Games are getting more and more realistic, and in turn, more complicated to run and play, but Red Storm Entertainment has done a good job with Rogue Spear. Part of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series, the game is complex and rich enough to enjoy for long amounts of time, but simple enough to be fairly easy to learn to play.

The game focuses around SWAT-team-like groups that go into hostage and terrorist situations to neutralize the enemies and
obstacles at hand. You control one person at a time, but can set up orders for the others in your group and in the other teams.

I easily got the game installed and it ran smoothly from the get-go. It was simple enough to start playing, but it took several tries to beat the first mission -and even more to keep everyone in my team alive.

The controls were a bit of hindrance at first, using my gamepad in one hand, and the mouse in the other, but I soon got used to it and appreciated the accuracy the mouse allowed, while the gamepad allowed for quicker movements than the computer’s rodent.

The game includes training missions that are helpful in honing skills, but they were boring. The first couple of missions work just as well as training.

It also has a great arsenal of weapons, along with the ability to use semi-automatic weapons to plow down the opposition, silenced weapons to take them out quietly and even sniper-style weapons for taking out people from a safe distance.

The game reminded me a lot of two Playstation titles: Metal Gear Solid and Syphon Filter. In all three, the gaming experience is more than just shooting and killing everyone possible. In Rogue Spear, you have hostages to think about and must plan your points of entry and also be aware of the rest your people present.

Overall, the game is good and a lot of fun to play. Through little fault of its own, though, I found myself longing to boot up my Playstation to play Syphon Filter.

Rogue Spear is superior in graphics and sound, but the controls and all the options make Rogue Spear something you have to sit down and concentrate on. While you can speed up the game by having the computer decide your courses of action, weapons and personnel, that takes away the realism that makes it better than its Playstation cousins.

Red Storm Entertainment
Rated: Teen
System requirements: Pentium 233 with 3D hardware
64 MB RAM
2D 16-bit SVGA or direct 3D compatible video card
CD ROM 4x 200 MB of hard drive space
Price: $39.99

Originally printed in the News & Observer and NandoNext.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 7th, 1999 at 10:16 pm and is filed under Game Reviews, Gaming, PC Game Review, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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