Exclusive interview: Rainbow Six: Lockdown on the offensive

Rainbow Six games are pretty damned hard really. Boot down a door, steam in, look around and then lie down as a stream of enemy bullets say a big, welcoming "hello" to your torso. Bang, bang - dead again. Whoops. What did I do wrong?

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown is full of new features though. Amongst a lovely Career Mode for Xbox bods that lets you customise your own operative to 16-man online skirmishes for Xbox and PS2, this one is actually more user-friendly. Yes, user friendly! Wowee! Spend time fiddling with the options, and even novice shooter freaks should be able to get quite far. And that means travelling round the likes of South Africa, Amsterdam, Calais, Paris and Algeria with quite a lot of heroics to show for your troubles.

PS2 version

But don't just take our waffling words for it - instead, let Ubisoft game designer J.P. Cambiotti take up the reins, after we spoke to him about the PS2 and Xbox versions at his studio in snowy Montreal.

So with Rainbow Six: Lockdown, you've tried to make the series more accessible to a wider audience. Are you suggesting the previous games were a bit hardcore?

Cambiotti: In the past Rainbow Six got criticism for being too difficult, too hard to get into - the one shot, one kill hardly makes it very instant. Although we've kept that in for the hardcore fans, we've also tried to open it up to people who haven't really picked up the series before.

So you've now got aiming assistance and a 'save anywhere' feature. Plus, there's a sniper vision that's more of a departure from the regular Rainbow fare [enemies are easier to spot]. But despite these options, there's still a lot of the 'room playing' and the tension generated by one-shot kills that fans have come to expect.

And the game's far more character driven this time too, with three new female characters introduced into the melee. How are you planning to bring out their personalities?

Cambiotti: Well, the previous games had mainly dark outfits, with maybe a couple of different heads, so you couldn't really tell the difference [between characters]. With PS2 and Xbox, we have an extremely unique character set. There are 10 to 12 Rainbow characters throughout the game including the three female characters that are entirely new.

In the past it's also been hard to recognise the characters' personalities. Now we have voice-overs that are distinctive; we have distinctive behaviours - some guys are more gung-ho, others are more cautious when they enter a room. And visually, the amount of detail in the characters is amazing - you can really tell facial expressions, you can tell where they're from just by their outfits.

PS2 version

But you still only play as the one character though? What about during the new 'sniper missions' you demonstrated?

Cambiotti: In the sniper missions [which looks and plays a bit like a light gun game judging by our presentation demo], you play as Dieter Weber, in all the other missions you play as Ding Chavez. In addition, you are also pre-selected three squad members for each mission, so that if there's an upcoming scenario where you'll need a demolition expert, we want to make sure one is available. During the course of a mission, you'll use each of the operatives in each of their variable skills. But bear in mind you can outfit them in anyway you want; you can give individual team members a shotgun, a frag grenade and a flashbang...

The PS2 version has a motion sensor for detecting enemies, the Xbox has a heat sensor for much the same purpose. What's the reason for that then?

Cambiotti: Yes, they fulfil similar things, but they go about them a bit differently. We have different night visions too - the Xbox is green in colour, the PS2 is white. The thermal vision [on the Xbox version] is built into the night vision, so that people will actually stand out because they're warmer. The PS2's motion sensor is just a little different. It goes back to the hardcore thing - we wanted to give people the sense that seeing into the next room enables you to plan how you'll attack that room. And that's something thermal vision doesn't really give you.

Options for up to 16 players, six modes including two co-op, 'squad' and 'sniper' gameplay and 10 maps - it appears you've really tried to push the online aspect for the PS2 version. And that's not to mention the 16-man support and Career Mode on Xbox Live...

PS2 version

Cambiotti: Yes, Rainbow Six 3 was online on PS2, but it was very limited in its online support. One of the biggest things we want to do on the PS2 is build the community, so we've been working with ubi.com to make sure we can get as many people that want to play involved.

I think [online gaming] is extremely important. There are a lot of PS2 owners who have Internet adapters, and you can tell by games like SOCOM 2 that there is a huge market out there. Rainbow Six is a successful franchise and a very solid multiplayer game - it's been very well received on Xbox [Live], we've had extremely good [online] experiences with it on the PC, and now we want the same with the PS2.

So can you tell us anything about the storyline or are you being a bit stingy and keeping it all under wraps?

Cambiotti: I can give you a brief overview. There's the token evil millionaire who is funding a terrorist group to unleash a virus in the most populated nations in the world. Rainbow catches wind of this and has to make sure that doesn't happen. The millionaire also has a large force of terrorist soldiers, ranging from the highly skilled to the low-skilled. For this, we've introduced three levels of enemy AI.

It's a case of going in and getting the virus out, but you're gonna experience twists and turns all the time - like members of Rainbow coming under attack and being taken hostage. There'll also be a large number of cut-scenes to create a real movie feel. It's the cinematic experience that we've gone for.

How do these three levels of AI work? Does that mean you'll see your own cunning tactics blown apart by even more cunning terrorists?

Cambiotti: You'll only really see that with the top tier of terrorists. The first groups essentially operate on their own with no organisation whatsoever. The second group have better weapons, interact with each other and are just a little more difficult because of it. The third group, however, conduct organised attacks - they'll 'room clear' all of you, or they will go in and actively seek cover and if they can't find cover, they'll try and find another room that has cover and wait for you there. They're very intelligent as far as attacking is concerned.

PS2 version

So the sneaky gits will be setting up ambushes then?

Cambiotti: Yes, and you'll experience many nervy moments where creeping from a room into a quiet hall will result in you being unwittingly attacked by these intelligent AI adversaries. You might not notice it until it's too late. There are lots of opportunities for the terrorists to surprise you.

Can you tell us anything secret about the game that anyone else might not know about yet? Is there anything exciting that we can unlock?

Cambiotti: Well, there'll be an unlockable scheme in the game - not just a bog-standard, run-through-a-level and then unlock a game mode. Instead, as you explore, you'll discover items around the world that you can collect. These can then be used to purchase special unlockables like art or possibly weapons for the game. It's something we're planning at the moment, and should give something extra to players that they haven't seen in other games.

What about for these voice-overs you mentioned earlier. Any big name acting talent on the cast list?

Cambiotti: I'm not exactly sure what can be said, but there are definitely some well-known names from TV being used. Somebody from Star Trek for instance...

Well beam me up Scotty. Or...um...something...

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown releases for Xbox, PS2 and PC this spring.

Stephen Daultrey