Guns, guns, guns!

Woot! We finally have some sweet new toys to play with in a tactical shooter! GR comes loaded with rifles, pistols and such. Including some newcomers to the Red Storm arsenal... Like under rifle grenade launchers. Heh. Heh. Heh. Nothing quite like using the high tech OICW assault rifle in multiplayer and labeling your enemies with 5 rounds from the semi auto grenade launcher. :) There's toys for all the big girls and boys here. Pistols, assault rifles, submachine guns, rocket launchers (Uh, don't try a rocket jump.. It doesn't work.), grenades, grenade launchers and sniper rifles. If you can't find something you like here, you ain't looking.

One thing I did find annoying in single player is the limited arsenal. Specialized weapons are only available to certain specialists that you unlock by completing missions successfully. Your main characters are limited to standard, very limited kits. Luckily in multiplayer you can take anything you want. Some weapons are limited to your characters class, for instance only snipers can handle sniper rifles, only demotions experts can use the AT-4 antitank rocket launcher. I'm not sure what led to the decision to have the specialists in single player, but ahhh well... Just keep them alive and you'll have more toys to play with.

There are also fixed .50 cal machine gun emplacements scattered throughout the battlefields. Assuming a sniper doesn't take your head off when you stand up to use one, they allow you to put some devastating firepower into your enemies.

Gameplay

Just as in Rainbow 6 you take command of a single trooper at a time (or you can let the computer do all the walking and you sit on the command map and command, seeing through the eyes of one trooper at a time.) in a platoon comprising a maximum of 6 soldiers. Specialties among your infantry range from Sniper and Support (machinegunner) to Rifleman and Demolitions, each with their strengths and weaknesses. I like the ability to switch to any member of your team quickly, and it's vital in some missions. Nothing like walking around a corner into a sniper ambush, switching to your squad sniper quickly and picking off the offending camper.

As in real life, picking the right people for the mission is critical. Tank in you way? Woops! You forgot to bring a demo expert with anti-tank missiles... Looks like it's the long way around for you, or perhaps you just can't complete the mission this time around.... Reading the briefings at the start of each mission will give you a good idea of what kind of opposition you'll be facing when you hit the field. I've found it's a good idea to always bring a sniper and a demo expert along with you, regardless of the mission. They both just come in so damned handy.

Specialist characters, as mentioned in the weapons section of this review are unlocked as you progress through the game. These guys tend to be tougher, smarter and more heavily armed than your average troopers until you train them up. Successful completion of a mission will give your people combat points. You can assign these points at the start of the next mission among such stats as weapons, endurance and stealth. This system gives you a good reason to keep your men alive as long as possible, as your green recruits don't perform nearly as well as your veteran units.

An interesting innovation that sets GR apart from other squad based shooters is the threat indicator. It's a little circle near the bottom of your screen that indicates where the nearest threat is, in a general direction. If a direction starts flashing red, it means someone in that direction is firing a weapon of some sort. If the red dot in the middle lights up, there's someone near you... Somewhere. :) Very cool idea, not sure if ladders will allow it for tourney play though. The nice thing is you can usually find campers just by following it. But it doesn't tell you how far away they are, so you still have to be very careful when hunting. If you're paying too much attention to your threat meter and not enough to the enemy you inevitably get shot right in the face.

Remember that damned planning map from Rainbow 6? Did anyone actually use, or even understand the stupid thing? I never could. The new command map works very well. Just hit your hot key (shift usually) click on a squad, click where you want them to go, and click on their rate of advance. (Slow, at all costs, or hold position.) A squad coming under heavy fire in normal mode will take cover and shoot back. When the enemy has been eliminated you need to tell them to advance again. You can also tell your squads to assault (default, shoot on sight.), suppress (recon by fire) or recon. (They'll only shoot back if fired upon.) I've heard some people complaining about the new map, but personally I love it.

If you so chose you can also set a firing arc for your people. When they reach a certain area they'll scan in the direction you specify for targets. This is a feature that I've REALLY wished R6 had in the past. Great if you're setting up a defensive position.

I have had a few problems where my people walk right into ambushes, and I've cursed the command map... but then again they walk into ambushes when I'm controlling the lead character.. So it's not the map, it's just me I suspect.

Missions in the game are varied and interesting. Some of them are just kill everything that moves, you've also got a nice mix of hostage rescue, recon, information gathering, and even some escort missions. On the harder levels the missions are very challenging and should keep you busy for quite a while.

After each mission you'll receive a briefing on how things went, each soldiers status, rounds fired and hit percentage. You can also save a movie of the action, and view it later, or share it with friends.