Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear is a 1999 tactical first-person shooter video game developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment for Microsoft Windows, with later ports for the Dreamcast, Mac OS, PlayStation, and Game Boy Advance. It is the second installment in the Rainbow Six series and was the last to be published by Red Storm before its acquisition by Ubi Soft in 2000. The game's plot follows the secret international counterterrorist organization Rainbow, as they investigate the emerging threat of nuclear terrorism.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Developer(s)Red Storm Entertainment
Pipe Dream Interactive (Dreamcast)
Saffire (PS1)
Ubi Soft Milan (GBA)
Publisher(s)
Ubi Soft (GBA)
Producer(s)Carl Schnurr
Designer(s)Carl Schnurr
Programmer(s)Todd Lewis
Artist(s)Steve Cotton
Jonathan Peedin
Writer(s)Brian Upton
Kevin Perry
Composer(s)Bill Brown
SeriesTom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Platform(s)Windows, Dreamcast, Mac OS, PlayStation, Game Boy Advance
Release
September 22, 1999
  • Windows
    • NA: September 22, 1999[1]
    • EU: September 1999
    Dreamcast
    • NA: November 20, 2000
    • EU: May 4, 2001
    Mac OS
    • NA: January 12, 2001
    PlayStation
    • EU: January 19, 2001[2]
    • NA: March 27, 2001
    Game Boy Advance
    • NA: March 12, 2002
    • EU: March 22, 2002
Genre(s)Tactical shooter
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Rogue Spear is based on the same game engine and features gameplay and presentation similar to that of the original Rainbow Six. Rogue Spear focuses on realism, planning, strategy and teamwork. A PlayStation 2 port was announced, but it was later canceled.

Rogue Spear was released on August 31, 1999 to generally positive reviews from critics. Rogue Spear's engine was later used for the 2003 South Korea-only spinoff Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Take-Down – Missions in Korea. A sequel, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield, was released in 2003.

Plot

In 2001, Rainbow, led by John Clark, handles a spike in terrorist attacks conducted by various seemingly unaffiliated terrorist groups. Meanwhile, the former Eastern Bloc has fallen into disarray since the dissolution of the Soviet Union a decade prior, with conflict, crime, and corruption increasing as money and necessities become scarce.

Investigating a thwarted nerve agent attack in Oman, Rainbow, assisted by an anonymous informant, sources the agent to anti-Western oil baron Samed Vezirzade. Surveillance of Vezirzade leads Rainbow to an illegal arms deal between a Russian military unit and Russian mobsters connected to arms dealer Maxim Kutkin and kingpin Lukyan Barsukov. Rainbow interrupts the deal and recovers weapons-grade plutonium, leading them to believe Kutkin is assembling nuclear weapons. Rainbow plants surveillance devices in Vezirzade's mansion and Kutkin's private spa, and learn Vezirzade has been supporting terrorist groups for his own gain; they also learn he is aware Rainbow is after him.

Rainbow locates and raids Kutkin's nuclear weapons facility in Siberia, destroying the facility and recovering two nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, the informant leaves to "set things right"; Rainbow analyst Susan Holt learns the informant was Barsukov himself, who was suspicious of Kutkin (his son-in-law) and needed Rainbow's investigations to confirm. Suddenly, Holt and Barsukov are kidnapped by Kutkin; worse, Clark learns two more nuclear weapons were not recovered from the Siberian facility. After rescuing Holt and Barsukov, Rainbow learns Kutkin is personally moving the nuclear weapons to the West, and they intercept the shipment, securing the nuclear weapons and killing Kutkin.

With Kutkin defeated, Rainbow raids Vezirzade's personal fortress in Azerbaijan, killing Vezirzade when he fights back. However, Kutkin is revealed to still be alive, having used a double to fake his death. Knowing his downfall is imminent, Kutkin seizes a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, intent on causing a Chernobyl-esque nuclear meltdown to take as many lives with him as possible. Rainbow storms the plant, killing Kutkin and preventing the meltdown.

The threat finally over, Clark debriefs Rainbow and notes that Kutkin's spa has been sold to Barsukov, who claims he has retired from crime and will settle down to operate the spa legally; however, Rainbow continues to monitor Barsukov with a hidden camera, and it is implied he has not retired after all. While discussing his plans with an aide, Barsukov suddenly turns his attention to the hidden camera and, after rebuking Clark for invading his privacy, shoots it with a pistol.

