Heckler & Koch. The name that gives all Rainbow Six players a warm and fuzzy feeling in their tummies, and sends shivers down the spines of Skorpion-wielding terrorists. But HK does more than just firearm development and manufacturing, they also have their own "SWAT Team"; the International Training Division. While not a real CT unit battling terrorism, the ITD trains law enforcement and military personnel from all over the world. Even qualified civilians in security agencies can become trained in executive protection by HK. Perhaps Global Security from the original Rainbow Six could've needed that course...

After taking a look at the cool, new main menu and continuing to the Planning Phase, you are presented with some-ninety new weapons and equipment. As the name implies, it's all about HK quality here. MP5s, G36s, FABARM shotguns - everything an HK enthusiast requires (except for the out-of-production G41, which is one of my favourite battle rifles. Too bad..). The 20mm grenade launcher half of the OICW is a blast, and the USP .40 with extended thirty-round magazines and tactical flashlight is easily classified as a "sexy gun". The bitmaps are clean and good-looking, and the information plentiful. There are also a number of new uniforms available, most of them all black with HK armpatches. A few are available in urban camouflage.

The kit items consist of all the usual stuff, plus a redone Heart Beat Sensor, a claymore mine, and a proximity mine. Strangely enough there are no extra primary/secondary magazines. Despite this I have yet to go dry with a weapon in this mod, something that often happens when I'm roaming about the Met in a Terrorist Hunt. Either my aim have improved, or there are more magazines available for each weapon. New weapons isn't all you get either, there are also six new characters, all real HK guys.

The ITD whups the Islamic Vanguard 15-0.

On to the Action Phase. The models are great, and the textures are simply put amazing, probably some of the best I've seen so far. The new uniforms are also great eye candy. The reticules are like reticules should be - there's no fancy stuff, but there's nothing wrong with them either. Except for the fact that a couple of them have the crosshairs misaligned a bit. The flashlight reticules are original, never seen anything like it before. What surprised me was that while PeyBak opted to remove the LandWarrior M4 from multiplayer in the AUM Weapon Mod, the rangefinder weapons in ITD v2.1 are readily available all the time and, contrary to what PeyBak said, they do work online.

Since there aren't really that many new firearms in this mod, most are just variations of each other, the number of new sounds is also quite low. But that doesn't mean they aren't good. The sharp report from the MP5, to the heavy pop of the G3, they all sound good. Unfortunately ITD, like many other mods, suffers from some minor issues when it comes to sound. When firing a fully automatic weapon set to 'Rock 'n Roll' (full auto) in bursts, the sound that plays after the shots (usually some sort of echo) tends to not play every other burst. This causes the gunfire to be suddenly cut off in a way that sounds rather weird.

The G36k and the assault rifle of the future - the OICW.

Four new ammunition types are available as well, namely Hydra Shok, Black Talon, Winchester SilverTip, and PT7 Training Ammunition. The latter is only available for a few weapons, while the others can be loaded into most of them.

Apart from a few minor flaws, such as the sound issue, slightly misaligned reticules (most likely you won't notice it until it's pointed out to you), inventory bitmaps too small during the Action Phase, and some minor errors concerning ammunition types and magazine capacity for three weapons, the HK ITD mod v2.1 is a work of beauty, and strongly recommended. When you get it, make sure to take a good look at the various screens when you play, such as the multiplayer screen, the campaign setup, the results screen after missions, and such. A large amount of the various text in the game, multiplayer launch, operative status, etc, have been changed into some pretty humorous remarks.

In short; kudos to Cocobolo and Cobra6 - and cheers for an ace mod.

"Satellite Uplink Terminated" The coolness never ends...