Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown [PC]

After spending the last three years dallying about on console systems, the Rainbow Six series has finally come home to the PC. Like the prodigal son, it wanders back onto our hard drives with nary an explanation about where it's been, what it's been doing, or why it's the way it is. Your reaction will probably include varying degrees of joy, disappointment, and maybe astonishment, because this is not any Rainbow Six you remember.

Lockdown is a PC adaptation of the levels from the console version, which played faster and looser, and also forced you through some tedious sniper sequences in which you had to protect your team by playing sniper whack-a-mole against terrorist attackers. Fortunately, these sequences are gone. But the levels are shuffled up and presented in a different order, which jettisons any attempt at a coherent backstory or progression. The mission in which you rescue your sniper late in the console version comes pretty early on the PC, leaving you to wonder, "Who's this Weber dude and why am I rescuing him?"

The randomly presented missions wouldn't be a problem if they at least took place in interesting locations. Instead, you get garden variety factories, villas, tunnels, and the occasional stately European building. Most of these locations lack personality and any sense of purpose (a sleek hospital is probably the sole exception).

The level design is relentlessly linear, using fake doors, pointless long hallways, and contrived obstacles to pull you from one end to the other. There's one ludicrous shootout through a garage door that's been lifted up about three feet. Instead of sliding underneath the door, you have to crouch and shoot the terrorists in the feet while they shoot back at your feet. How's that for elite counterterrorist tactics?

Mission goals are bland. You might shoot your way through 80 terrorists to pluck a couple of hostages from danger. In a couple of places like an Algerian marketplace and a subway station, there might be two or three civilians standing around. But that's the notable stuff. Most of the time, you're just shooting everyone between point A and point B.

The graphics are considerably sharpened, as you'd expect, for the PC. The weapons animations look great, although the sounds are strangely tinny. The environments look decent enough, although there's a smeary gray palette draped over everything, usually to encourage you to use night vision. The character models duplicate far too often, and it's particularly noticeable when Lockdown has a heated gun battle with 10 folks shooting it out. You're liable to be fighting three of the same dudes at once. Daryl, Daryl, and Daryl, is that you?