Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield
Encyclopedia
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield is a computer game developed and published by Ubisoft
and released on March 18, 2003. The Rainbow Six video game series is based on Tom Clancy's
best-selling novel of the same name
.
Based on the Unreal Engine 2.0
, Raven Shield is a tactical shooter
with realistic properties. Raven Shield moved toward mainstream first-person shooter
s like Counter-Strike
, adapting various features absent in previous versions. These included the ability to see one's weapon while in first-person view, many new weapons and upgrades (including larger magazines and sights
), and a redesigned multiplayer.
A console version (featuring the same basic game engine, models, textures, and artwork, but with significantly different game mechanics, gameplay, storyline and features), Rainbow Six 3, was developed for the Xbox
, PlayStation 2
and Nintendo GameCube
video game console
s. A port was also released on Mac OS X
on December 19, 2003. Due to the console version's success on the Xbox and the popularity of its subscription-based online multiplayer service, Xbox Live
, an Xbox-exclusive semi-sequel was released in 2004 titled Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. The next full game in the Rainbow Six series, Rainbow Six: Lockdown
, was released in 2006.
regime in the Independent State of Croatia
manage to escape the country with huge amounts of Holocaust-era loot just before Allied troops move into the capital. Sixty years later, in 2005, elite multinational counter-terrorism task-force Rainbow finds itself investigating a series of attacks by Neo-Fascist terrorists against South American oil interests and European financial institutions.
Rainbow eventually traces the source of the attacks to Argentina
, where Argentinian billionaire businessman Nikola Gospic and far-right Presidential candidate Alvero Guitierrez are implicated. Rainbow learns that Gospic is an escaped Ustashe official, one of the two men shown escaping with Holocaust loot in the game's opening cutscene. Dying of liver cancer, Gospic plans to leave the world one last legacy of hate from the Second World War by using his vast wealth to resurrect global Fascism. To this end, Gospic has acquired a large amount of chemical weapons, including VX nerve gas and blister gas.
Gospic, through his ownership of a meat-packing plant, intends to contaminate large quantities of beef with VX, then ship the contaminated beef to dozens of countries across the world. Rainbow foils his scheme by raiding the meat-packing plant and confiscating the VX gas. Gospic then attempts to attack Rio De Janeiro
with a blister gas bomb hidden inside a parade float in the Festa Junina
parade. Rainbow launches a final raid on Gospic's operation, foiling Gospic's plan to attack the parade, and killing Gospic himself.
Afterwards, John Clark interrogates the captured Guitierrez and learns the full details of Gospic's plot. Gospic's plan was to kill hundreds of thousands of people in South America, creating an economic crisis and causing the price of South American oilfields to plummet. Gospic's heirs would then buy up the oilfields using Gospic's wealth, and use the massive oil proceeds to finance a new international Fascist movement.
Gospic was financing Guitierrez's presidential campaign, in exchange for political protection from Guitierrez. Guitierrez explains that Gospic was a raven picking the bones of an old war, and that Guitierrez would be his shield until his children were ready to fly. However, Guitierrez admits that since Gospic is now dead and he himself is going to jail, none of that matters anymore; Rainbow has won.
Athena Sword is the first expansion for the PC version of Raven Shield. Athena Sword expands on the original by adding eight new missions, five new multiplayer missions, three new multiplayer gamemodes, and seven new weapons. Athena Sword was developed by Ubisoft-Milan and released on March 9, 2004. A Mac port was released on November 23, 2004. Athena Sword was packaged with the original game as Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Gold Edition in 2004.
The story of Athena Sword begins in 2007, two years after last wave of terrorist attacks. Team Rainbow neutralized the terrorist threat and captured Gutierrez, but the threat is not over yet as there are still remnants of his terrorist group. The remaining cell stil has some chemical weapons, making them very dangerous threat.
When the terrorist cell strikes in the Castle in Milan and takes hostages Team Rainbow is immediately brought onto the scene to deal with the threat. The terrorist hunt is then continued along the Mediterranean coast. The last terrorist action is to be set in Athens
, Greece, where the remaining terrorists plan to launch a chemical attack. Team Rainbow launches the operation Athena Sword and manages to prevent the attack.
The final cut scene shows the prison guard who brings a newspaper to Gutierrez where he reads the news about prevented terrorist attack in Greece. On the last page he finds a small piece of paper with a message "It's over" and with Clark's signature. Two days later he is found hanged in his cell.
decided to release it as a free download on June 9, 2005 to FilePlanet
subscribers. Developed by Ubisoft-Casablanca, this latest expansion features a 7-mission campaign, 3 classic missions, 8 new multiplayer maps, 6 new weapons, as well as 5 new multiplayer game modes. In October 2008, the CD-key activation server was taken offline, suspending the multiplayer features of Iron Wrath.
