, pitting teams of terrorists against counterterrorist operatives.
Plot
In 2009, Rainbow deploys Alpha team, commanded by Domingo Chavez, to rescue the South African President from a rebel army in Pretoria. Meanwhile, the Global Liberation Front (GLF), a left-wing terrorist organization led by Bastian Vanderwaal, steals a nanite aerosol bioweapon called Legion that causes massive hemorrhaging with a 100% fatality rate. The GLF attacks the Scottish Parliament Building; Alpha saves hostages and captures terrorists who reveal a training facility under a distillery in Olivet. Alpha raids it and captures cell leader Derek Mergen, who is shot by his own men but survives. After defending the hospital where Mergen is treated, he tells Rainbow leader John Clark that the GLF is planning something. Raiding a GLF facility in Paris, Rainbow learns of an arms deal at the Port of Calais. Rainbow and the GIGN ambush the deal, but the GLF hijacks a ferry rigged with explosives. Alpha, assisted by sniper Dieter Weber, boards the ferry and defeats the terrorists. GLF informant Nicolai Yazhov, a former KGB rival of Chavez, offers to meet in Marseille but ambushes them; Chavez captures Yazhov, who claims he was forced to organize the ambush and provides a lead on Algerian arms dealer Faisal Amidan. Alpha infiltrates Amidan's compound in Algeria, identifies Vanderwaal, but Weber is captured during exfiltration. Despite NATO declaring Weber an acceptable loss, Chavez rescues him. Investigating Vanderwaal's Gibraltar estate, Rainbow learns the GLF plans to attack the NATO summit in Barcelona and infect world leaders with Legion in a live broadcast. Alpha defeats the terrorists and rescues the NATO leaders. Rainbow tracks Vanderwaal to a castle on Menorca, but he is not there. Interrogations reveal he intends to poison European water supplies with Legion. Alpha intercepts him, kills Vanderwaal, and ends the GLF threat.
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