|
Plot
|
Rogue
Spear : Black Thorn
has a few extras that
Rogue Spear lacked,
not least an intriguing
plot.
"The
world has seen copycat
killers, but never
copycat terrorists…
until now. Some of
history’s most
infamous terrorist
acts are being recreated
in new locations,
but without any apparent
motive. Team RAINBOW
is sent in to stop
the trail of destruction.
"
The leader
of the terrorist group
is unknown at the outset
of the campaign, and
as Rainbow react to
successive terrorist
activities they must
seek out his identity,
and neutralise the threat
posed by his terrorist
organisation - Black
Thorn.
And
so, Rogue Spear : Black
Thorn was born, from
a Red Storm brainstorming
session headed by Marcus
Beer, who penned the
Black Thorn title, and
copycat storyline. With
this instalment of the
R6 series, Team Rainbow
find themselves under
attack, from an unknown
adversary.
|
|
|
|
|
How
Black Thorn fits into the R6 series
|
Black Thorn
is a stand alone addition
to the Rainbow Six series
- none of the other games
are required in order to play
Black Thorn. However you can
only play multiplayer games
with other Black Thorn gamers,
if you do not have Rainbow
Six or Rogue Spear installed.
The overall
presentation of Black Thorn
remains unchanged from Rogue
Spear, allowing seasoned RS
players the opportunity to
dive straight into the action.
|
|
|
|
|
Installation
/ What's Included.
System
Requirements are worth a mention,
mainly because their is no
official support for Windows
XP. Running BT in XP can cause
stuttering graphics, although
switching XP to ME compatibility
mode for Black Thorn should
do the trick. Supported Operating
Systems are 95/98/Me. The
full minimum requirements
are :
- Pentium 266
MHz MMX without Hardware
Acceleration or Pentium
233MMX with Hardware Acceleration.
- Microsoft
Windows 95/98/Me with DirectX
6.0 or higher.
- 32 MB of
RAM (64 MB recommended).
- 500 MB of
free hard disk space. Additional
100 MB free disk space on
primary hard drive required
for proper Windows swap
file allocation.
- DirectX 6
or higher compatible 2D
video card, capable of 16bit
color.
- Direct 3D
compatible video card required.4X
CD-ROM drive.
- Microsoft
DirectSound 6.0 compatible
sound card required.
- Internet/Network
Play: Properly configured
TCP/IP connection at 28.8
KBPS or faster.
Note
that those are minimum requirements,
and even my 450Mhz processor
struggled to render some of
the bigger maps smoothly -
something that never happened
in Rogue Spear/Urban Operations.
If Rogue
Spear is already installed
Black Thorn will automatically
install itself into the Mods
folder of RS, at just over
half a Gigabyte. A new Red
Storm folder will be used
in the absence of other R6
game installations. Installation
also includes an option to
install ubi.com files, for
accessing Ubi Soft's Gaming
zone.
Black
Thorn is not simply Rogue
Spear with new maps and missions
- it also benefits from the
additional "custom"
game modes that were included
with the RS add on - Urban
Operations; single player
games such as Defend, Lone
Wolf, Terrorist Hunt are included.
The same reward system of
medals for successful operations
is also in place, as is the
Replay function. There is
also a brand new multiplayer
version of "Lone Wolf"
which is described later.
There are 5
Training missions, 6 new multiplayer-only
maps, including new locations
and new versions of your old
Rogue Spear favourites, and
9 (yes nine) brand new single
player missions. Finally a
whole new armoury of weapons
have been included.
Also in the
box is an extensive game manual
and a Special Extra disk with
details of Red Storms next
release, Ghost Recon.
|
|
|
|
Single
Player
|
Ubi Soft's decision
to delete one mission prior
to release was met with a
mixed response amongst the
hardcore R6 gaming community.
The deleted mission was the
first of the campaign and
involved a hostage situation
on aboard an aircraft, with
that mission now deleted the
first mission is another hostage
rescue, this time at the Japanese
Embassy in Venezuela. The
full mission list is -
Japanese Embassy, Cruise Ship,
African Village, Jungle Camp,
Thai Hospital, Train Station
, Airport Terminal, Hotel,
and Convention Center.
We have had
the opportunity to play the
first two missions of the
campaign, Desert Dragon and
Silent Ace. Desert Dragon
takes place in the Japanese
Embassy where a hostage situation
calls for the expertise of
Team Rainbow. Although the
briefing hinted at a requirement
for a timed assault (using
go-codes) careful selection
of weapons and a speedy assault
left the terrorists wishing
they had stayed at home.
Silent Ace takes
place aboard a huge cruise
ship and called for a little
more tactical planning as
two bombs had been placed
at either end of the vessel,
with the added complication
of hostages below deck. A
simultaneous attack on the
two bomb threats and recovery
of hostage took careful planning
in order to avoid dangerously
open spaces. This is where
the planning phase comes into
its own. After carefully constructing
an assault plan, it can be
viewed in watch mode, as your
team clinically dismantles
the terrorist threat, or not.
If the plan is failing at
a critical point the player
always has the option of replaying
the mission but taking control
of a particular team, leaving
the other teams to go about
their orders.
Mission One images can be
viewed here,
and from mission two, here
is the ocean
liner, and the Casino.
See the official
gallery for more images.
|
|
|
|
Multiplayer
|
Accessing the
Multiplayer menu gives several
options - play on Microsoft's
Zone, at Ubi Soft's Ubi.com,
join a specific IP game, or
launch your own server. Multiplayer
games can also be started
by using the desktop icon
installed by Ubi.com, or by
pointing your browser at Ubi.com.
Ubi.com
is a new venture for Ubi Soft,
aiming to bring gamers together
as a community. The Service
offers a special Friends List
for you to keep in touch with
your friends and a lot of
useful features like ingame
voice chat, a Pager, File
Transfer and many other features.
The Friends List even tells
you which game your friends
are playing and it lets you
join them with just one click.
The multiplayer
specific levels in Black Thorn
are City Street Small, Office
Building, Alaska Depot, Pagoda,
Chop Shop and Hidden Camp.
In addition
to the nine multiplayer game
modes that Rogue Spear players
have grown to love there is
an all new multiplayer game
never before seen in the series
- Lone Wolf. In Lone wolf
multiplayer one player is
alone against up to 8 other
players. He can choose any
weapon and equipment he wants
while the “hunters”
can only use pistols. The
player that kills the Lone
Wolf becomes the Lone Wolf
for the next game.
|
|
|
|
|
Weapons
Black Thorn
comes packed with an impressive
new array of weapons to select
from. All new weapons include
9mm M12 SMG, 5.7mm
P90 SMG, 5.7mm P90
SD SMG, 9mm TMP SMG,
7.62mm M60 LMG, 5.56mm
FAMAS G2 AR, 7.62mm
FAL AR, 5.56mm FNC
AR, 7.62mm SSG3000
SR and some multiplayer
only weapons such as the new
5.56mm Galil ARM AR
and 5.56mm M82 AR.
New pistols include the 9mm
P- 228, 9mm SPP and
the 5.7mm Belgian.
For a full list
click
here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
