Pop quiz, dirt bag. The French Prime Minister's daughter is being held hostage by Egyptian terrorists. You've been charged with saving her with a minimum loss of life. What do you do? What do you do? Well, if you were Neo, you'd run in guns blazing while bending the non-existent spoon. Too bad you're not Neo. Last year saw a slew of first-person shooters that involved a large amount of small group tactics. They were pretty successful and so this year we are getting a slew of sequels and new games. One of the most eagerly awaited of these titles is Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Rogue Spear, developed by Red Storm Entertainment. We took a look at their new demo and here's what we found.
The game play of Rogue Spear involves a planning stage and an action stage. In the planning stage, you first find out what your mission is. Then you choose the members of your team from a variety of personnel with various skill sets. Some candidates are excellent at sniping, while others are poor in combat but can set explosives quickly. Depending on what mission you are running you can customize your team for the job. Once you have your members, you arm them from a large arsenal that includes some sniper rifles, a range of assault rifles, several submachine guns, a plethora of pistols, and much more. My favorite is the .50 caliber Desert Eagle pistol, which I have fired in real life and carries a ton of recoil. After selecting your team's equipment, you see a blueprint of the location you are assaulting. Using this, you plan your entire team's movement throughout the mission. You can set exact paths and even set where your team will drop grenades and blow open doors. One nice feature is that you don't have to do the plan if you don't want to. There is a pre-made plan for those who are not into tactics. Once you've finished the planning stage, you go onto the action stage.