Rainbow Six 3 was initially ported to Microsoft
's Xbox
console to take advantage of the Xbox Live
online functionality. The Xbox version was developed by Ubisoft Montreal
. The game was later be ported to the PlayStation 2
and Nintendo GameCube
in early 2004 by developer Ubisoft Shanghai
. The Nintendo GameCube version does not take advantage of the Gamecube's online capabilities, and is therefore limited to two players for multiplayer. Although both games are titled Rainbow Six 3, this version is not subtitled Raven Shield and contains somewhat different content. For instance, the multiplayer maps in the console and PC versions are different, with some appearing only in the console versions, others in the PC version.
The Xbox version of the game features downloadable content in the form of additional levels for users with access to the Xbox Live service. All of the expansion levels are intended for use in the online multiplayer mode.
Unlike the PC version, the console version does not feature a mission planning stage, or the ability to control multiple characters. Players take the role of Rainbow field commander Ding Chavez, and lead a single fireteam consisting of three AI-controlled teammates through each of the game's missions. Orders can be issued to the teammates using either an in-game menu, or through voice-commands via the Xbox Live headset. This, however, suffered from slight misunderstandings between similar phrases such as "Open frag and clear" and "open flash and clear," and vice-versa. To compensate for the decreased control players have over their squad, the squad AI has been improved, with squadmates being able to automatically duck behind objects or assume covering positions within an area.
The action is also slightly more forgiving in the console version. The player and his teammates each have a "health bar" consisting of four units of health, which must be depleted before that Rainbow operative is incapacitated. In the console versions, it is possible for the player to sustain several bullet hits before dying.
Rainbow responds to a series of terrorist attacks against US interests in South America, apparently being conducted by Islamic terrorists sponsored by Saudi Arabia
. However, the true mastermind behind the attacks is actually the newly elected President of Venezuela, Juan Crespo. Crespo managed to get elected by advocating a strong anti-terror platform and exploiting the fear caused by the terrorist attacks (which he himself orchestrated). Crespo's plan is to discredit Saudi Arabia, then cut off the Venezuelan supply of oil to the United States, creating an oil crisis and driving up the price of oil, which he would then sell to the US on the black market at highly inflated prices.
Rainbow manages to foil Crespo's plans, and ultimately assassinates President Crespo himself. Rainbow then arranges for the international media to credit the terrorists with causing Crespo's death.
online service. Along with two new online game modes; Total Conquest, Retrieval and a new offline mode Lone Rush, changes were also implemented into Black Arrow from the original Rainbow six 3. A noticeable change was made to combat the unfair advantages of "lean walking." This change still allows the player to lean but is unable to move until they return to the original standing straight posture.
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
and released on March 18, 2003. The Rainbow Six video game series is based on Tom Clancy's
Tom Clancy
Thomas Leo "Tom" Clancy, Jr. is an American author, best known for his technically detailed espionage, military science, and techno thriller storylines set during and in the aftermath of the Cold War, along with video games on which he did not work, but which bear his name for licensing and...
best-selling novel of the same name
Rainbow Six (novel)
Rainbow Six is a techno-thriller novel written by Tom Clancy. It focuses on John Clark, Ding Chavez, and a fictional multi-national counterterrorist unit codenamed Rainbow, rather than Jack Ryan and national politics...
.
Based on the Unreal Engine 2.0
Unreal Engine
The Unreal Engine is a game engine developed by Epic Games, first illustrated in the 1998 first-person shooter game Unreal. Although primarily developed for first-person shooters, it has been successfully used in a variety of other genres, including stealth, MMORPGs and RPGs...
, Raven Shield is a tactical shooter
Tactical shooter
A tactical shooter is a subgenre of shooter game that includes both first-person shooters and third-person shooters. These games typically simulate realistic combat, thus making tactics and caution more important than quick reflexes in other action games...
with realistic properties. Raven Shield moved toward mainstream first-person shooter
First-person shooter
First-person shooter is a video game genre that centers the gameplay on gun and projectile weapon-based combat through first-person perspective; i.e., the player experiences the action through the eyes of a protagonist. Generally speaking, the first-person shooter shares common traits with other...
s like Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike is a tactical first-person shooter video game developed by Valve Corporation which originated from a Half-Life modification by Minh "Gooseman" Le and Jess "Cliffe" Cliffe...
