Well…. I suppose it could be worse. After all, I do still have other games.

My first clue should have been the locale. Where do terrorists want to strike next? Apparently it’s Idaho. While potatoes have been known to go bad, I am going to put my money on the mountain-dwelling militias. Ruby Ridge baby, Ruby Ridge.

While Critical Hour, the latest installment in one of the most successful squad-based shooter franchises, Rainbow Six, is not as colossal a disappointment as Rainbow Six: Lockdown, it is that sucker punch to the soul that leaves you feeling sick, knowing what you once treasured above so many other things has now been reduced to nothing more than a half-assed pile of mediocrity. Don’t get me wrong, this game is even worse than Lockdown, but at least I wasn’t expecting anything this time around. But aside from the realization that I may never see another Rainbow Six game worth playing, what really pisses me off that I used to see Ubisoft on a game and get pretty excited. This is the kind of shit I expect from EA, not a publisher who has a history of making good choices. Why so negative you say? Consider this…

Rainbow Six 3 and it’s follow-up Black Arrow were known as intense squad-based shooters packed with elements of realism and strategy. The release of Lockdown threw most of that out the window, by among other things, abandoning the “real” parts and converting the look and feel to a shiny arcade format. Although somewhat juvenile in my objection, I was rather upset with the introduction of goggles to the screen, which you couldn’t take off, then would slowly fill with bullet holes, become blurry, and eventually turn red as you were shot to hell by terrorists you couldn’t see because the contrast sucked. THOSE DAMN GOGGLES ARE BACK! I am supposed to be a special forces operative. By definition my job is to kill terrorists, not dive for fucking clams. What the hell? But I digress...

The single player game is only a couple of hours long, if you have any idea what you are doing, you will be finished before you start. The control is similar, but it seems to be getting simpler, which, if you have played these games, is not a good thing. The control scheme was great before, as it was relatively intuitive and offered the player plenty of options. But, no longer. It would appear as though Ubisoft is now maneuvering its development strategies to mirror reading scores from 8th grade classrooms in the Appalachians, since they seem to believe nobody else has any interest in their games. Hint: if you continue to offer crappy products, no one will. So… good luck with that.

By nearly all accounts, the only reason to buy Lockdown was for the multiplayer, as they somehow managed not to completely destroy that part of the game (of course your sweet goggles are still strapped to your face), and did make a few improvements. One was the inclusion of a character creation mode, which you could then level up, improving various statistics, as you played through multiplayer modes. This was called Persistent Elite Creation (PEC) and it is available again in Critical Hour, but before you fill your shorts there is something you should know: this game has a glitch which allows players to max out all stats very quickly, thereby completely nullifying any positive elements this innovative mode may have brought to an already excessively shitty experience. Aside from that little glitch, which effectively destroys any fun you may have had with this title, the modes available for you to loathe are Total Conquest (race to the space), Team Survival (death match), and Retrieval (capture the flag). I should mention there is a split-screen co-op, but at this point, do you really care?

Perhaps there is more to say about this title, but I don’t know what it would be. If you liked the dumbed-down version that was Rainbow Six: Lockdown, then by all means, scamper out and buy Critical Hour. But if you were one of those individuals who enjoyed both the challenge and quality time spent playing with other people in the original version and Black Arrow, don’t waste your time or your money on this travesty.

For more Rainbow Six: Critical Hour, check out the April 9th episode of Team Fremont Live, our weekly podcast.




Article By: Moe