Rainbow Six 3 originally released for the PC a year ago and enjoyed some success, but it was the Xbox version that really exploded onto the scene to become a premier showcase for the Xbox Live experience. It offered the complete package with thrilling gameplay that pitted a team of Rainbow covert operatives against terrorists in a variety of scenarios. PS2 owners can finally see what the fuss is all about, but is their port too little too late?

Gamers assume the role of Ding Chavez, a member of the elite Rainbow team who is sent on dangerous missions around the world to defuse terrorist situations. Rainbow Six 3 is a squad-based tactical first person shooter, but there's no planning before the missions to map out routes for teammates. Truthfully, I've always found the planning segments to be extremely tedious and complicated, so I was happy to see that go. Instead of pre-planning, you control your squad on the fly with context-sensitive buttons and quick orders. For example, if you look at a door, you can command the team to open the door, open and clear, breach and clear, or any other of a variety of options depending on the situation. The game also supports a USB headset for seamless verbal communication with the bots.

The A.I. is quite smart and will do exactly what you tell them to do. The bots automatically seek cover in firefights and intelligently sweep rooms when they enter, covering each other and assuming maximum security positions. They also yell out wherever they come under fire and helpfully tell you the location of the enemy so that you can provide backup. It's pretty fun to issue orders to the team and let them do the bulk of the work, but if you become too fond of ordering them around, eventually the squad will be surprised by a terrorist catching them in a blind spot. Throughout the missions, you really develop a bond with the team and want to keep them all alive. The game uniquely challenges the player to assume the roles of squad leader and soldier at the same time, and you'll want to become equally adept at both giving orders and shooting terrorists to succeed at the missions.

The bulk of the gameplay is still intact and leads to some great moments in the 16 missions of the campaign. However, probably because of the PS2 hardware limitations, the maps are considerably dumbed down, not only graphically, but tactically. A key component of the gameplay is the Zulu orders (basically meaning "Move on my command"), which come into play when there are multiple doorways to a single room. This setup allows you to command the team to wait at a door while you move to the other door. Then at your signal, both sides burst into the room simultaneously and take out the terrorists. These moments are some of the best in the game. However, the tweaked maps in the PS2 version are smaller, have fewer doors, and about half the Zulu points that the Xbox version has. The game's still reasonably fun, but after playing the Xbox version, if it feels like something's missing, that's because some features really are missing.

The broadband online support is appreciated, but again, it's considerably lacking compared to the superior Xbox game. The PS2 version doesn't have the single player campaign playable online, which is a pretty huge drawback. While it does offer two player splitscreen offline play, that is a very poor substitute. Three modes are available though (Survival, Team Survival, and Sharpshooter), and joining games and playing in them is a smooth process. However, load times are exceedingly long, bordering on a minute, a fault which extends to the single player campaign.

Rainbow Six 3 didn't look drop-dead amazing on the Xbox, but the PS2 port looks even worse. Animations are quite choppy and the textures are lower quality. Framerate takes a hit quite frequently, particularly in intense firefights, although I developed a strange fondness of seeing the half second delay between my character's movement and its shadow. I did enjoy the action packed CG cutscenes though, which look amazing. Sound isn't too amazing, but it does the job with ambient music and gunfire bursts.

Overall, Rainbow Six 3 would be a good game if the Xbox and PC versions didn't exist. But we can't deny reality, and when clearly superior versions of the same game exist, it's hard to recommend this one. However, PS2 only owners could do much worse than Rainbow Six 3, and it's still a pretty great squad based shooter. If you're itching for a Tom Clancy fix, this isn't a bad way to go.