Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn Review

The gaming industry has been hit with countless first-person-shooters over the last few years, with very few actually proving to be a success. Whilst the majority of these tend to go down the Quake route of fast paced action, others decide to take a calmer tactful route, such as the Rainbow Six series. Rogue Spear: Black Thorn is an all-new game rather than an up-date that puts you in control of an elite anti-terrorist group, where you’ll need to plan and carry out missions through many different locations around the <br /> world. <br /> <table border="0" width="11%" align="right" cellpadding="2"> <br /> <tr> <br /> <td width="100%" bgcolor="#CCCCCC"> <br /> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.totalvideogames.com/tvg.php?gallary=true&all=false&newsid=103&img_name=103-1.jpg"><img height="100" src="http://www.totalvideogames.com/webconsole/data/news/images/s_103-1.jpg" width="130" border="1" hspace="5" vspace="5"><br> <br /> </a><font size="1">There really is nothing new to Black Thorn that will <br /> make you go 'wow'</font></td> <br /> </tr> <br /> </table><p>Black Thorn was original planned as an expansion disc for Rogue Spear, however after development changes it became a stand-alone pack. The game features over 9 new single player maps, new weapons, additional multiplayer maps and some slight technical advancements over the original Rogue Spear engine. </p> <br /> <p> Those of you that have played other Rainbow Six games will instantly recognise the menu screens and configuration areas, as these are identical to that seen in the last game. New players get the option to complete certain Training Mode missions before they enter the full action of the single-player mode, however there seams to be very little advice or instructions on how to complete the levels, leaving you to try every key on the keyboard to see what it does. Not only is this incredibly frustrating but if you’ve never played any of the previous games before you really are thrown into the deep end not knowing what to <br /> do.</p> <br /> <p>The developers have apparently upgraded the graphics engine in Black Thorn, however in my opinion the only upgrade is a slightly higher texture resolution. The graphics themselves still look out-dated and dull, with today’s technology we would expect much more from the visual department. The polygon count is low compared to other PC titles currently on the market and the environments are dull and uninspiring. </p> <br /> <p> There has been an improvement to the multiplayer system which is welcomed, this time there are 6 all new multiplayer only maps, complete with a new game mode ‘Lone Wolf’ where a group hunts down a single person, the man who kills him then becomes a Lone Wolf and everyone then hunts him. The online aspects are the same as the other games, but without broadband you really are missing out. </p> <br /> <p> There are also over 9 new weapons added to the game, like the previous games you won’t see any fictional <br /> weapons.