Rainbow Six: Lockdown Diaries Part One

Released between September 2005 and February 2006 (depending on the platform), Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown was met with mixed reviews due to it being more action-oriented than previous entries. I’ve no idea why, since both Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow were action-oriented titles.

It turns out that there are no mods to improve the graphics, so I’m stuck with vanilla - but at least I can take screenshots more easily! And unlike Rainbow Six 3, Lockdown was cross-platform, so I only have to play it once. The missions are in a different order, and the dates are different, but it’s the same game.

This is my ongoing exploration of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series, played in release order, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I start Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown.

It was 2nd of May 2009, and we were off to Pretoria, South Africa, where President Yared Mbelu had been taken hostage inside of a bank. Clearly it had been quiet since the end of September. We had two hostages to locate, as well as the mystery of why John Clark’s voice had changed. I was to take Loiselle, Raymond & Yacoby, and get the hostages to the chopper where Malloy was waiting for us.

We deployed outside - or on top of? - a multistory parking garage, needing to use it to access the correct street. There were a few terrorists outside who we shot, then headed inside, making our way down the levels, using cars for cover when required. On the final level, I had to equip my night vision goggles to be able to see in the pitch black. A handful of terrorists attempted to stop us, but we murdered them and exited through the door.

After a loading screen, we were in a plaza. All we had to do was get across it. In our way were a whole bunch of enemy forces, shooting from windows, running out through doors… I lost count of them, and things weren’t made any more relaxed as two buildings to our right were bombed, with parts of them tumbling to the ground!

Eventually, however, we reached the back alley that we needed, and I shot the two men who ran out to confront us. After another loading screen, we were finally in the financial district.

Exiting the alley onto the street, we shot a few terrorists before going through a building. On the other side was a man watching us with an RPG, which he happily fired in our direction before I shot him. There were a handful more terrorists in the street that required killing before I could enter the bank where our hostages were being held.

Two terrorists held the front desk, and the teller windows and balcony just inside held more. This part was easy. Heading upstairs I had a couple of stragglers, but things were eerily quiet as we headed back downstairs. I deactivated the metal detector, figuring that it would just alarm the terrorists when I passed through, and carefully went towards the vault.

Spotting a terrorist just inside, I shot him and maneuvered to kill a second. To my surprise, I found that the person shouting “Secure the area, someone’s inside the bank!” was the president. Who was the main hostage whom I was there to rescue. Not only that, but as I rescued them for extraction (no longer having to handcuff them, it seemed) he kept shouting it.

We headed back the way I had come, and there was a quick cutscene of more terrorists entering the bank. Thanks to my grenades, they didn’t last long. Back upstairs, then down into the main area, and out past reception we went, completely unhindered.

But then on the street were a whole bunch more terrorists… A few were scattered around the cars, with three more on the roof above us, but since they kept shouting around I knew to look for them. Once the hostages were in the extraction zone - on the street - the helicopter flew in.

Mission success in 19:47 with 83 dead terrorists. 10 days later, 12th of May 2009, we were heading to Malzir, Algeria for Operation: Algeria. We were working for Rainbow Five for some reason, as Legion, a deadly virus, had been stolen by terrorists. It was stolen from LNR Anderssen, and was an aerosol that was, thankfully, very short-lived once exposed to air. We were hitting Faisal Amidan’s apartment to get his client list, as he was the largest weapons smuggler in Africa, so must have known who was likely to want to buy Legion. I deployed with Loiselle, Price and Raymond.

Heading inside the building, we found ourselves in a living room filled with enemy targets. They fell with little resistance, so we went downstairs and down the hall. We had to clear a few rooms, which I checked first with the movement detector, before finding ourselves in an open area two stories up.

It was a bit frantic, with at least two tangos carrying RPGs and firing them in our direction as we cleared them out and made our way down to the ground floor. Going through an alley, I almost shot a civilian as we entered a marketplace. As we reached the far side of it, a tango did come out and one of my squadmates shot him.

A short alleyway led to another marketplace, but this one had a handful of tangos, who we dealt with pretty quickly. Unfortunately, it turned out that the extraction point was unsuitable due to an explosion making debris block the route, so we were told to move on to the secondary one, which was in the next area.

Approaching the end of the alleyway, we were told by Rainbow Five that they had detected the Legion virus in the room. The room was a town square, but sure. Also, an overwhelming number of tangos were in the area, and any stray round could break open the canisters of Legion laid around the place. Whilst returning fire, quite successfully to be fair, we made our way to the right, following the building line until we reached a door. It required cutting open, and when it was open there was a tango inside, but we were momentarily safe.

However, my movement detector showed that there were several tangos in the next room, so I had my squad breach the door and toss in a flash grenade. This building had a few connected rooms, but the design aided us in giving us some good areas of cover, and some easy shots at the tangos. Continuing on, we were told to get to the roof for extraction, so we headed up some stairs. Unfortunately, the door was boarded up - apparently hammers and explosives are useless against the combined powers of wood and nails. It did give us some nice shots at enemies stood on neighbouring high ground, however.

Heading back down, I opened the doors and led the way. Things were looking up when our chopper swooped in - but given that it was under heavy fire, and we had no rooftop access, it had to leave. Which meant that we’d have to get to the tertiary extraction point - leaving the city on foot.

We fought our way down the street, things made only slightly easier thanks to the helicopter firing at the enemy before leaving. Tangos attacked from windows and the street as we walked through a series of alleyways, reaching a door that needed to be forced open. The motion detector showed three bogies inside the next room, so I opened the door a crack and shot one, opened it a bit more to shoot the second, and quickly rounded the corner with the door fully open to kill the third. I felt super professional.

Through another couple of doors, I shot someone before he knew we were there and headed down another alleyway. Another couple of tangos were all that stood between us and the gates leading out of the city. Mission success in 22:51 with 75 dead enemies. Hopefully the next mission wouldn’t have us fight a city…