Quite frankly, we should be getting bored of Tom Clancy branded games right? I mean, there are several different series, each with several sequels and on top of that, most of these games have expansion packs. To be blunt - the market is simply flooded with Tom Clancy games. Surprisingly, we still buy huge numbers of each one and naturally more games come along. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow is another addition to the long list of 'Clancy' branded games, although it's technically an expansion pack, Black Arrow is pretty much a whole new game in its own right. It has 10 new single player missions, a wealth of multiplayer stuff and naturally, some great Xbox Live support. It builds upon the original game of Rainbow Six 3 in many ways and to top it off, it comes at a sweet wallet friendly price.

As with previous versions of this franchise, you play the part of Ding Chavez the leader of Rainbow squad – an elite anti-terrorist unit. As Chavez, you must guide your squad of elite soldiers through several objective based missions and stop the terrorists' plans for world domination or something. Yeah it's the same old stuff – you know the deal, kill a few terrorists and stop some Nukes going off in random Eastern European/ex USSR countries. Considering that it is a game inspired/branded by an award winning novelist, the story certainly won't win any awards. The game itself plays very similar to others in the Rainbow series but thankfully, this time around, Ubisoft have decided to beef up the single player experience. The single player campaign itself is a huge step up in terms of design and there are several new single player modes to keep us interested that little bit longer. The campaign is well executed; the maps used are large and well designed and the mission objectives manage to keep a decent pace throughout the game. You'll find your squad storming a train station to find a bomb, rescue hostages from a hotel convention and take out terrorists who have captured a Greek market town. It's all nice and varied - Ubisoft have obviously put a lot more time into keeping the lone player satisfied.

As with all of the Rainbow Six games, you are joined by 3 other AI controlled characters in your squad. These guys form a huge role in the playing experience as you can use them to perform different tasks and you'll also need to keep them alive. They can be a huge help to you by taking out large groups of terrorists or breaching sealed rooms but you have to be careful and know when make them hold back. There are several commands you can issue to your squad, such as covering a position, breaching a room and using flash grenades. Using these commands in the right situation will be the difference between life and death. All of this is handily controlled by holding down the A button and selecting which command you'd like them to perform. This can be used very strategically, for example; you come across a room with two doors leading in; there is a hostage inside and you need to get in the room, take out the enemies and rescue the hostage before the enemies panic and shoot them. You could storm the room and shoot anything that moves, but you'll probably end up shooting the hostage and failing the mission. Instead however, order your squad to move to one entrance, you move to the other and order your squad to open the door and throw a flash into the room therefore blinding the terrorists. Then you can storm the room from two entrances and clean up easily. It is choices like these that can keep the gameplay fresh and challenge you to think a little more before acting. That doesn't mean this is by any means a stealth game. This is much more of an all-out action shooter in my opinion, as guards will no doubt see or hear you way before they are in your sight. Personally, I'd have liked more stealth than has been provided as Black Arrow tends to be a multiple try game. By that I mean that you'll need to memorise the positions of enemies and other triggered events by going through each level several times before you'll finish it.



On top of the campaign mode there are also some other great modes to improve the life span of the game. There is 'Terrorist Hunt' which basically involves taking out as many terrorists as you can on a particular map and there is a rush mode in which you have to go solo and reach the extraction point on the map within a very tight time limit. Obviously, this gives the game a whole new arcade action feel and a pleasant change to the stealthy slower combat that takes place in the other modes.

As with many Xbox games the area that stands-out the most is the online functions. There is a wealth of different options and playing modes to choose from and it all runs very smoothly throughout. Of course you have the obligatory 'Deathmatch' scenarios where it's an all out frag fest for the most kills out of the group. You also have the option of team deathmatches and capture the flag style multiplayer games. However, where Black Arrow is most fun online is in the Terrorist Hunt option. Similar, to the single player experience, Terrorist Hunt allows up to four players who function as one team co-operating to finish the mission. The voice chat function comes into excellent use here and most of the enjoyment comes from talking strategy between friends etc. Certainly between the guys at Team Fremont, this has become the staple online game we'll meet up and play on. There is certainly nothing more entertaining than an evening (or early morning for me) spent having your head blown off by John (ever heard of friendly fire?) and watching Moe kick crap out of the 'Freedom Haters' with his somewhat scary professional grenade throwing. The online multiplayer is great stuff and a good example of an otherwise average game becoming a classic through clever use of the online functions provided by Microsoft.



Whilst quite good, Black Arrow is certainly not the best looking game ever and has a multitude of graphical problems. Annoyingly, most of the textures are very poorly done and look incredibly bland, especially the doors which frankly, look appalling. Most of the textures are OK, but there are some really low quality and bland wall textures that crop up time and time again. Many of the windows are just a flat texture with no transparency or window frame, however others are fully modelled. You can shoot the lights and small shards of glass will fall out but the light stays on. The character models themselves look good and the guns/weapons again look superb. The main problem that this game suffers from visually is the consistency of the graphics, or lack thereof. Some of the levels and locations look great whereas others look incredibly mundane and uninspiring. Also, you'd expect that there are bullet marks left in the walls right? I mean Goldeneye for the N64 did that easily, so why not here? And something that probably shouldn't annoy me that really does; night vision goggles. Now it's a nice effect sure, but why does it not blind you when you are in a strong light source? All that night vision does in this game is to flood the screen in green hues, it's not dependant on the light source. If I wanted green screen I'd have bought an old 80's monitor thanks very much, this to me is just sloppy when another N64 game, Perfect Dark, had working light reactive night vision. It's these little details that ruin the overall look of the game, it just doesn't have the polish expected of most current games and this is only through lack of effort or time the developer's part. The graphics certainly aren't bad by any means; there are many good aspects like smoke and blood effects but this is not up to the usual standard of Xbox games.

The sound is again a mixed bag. The soundtrack itself ambient most of the time, suits the mood of the game nicely and isn't overused. The game features great sound effects with very satisfying bullet fire and explosions. The voice acting is generally good and the option to have voices played through the Xbox headset really helps to immerse you in the game. One of the more interesting aspects is the use of the Xbox Live headset to order your troops to perform commands rather than using the control pad. Whilst this was a nice gimmick, I found that in order for the game to recognise my voice I needed to put on a cheesey American/Canadian hybrid accent and shout. So aside from me looking like an arse whilst playing it's a fun feature that in the future could be a great asset to many games. At the moment however it is too 'hit and miss' to be reliable and usable.

If it seems like I'm being really negative toward the game please forgive me. I do feel that the positives out weigh the negatives overall but Black Arrow can be a very frustrating game due to its many glitches and high difficulty. But remember that Black Arrow is also extremely rewarding and barrels fun on Xbox Live. Unfortunately, the sub-par graphics in certain areas of the game spoil the realism and the AI really should have been better. That said, for an expansion pack, Black Arrow delivers almost as much as any other full game for a nice low price. If you are on Xbox Live I wholeheartedly recommend this. Not perfect in any way but certainly an above average game that is a blast to play online.




Article By: Phil Haymes