Rainbow Six Rogue Spear Diaries Part Three

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 continue Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Rogue Spear.

All of my missions so far had apparently been as a result of a man called Samed Vezirzade, an Azerbaijani organised crime leader, so RAINBOW wanted more intel…

Operation: Crystal Arc had me infiltrating Verirzade’s summer home in Caucasus, where I would plant a bug on the phone and place a camera on a painting. I would have to do it solo, as I remembered the last game’s “remain undetected” missions…

Curiously, a “Russian businessman” was giving intel, which had led to this mission. He claimed that although Vezirzade wasn’t always there, his men often discussed plans there. Quite why I had to place a camera in the bedroom to capture this chatter is anyone’s guess.

Seems simple enough, eh?

Since the security system was in a building behind the property, my first port of call was obviously there. From there, I planned on heading straight into the main house to the phone, then upstairs before retracing my route down the hill to the extraction point. The intel suggested multiple enemies on patrol, which would mean instant failure.

And instant it was! I deployed, taking only Annika Lofquist after her two successful solo missions in the last game. 37 seconds later, I was spotted very easily by a guard patrolling the west and north decks. I redeployed, wanting to at least give this plan a chance - after changing my medium gear to light gear - to avoid excessive noise.

Managing to bypass the guard who spotted me, as well we the other guard who hadn’t, I made my way up to the building at the rear. It was unoccupied, so I deactivated the security, and came out of the building. There was a guard patrolling the northern perimeter, but he didn’t spot me. However, while I was waiting for him to move - the one who spotted me last time caught me again. Mission failure in 4:31, killed in action.

My heartbeat sensor was seeming to have issues when it came to people who weren’t on the same level as me, but I redeployed. The first part of the plan was fine, I wanted to see how the rest played out - 37 seconds later I had been spotted by that exact same person. This time, it was as soon as I moved near the door of a shed which was near the infiltration point…

Shed seen in the centre top

I decided to let the AI take a shot, so loaded up the default plan with Pak Suo-Won and entered Watch Mode, to see how it handled things. Of course, I still had to hit the go codes - which only increased the difficulty by not knowing where everyone was because I couldn’t move the the damned camera! Despite deactivating the security, the AI failed in 2:13 when heading towards the main house.

After switching out Pak with Annika again, I went back in to walk the default plan. I managed to get to the rear building and deactivate security, and even dodged the one who kept spotting me. Unfortunately, someone spotted me through a window and shot me in the back… 2:35 failure, and honestly I’d had it by this point.

I will openly admit that I cheated in my next attempt. There’s a cheat code that turns you invisible, so that’s exactly what I did - for the first section. After deactivating the security invisibly, and making it inside the house, I deactivated it. I swear the heartbeat sensor is useless…

I certainly couldn't have hacked that

In the house, I crept around to bug the phone on the ground floor, before sneaking past a guard wandering around the living room to reach a staircase. Up and into the bedroom, I planted a camera on a painting - instead of doing something to the computer which was also in the room? After that, it was a simple matter to get out of the house, then dodge the guards who kept spotting my originally to reach extraction. It took 3:46, but I managed it, damn it.

And so I finally arrived at Operation: Silent Drum. A London television studio had been raided by terrorists during a broadcast debate on European fiscal policy, and senior banking officials taken hostage. Of course, I was to storm the place.

My plan was simple - I would head down from the roof to the lobby with Blue squad, and we would head straight for the hostages. Red squad would storm the catwalks above the studios, then down through the building. It seemed fairly solid, so we deployed.

Narrator: This would not work

There were three terrorists on the roof, one on the helipad whom I shot, the other two managed to wound two members of Red squad. Hardly an auspicious start, I’ll admit. We split up, and I went down a ladder before shooting a terrorist at the other end of the lobby. I made my way to the studio where the hostages were, and burst in as I heard all hell breaking loose for Red squad. I shot a terrorist, but before I could shoot any others a hostage was killed. Then, so was I. Failure in 2:04, with four RAINBOWs killed, and nine terrorists dead.

Redeploying, I hoped things would be different even as two members of Red squad were injured by those first two terrorists. I hoped to beat Red squad to the hostages, so dropped down the ladder instead of climbing, injuring myself in the process. Another member of my squad followed my example, doing the same. Now moving at the same speed as Red squad, we pressed on, and I shot the man in the lobby, though he did squeeze off a couple of rounds at me.

Where was your warning in the lobby, Dangerfrog?!

Through an office and into a hallway, I was shot a bunch more times and incapacitated, and then the rest of my squad were taken out. By the time I could switch to Red squad, a hostage had been killed and we had failed. 2:08, with seven terrorists dead as well as three RAINBOWs. Two more were incapacitated, and one was wounded. What was most surprising was that Reserve, my main character, had been shot 13 times - and still lived. He could be a hardy son of a gun.

It was at this point that I realised that I had to rethink my plan. Perhaps a single team, then I could control more of the variables - if it didn’t work, I would think about a second team with go codes in place.

After replanning for a single team, and a slightly altered route into the front of the studio rather than the back, I redeployed. I shot the man on the helipad, then one of the men who kept shooting Red squad before, while one of my men shot the other. I went down the ladder as before, then snuck through the lobby to shoot the terrorist in the back. Still crouched, I followed the hallways rather than cutting through the office, and stopped when I heard footsteps. As a terrorist came out of an adjoining hallway, I shot him - then his friend who jumped out to see what had happened.

I mean seriously

Following the hallway they had come from, I heard another man and shot at him when he appeared, but I missed and he ducked back into Studio A. I followed and gunned him down, then went around into Studio B where the hostages were. I opened the door and shot the several terrorists in the room, somehow managing to avoid shooting the hostages despite the distance and missing at least once.

After quickly collecting the hostages, I went for the extraction point on the roof. Before I reached the stairs I would take up, I spotted a single terrorist crouched near them. I shot him, and was informed that the mission was a success. 4:25, with 12 dead terrorists and no injured RAINBOWs.

Next would be Operation: Feral Burn - intel had finally come in from Vezirzade’s place, showing that he was involved in illegal Russian military weapons. A buy was going on in St. Petersburg, and I had to stop it…