Multiplayer

Rogue Spear's online multiplayer consists of two modes: cooperative and adversarial. Cooperative mode has players team up to complete missions against AI-controlled enemies in formats similar to the single-player missions. Adversarial mode pits players against one another in deathmatch and team deathmatch modes. Rogue Spear does not support dedicated servers, with games being limited to sixteen players per server.

Add-ons

Urban Operations

Rogue Spear Mission Pack: Urban Operations, released on April 4, 2000, was the first expansion for Rogue Spear. It was developed and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It added eight new maps and five classic Rainbow Six maps from the original game, as well as three new weapons. With the release of Urban Operations, a built-in mod system was added.

Urban Operations was later re-released by Kama Digital Entertainment in South Korea, including two exclusive missions and two new weapons.

Covert Ops Essentials

Rainbow Six: Covert Ops Essentials is a stand-alone expansion pack of Rogue Spear, released on September 28, 2000. Developed as an educational game and a training simulator, Covert Ops Essentials was developed by Magic Lantern Playware and published by Red Storm Entertainment. It includes nine new missions, six of which were made by Zombie Studios and three of which were made by Red Storm.

Covert Ops Essentials features the ability to read educational materials such as actual military field manuals, view video interviews from counterterrorism experts, take multiple-choice tests to progress in rank, and see live-fire demonstrations of the weapons included in the game. For the live-fire videos, Sergeant Anthony Levatino, a SWAT team leader of the Santa Ana Police Department, was contracted to provide content expertise for the educational material and for the on-camera demonstrations.

Black Thorn

Rogue Spear: Black Thorn was developed by Red Storm Entertainment and published by Ubi Soft as a stand-alone add-on on December 15, 2001, featuring new singleplayer and multiplayer maps, along with new weapons and a new multiplayer game mode. The singleplayer plot features a mentally disturbed ex-SAS operative challenging Rainbow with reenactments of real-life terrorist attacks, such as Operation Entebbe and the Japanese embassy hostage crisis.

Reception

Rogue Spear was met with positive to mixed reception upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 85.97% for the PC version;[3] 75.77% and 76 out of 100 for the Game Boy Advance version;[4][7] 72.62% and 75 out of 100 for the Dreamcast version;[5][8] and 60.07% for the PlayStation version.[6]

John Lee reviewed the PC version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "More of the same, but then it's hard to ask for anything more."[34]

Greg Orlando reviewed the Dreamcast version of the game for Next Generation, rating it four stars out of five, and stated that "A title that works on many different levels, Rogue Spear is a must-have for the Dreamcast-owning shooter fan."[35]

The editors of PC Gamer US named Rogue Spear the best action game of 1999, and wrote, "Congratulations, Red Storm... in a loud market, you made the quiet revolution."[39] Rogue Spear was a finalist for the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' 1999 "Action Game of the Year" award, which ultimately went to Half-Life: Opposing Force.[40]

Black Thorn

Expansion packs of the PC version received lower scores than the original release. The most recent was Black Thorn, which currently has a score of 71.92% on GameRankings,[41] and 67 out of 100 on Metacritic.[42]

Sales

In the United States, Rogue Spear's sales reached 240,503 copies by April 2000.[48] In the same country, the game's Platinum re-release sold another 240,000 copies and earned $7.7 million by August 2006, after its launch in October 2001. It was the country's 85th best-selling computer game between January 2000 and August 2006.[49]

