Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown (Xbox)

AI

The enemy AI and even the team AI in Lockdown has been improved, the enemy now uses a mixture of tactics and will hurl grenades in a much more aggressive manner. The whole enemy AI feels more aggressive and it provides the player with a sufficient challenge. They use mines; have trip-wires which will force you to use your vision modes and team to the full.

Your own team AI has been souped up a lot more as well, with additions to their room clearing skill and positioning they seem to be a lot better (most of the time) they will sometimes place themselves in an idiotic position and end up dead as the Tangos take advantage of their stupidity.

But most often as not they’ll win the day and live to fight again.

One tip to watch out for, the enemy snipers are ruthless and often placed in out of the way areas – be on your guard since their AI is fine-tuned to the max.

Graphics

Lockdown is a nice looking game, the graphics and the textures are on-a-par with the previous games and they have a new HUD visor for the singleplayer, which degrades with cracks and holes when you’re shot. The levels of texturing and light effects are good and provide enough atmospherics to immerse you in the war torn areas of the game.

There are a lot more in the way of bullet effects too, with tracer-fire and flashier pyrotechnics transforming this instalment into more of an action-fest than the previous ones. The poly-count has been slightly increased and the level of detail on the models has been enhanced in the tweaked engine.

Animations

While the graphics have been enhanced it is as though the animations have taken a big step backwards, they don’t look or feel as fluid as the last game. The reloading animations, the walking and running animations all have a clunky feel to them that makes the characters appear less-than-professional when they should look like they’re well trained member of an elite special forces squad.

Physics

Ragdoll physics are the order of the day and they don’t stint in this game, it definitely has a Hollywood approach to combat as Tangos fly upwards and around from a grenade blast or pinwheel backwards and slam into a wall when nailed by a shotgun. Highly satisfying stuff and I have no gripes at all with the physics in the game.

Level Design

Good quality level design is once of the keys to creating an enjoyable experience in these kinds of games and thankfully, Lockdown is full of 14 levels of great design with some very nice set pieces and moments to enjoy. I won’t spoil any of it but I will say that the team has once again kept to the excellent quality of the last games.

Sound

The ambient sound is excellent in Lockdown, from the gunfire and explosions to the spot effects and strange buzzing flies in one level. There are numerous sound effects that help to elevate the suspense and provide enough tension to crack a player who’s been sitting nail-biting at their joypad for a few hours of play.

Music

There is very little music most of the time, and then when there are breaks it rises and plays in the background. The music in the game is well done and I really have no complaints about it. So on to the next bit.

Voice

The dispassionate delivery of some of the lines, one-liner comments and the nature that the AI team has, of repeatedly sighing and pointing out that they’re awaiting orders got right on my nerves this time around and had me frantically hunting for an option to turn it off – seriously annoying. So the voice acting is a mixed bag and for those of you that hate to hear repeated comments, Lockdown won’t do you any favours.

The enemy voice acting has some nice moments and the mix of screams and comments rescues the rest from a mind-numbingly tedious rinse-and-repeat dialogue. I would still like to see more games take advantage of random conversation trees and tricks like Half Life and Far Cry employed.