, adapting various features absent in previous versions. These included the ability to see one's weapon while in first-person view, many new weapons and upgrades (including larger magazines and sights
Sight (device)
A sight is a device used to assist aligning or aim weapons, surveying instruments, or other items by eye. Sights can be a simple set or system of markers that have to be aligned together as well as aligned with the target...
), and a redesigned multiplayer.
A console version (featuring the same basic game engine, models, textures, and artwork, but with significantly different game mechanics, gameplay, storyline and features), Rainbow Six 3, was developed for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
video game console
Video game console
A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...
s. A port was also released on Mac OS X
Mac OS X
Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...
on December 19, 2003. Due to the console version's success on the Xbox and the popularity of its subscription-based online multiplayer service, Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
, an Xbox-exclusive semi-sequel was released in 2004 titled Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow. The next full game in the Rainbow Six series, Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is the fourth game in the Rainbow Six series. The initial design and PlayStation 2 version were developed by Red Storm Entertainment and the Xbox version was developed by the Ubisoft Montreal studio. Both are published by Ubisoft...
, was released in 2006.
Plot
Raven Shields story begins in 1945, as two members of the Nazi-sponsored UstašeUstaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
regime in the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
manage to escape the country with huge amounts of Holocaust-era loot just before Allied troops move into the capital. Sixty years later, in 2005, elite multinational counter-terrorism task-force Rainbow finds itself investigating a series of attacks by Neo-Fascist terrorists against South American oil interests and European financial institutions.
Rainbow eventually traces the source of the attacks to Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, where Argentinian billionaire businessman Nikola Gospic and far-right Presidential candidate Alvero Guitierrez are implicated. Rainbow learns that Gospic is an escaped Ustashe official, one of the two men shown escaping with Holocaust loot in the game's opening cutscene. Dying of liver cancer, Gospic plans to leave the world one last legacy of hate from the Second World War by using his vast wealth to resurrect global Fascism. To this end, Gospic has acquired a large amount of chemical weapons, including VX nerve gas and blister gas.
Gospic, through his ownership of a meat-packing plant, intends to contaminate large quantities of beef with VX, then ship the contaminated beef to dozens of countries across the world. Rainbow foils his scheme by raiding the meat-packing plant and confiscating the VX gas. Gospic then attempts to attack Rio De Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
with a blister gas bomb hidden inside a parade float in the Festa Junina
Festa Junina
Festa Junina , also known as festa de São João for their part in celebrating the nativity of St. John the Baptist, are the annual Brazilian celebrations historically related to European Midsummer that take place in the beginning of the Brazilian winter...
parade. Rainbow launches a final raid on Gospic's operation, foiling Gospic's plan to attack the parade, and killing Gospic himself.
Afterwards, John Clark interrogates the captured Guitierrez and learns the full details of Gospic's plot. Gospic's plan was to kill hundreds of thousands of people in South America, creating an economic crisis and causing the price of South American oilfields to plummet. Gospic's heirs would then buy up the oilfields using Gospic's wealth, and use the massive oil proceeds to finance a new international Fascist movement.
Gospic was financing Guitierrez's presidential campaign, in exchange for political protection from Guitierrez. Guitierrez explains that Gospic was a raven picking the bones of an old war, and that Guitierrez would be his shield until his children were ready to fly. However, Guitierrez admits that since Gospic is now dead and he himself is going to jail, none of that matters anymore; Rainbow has won.
Athena Sword
The story of Athena Sword begins in 2007, two years after last wave of terrorist attacks. Team Rainbow neutralized the terrorist threat and captured Gutierrez, but the threat is not over yet as there are still remnants of his terrorist group. The remaining cell stil has some chemical weapons, making them very dangerous threat.
When the terrorist cell strikes in the Castle in Milan and takes hostages Team Rainbow is immediately brought onto the scene to deal with the threat. The terrorist hunt is then continued along the Mediterranean coast. The last terrorist action is to be set in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece, where the remaining terrorists plan to launch a chemical attack. Team Rainbow launches the operation Athena Sword and manages to prevent the attack.
The final cut scene shows the prison guard who brings a newspaper to Gutierrez where he reads the news about prevented terrorist attack in Greece. On the last page he finds a small piece of paper with a message "It's over" and with Clark's signature. Two days later he is found hanged in his cell.