References
  1. "Red Storm Entertainment, Inc". October 13, 1999. Archived from the original on October 13, 1999. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  2. "Console Releases". Eurogamer.net. January 19, 2001. Retrieved May 1, 2023.
  3. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for PC". GameRankings. Archived from the original on September 1, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  4. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for Game Boy Advance". GameRankings. Archived from the original on September 13, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  5. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for Dreamcast". GameRankings. Archived from the original on October 16, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  6. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for PlayStation". GameRankings. Archived from the original on November 28, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  7. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for Game Boy Advance Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 24, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  8. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear for Dreamcast Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  9. Sutyak, Jonathan. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PC) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  10. House, Michael L. "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Rogue Spear (GBA) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  11. Woods, Nick. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PS) - Review". AllGame. Archived from the original on November 14, 2014. Retrieved July 24, 2014.
  12. Scott, Dean (December 1999). "Rogue Spear". Computer and Video Games. No. 217. pp. 96–97.
  13. Bye, John "Gestalt" (November 2, 1999). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PC)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  14. Taylor, Martin (April 7, 2002). "Rogue Spear (GBA)". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  15. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (GBA)". Game Informer. No. 109. May 2002. p. 89.
  16. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (DC)". Game Informer. No. 94. February 2001.
  17. Nash Werner (September 29, 1999). "Rainbow Six Rogue Spear Review for PC on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on February 14, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  18. Four-Eyed Dragon (March 11, 2002). "[Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six] Rogue Spear Review for Game Boy Advance on GamePro.com". GamePro. Archived from the original on January 18, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  19. Johnny B. (October 1999). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear - PC Review". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on September 5, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  20. Dodson, Joe (January 2001). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Review (DC)". Game Revolution. Archived from the original on September 19, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  21. Ryan, Michael E. (September 30, 1999). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Review (PC)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 18, 2003. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  22. Wolpaw, Erik (December 14, 2000). "Rogue Spear Review (DC)". GameSpot. Archived from the original on June 21, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  23. Lopez, Miguel (April 1, 2002). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Review (GBA)". GameSpot. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  24. Rivers, Trevor (April 6, 2001). "Rogue Spear Review (PS)". GameSpot. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  25. Fargo (October 1, 1999). "The Joys of Anti-Terrorism". GameSpy. Archived from the original on August 23, 2004. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  26. Hudak, Chris (April 22, 2002). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (GBA)". GameSpy. Archived from the original on March 1, 2005. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  27. Mr. Domino (September 7, 2000). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear". PlanetDreamcast. Archived from the original on January 25, 2009. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  28. Da bomb mom (January 15, 2001). "Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Rogue Spear Review - Dreamcast". GameZone. Archived from the original on October 6, 2007. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  29. Lafferty, Michael (October 4, 1999). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear Review - PC". GameZone. Archived from the original on March 7, 2008. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  30. Blevins, Tal (September 24, 1999). "Rogue Spear (PC)". IGN. Archived from the original on March 21, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  31. Butts, Steve (April 9, 2002). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (GBA)". IGN. Archived from the original on December 19, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  32. Chau, Anthony (December 6, 2000). "Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (DC)". IGN. Archived from the original on May 19, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  33. Smith, David (April 9, 2001). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear (PS)". IGN. Archived from the original on April 26, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  34. Lee, John (December 1999). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 2, no. 4. Imagine Media. p. 117.
  35. Orlando, Greg (April 2001). "Finals". Next Generation. Vol. 4, no. 4. Imagine Media. p. 84.
  36. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear". Nintendo Power. Vol. 154. March 2002. p. 135.
  37. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear". Official U.S. PlayStation Magazine. 2001.
  38. Harms, William (August 2000). "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear". PC Gamer. Archived from the original on January 10, 2006. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  39. Staff (March 2000). "The Sixth Annual PC Gamer Awards". PC Gamer US. 7 (3): 46, 47, 49, 50, 54–56, 60, 62.
  40. "Third Interactive Achievement Awards; Personal Computer". Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. Archived from the original on September 3, 2000.
  41. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn for PC". GameRankings. Archived from the original on October 12, 2014. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  42. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 13, 2015. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  43. Taylor, Martin (November 8, 2001). "Rogue Spear : Black Thorn". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  44. Wolpaw, Erik (November 12, 2001). "Tom Clancy's [Rainbow Six] Rogue Spear: Black Thorn Review". GameSpot. Archived from the original on November 19, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  45. Chick, Tom (November 25, 2001). "Rogue Spear: Black Thorn". GameSpy. Archived from the original on June 11, 2004. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  46. Butts, Steve (November 13, 2001). "[Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six] Rogue Spear: Black Thorn". IGN. Archived from the original on January 28, 2013. Retrieved July 23, 2014.
  47. "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Black Thorn". PC Gamer: 73. January 2002.
  48. Staff (April 2000). "PC Gamer Editors' Choice Winners: Does Quality Matter?". PC Gamer US. 7 (4): 33.
  49. Edge Staff (August 25, 2006). "The Top 100 PC Games of the 21st Century". Edge. Archived from the original on October 17, 2012.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.