Rainbow Six Urban Operations Diaries Part Two

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 finish Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Rogue Spear: Urban Operations.

After a bit of an easy rescue, and a challenge in the London underground, we were on our way to Venice…

A Venetian library, housing such works as the Codex Argentum, had been taken over by Universal Harmony, an ironically named American apocalypse cult. They had evacuated the hostages, but were going to blow up the library - and themselves - with a bomb. I decided to have two teams - one to kill everyone, the other to disarm the bomb once I had cleared the way.

A sweep and a strike

We deployed and almost immediately found terrorists, as it turned out that this one street was more densely packed than a packet of crisps. We murdered our way through the route I had planned, taking corners carefully. Not carefully enough to shoot everyone myself, though, as the team kept shooting people I hadn’t yet spotted.

Through the library and past the bomb, and as I reached the end of my route I signalled for Red squad to deploy. By the time I reached the library again, I watched as they disarmed the bomb - but the mission wasn’t over. A terrorist yet lived, so I had to search the areas I had already been through. Eventually, I reached the first basement I had gone through, and one of my squad shot someone that I had missed again. Mission success in 8:18, with 25 terrorists dead.

Next up was the humorously titled Operation: Infinite Seven. Ironically, it was in Mexico City, yet the terrorists I had just killed hailed from New Mexico. However, after being driven back by the police, Marxist revolutionaries had retreated to their warehouse headquarters. My mission was to murder the hell out of them, going through each floor level-by-level and room-by-room.

In, up, down, around...

Deploying, I carefully headed for the first waypoint - where I heard a terrorist talking to himself. I shot him, then two others who were down the far end of the street. As I poked my head out, I was shot by someone in a window.

Soldiering on with the remaining three men, we entered the first building, ignoring my waypoints. I shot a few people on my way upstairs, before crouching to move slower as I explored more of the rooms. I decided to head back the way I had come to check up the next staircase, and one of my men was shot. I turned around and back into the room to find a terrorist stood over my man, so I shot him before heading up the stairs I had been aiming for. At the top, I spotted a man and tried to take aim to shoot him, but he was faster. Taking control of my final man, I grabbed a grenade - but too late, as the same guy shot him too…

The mission may have ended in 5:10, with 10 terrorists dead, one RAINBOW incapacitated and three KIA, but the plan had been working. I figured it was worth another go at least, so I redeployed.

What could go wrong?

This attempt went better, and I actually followed my waypoints this time. I murdered my way through the first building, and up a fire escape, coming into the room with the men who killed my last two squadmates through a different entry. I shot them, then made sure the rest of the building was clear before heading down to the street.

Across and into the next building, there wasn’t much resistance left by this point. One of the squad had killed the leader through a window at some point, because he was dead before I got upstairs to him. However, the mission was again not over… I searched through the street, and finally went back into the basement area and shot a terrorist in the back. Still incomplete, I decided to check if I had missed any rooms - and it turned out that I had upstairs! I shot the two men inside, and the mission was a success. 6:18, with 18 terrorists dead.

And so began the finale - Operation: Jade Key. A Hong Kong hotel had been raided by Chinese gangsters, and I was to rescue some foreign business leaders with minimal loss of life. Presumably that meant the hostages, and not the terrorists who had set up a sniper and a couple of machine gunners…

Start on the left to take the sniper out

Setting my plan up, I went for insertion point two, which would allow me to get behind the sniper and ensure my team’s safety. I trotted over to the street corner and was promptly shot by one of the aforementioned machine gunners - but only wounded! I quickly shot him back, before valiantly leading my squad up the stairs to shoot the sniper in the head.

Entering the hotel, I checked my heartbeat detector and spotted someone around the next couple of corners. By the time I had requipped my rifle and reached the first corner, the terrorist had appeared with friends! We shot them and continued into the hotel, taking out a couple more in the restaurant area, before finding the first hostage.

I did NOT shoot the woman

From the map, I had thought that two hostages were together, but continued on to get the one who was left on his own. I went down some stairs and shot a terrorist in the back, before grabbing the hostage and heading out through a bus (it had been crashed into the building) to the extraction point. Once both were deposited, I returned through the bus and decided to head for the second machine gunner, who I knew to be in the parking garage. On the way, I spotted the third hostage, who I grabbed - and shot the terrorist hiding behind him.

A quick trip through the bus again, and it was mission successful. It took 6:55, and I killed nine terrorists. And that was the end of the campaign! As it ended on 10th June 2003, the whole thing had taken just over four months. What’s more, it hadn’t all been a plot by some terrorist mastermind! RAINBOW could rest easy - until next time…

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really liked this expansion. It built well on the existing mechanics, and had several really interesting maps. Touches like the smoking bus smashed into the hotel were great. My only gripe is that I didn’t really need to utilise multiple teams and snipers, almost everything was doable by a single squad of assault. However, as I said Urban Operations was definitely worth my time.

After a quick look on a Wikia, I was going to skip Covert Ops Essentials. However, I looked into it a bit more, and there are three campaign missions. So, RAINBOW will return in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Rogue Spear Covert Ops Essentials Diaries - a one-part special.