Iron Wrath
Iron Wrath is the second expansion for the PC version of Raven Shield. It was in production for almost 2 years before UbisoftUbisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
decided to release it as a free download on June 9, 2005 to FilePlanet
FilePlanet
FilePlanet is a video game download service that provides demos, patches, mods and other gaming media and other gaming media downloads to its users. FilePlanet was launched, and is run by, GameSpy, which is now a subsidiary of IGN, and is one of the most used video game download sites on the...
subscribers. Developed by Ubisoft-Casablanca, this latest expansion features a 7-mission campaign, 3 classic missions, 8 new multiplayer maps, 6 new weapons, as well as 5 new multiplayer game modes. In October 2008, the CD-key activation server was taken offline, suspending the multiplayer features of Iron Wrath.
Complete
A compilation title consisting of Raven Shield, Athena Sword and Iron Wrath on DVD.Console versions
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
console to take advantage of the Xbox Live
Xbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
online functionality. The Xbox version was developed by Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Montreal
Ubisoft Montreal is a Canadian video game developer owned by French publisher Ubisoft.Ubisoft's North American studio is located in Montreal, Quebec...
. The game was later be ported to the PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and Nintendo GameCube
Nintendo GameCube
The , officially abbreviated to NGC in Japan and GCN in other regions, is a sixth generation video game console released by Nintendo on September 15, 2001 in Japan, November 18, 2001 in North America, May 3, 2002 in Europe, and May 17, 2002 in Australia...
in early 2004 by developer Ubisoft Shanghai
Ubisoft Shanghai
Ubisoft Shanghai is a Chinese video game developer whose headquarters is located in Shanghai. The studio is known for working in various games in the Tom Clancy franchise. The studio is also the second largest Chinese video game studio and the second largest Ubisoft studio.-Games developed:...
. The Nintendo GameCube version does not take advantage of the Gamecube's online capabilities, and is therefore limited to two players for multiplayer. Although both games are titled Rainbow Six 3, this version is not subtitled Raven Shield and contains somewhat different content. For instance, the multiplayer maps in the console and PC versions are different, with some appearing only in the console versions, others in the PC version.
The Xbox version of the game features downloadable content in the form of additional levels for users with access to the Xbox Live service. All of the expansion levels are intended for use in the online multiplayer mode.
Gameplay
The gameplay in the console version of Rainbow Six 3 is somewhat different from that of the PC version.Unlike the PC version, the console version does not feature a mission planning stage, or the ability to control multiple characters. Players take the role of Rainbow field commander Ding Chavez, and lead a single fireteam consisting of three AI-controlled teammates through each of the game's missions. Orders can be issued to the teammates using either an in-game menu, or through voice-commands via the Xbox Live headset. This, however, suffered from slight misunderstandings between similar phrases such as "Open frag and clear" and "open flash and clear," and vice-versa. To compensate for the decreased control players have over their squad, the squad AI has been improved, with squadmates being able to automatically duck behind objects or assume covering positions within an area.
The action is also slightly more forgiving in the console version. The player and his teammates each have a "health bar" consisting of four units of health, which must be depleted before that Rainbow operative is incapacitated. In the console versions, it is possible for the player to sustain several bullet hits before dying.
Plot
The console version of Rainbow Six 3 features similar mission locations and layouts to the PC version, but an entirely different plot.Rainbow responds to a series of terrorist attacks against US interests in South America, apparently being conducted by Islamic terrorists sponsored by Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
. However, the true mastermind behind the attacks is actually the newly elected President of Venezuela, Juan Crespo. Crespo managed to get elected by advocating a strong anti-terror platform and exploiting the fear caused by the terrorist attacks (which he himself orchestrated). Crespo's plan is to discredit Saudi Arabia, then cut off the Venezuelan supply of oil to the United States, creating an oil crisis and driving up the price of oil, which he would then sell to the US on the black market at highly inflated prices.
Rainbow manages to foil Crespo's plans, and ultimately assassinates President Crespo himself. Rainbow then arranges for the international media to credit the terrorists with causing Crespo's death.
Rainbow Six 3: Black Arrow
Black Arrow is a semi-sequel to the console version of Rainbow Six 3. Still titled Rainbow Six 3, Black Arrow was developed and published by Ubisoft and released for the Xbox on August 5, 2004. Like Rainbow Six 3, Black Arrow was created to take advantage of Microsoft's popular Xbox LiveXbox Live
Xbox Live is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Corporation. It is currently the only online gaming service on consoles that charges users a fee to play multiplayer gaming. It was first made available to the Xbox system in 2002...
online service. Along with two new online game modes; Total Conquest, Retrieval and a new offline mode Lone Rush, changes were also implemented into Black Arrow from the original Rainbow six 3. A noticeable change was made to combat the unfair advantages of "lean walking." This change still allows the player to lean but is unable to move until they return to the original standing straight posture.