Rainbow Six is a beloved franchise and has been ever since it first appeared on the PC in 1998. It took a while, but the console versions finally caught on when Rainbow Six 3 (a modified port of the PC game, which redefined the series on that format) was released. The console version was a huge success, especially on Xbox, where it benefited from a fantastic online mode that was only extended when squad-support came with the Black Arrow expansion.

Rainbow Six 3 made some big changes to the game, like the ability to see your gun, leaning it more towards traditional first person shooters while retaining the tactical squad element that made the game famous to begin with. Lockdown makes some surprising changes to the overall package that could put some of you off. However, if you take the time to adapt, you should find yourself addicted once again.

The single player is much more character driven and though the "This time it's personal!" concept may be a bit cliché, the fact that you actually get to know the characters you're fighting with and commanding is great. The cut scenes delve into the personalities or our heroes a bit more and you may actually end up giving half-a-damn about some of them!

The missions are very similar to Rainbow Six 3, but with some needed refinements. The biggest improvement is the level design and variety therein. Previously the levels were set in on one specific area and looked the same throughout, whereas now you'll find missions starting off with you sniping enemies from a helicopter, moving to ground-based room clearing inside of a large building, followed by a prison and then to a terrorist-ridden restaurant, behind which you can order your troops to storm a room while you clear out terrorists from above through a sky window. The layout of the levels are certainly a lot more varied and the dynamic lighting is much better, often changing from room to room and forcing you to use your different vision modes a lot more than before.

The controls have also been totally revamped and it's definitely a change for the better. No longer will you find yourself stopping in the midst of a battle to bring up that slow radial menu to pick grenades; pushing the B button now switches to your secondary weapon, such as a pistol or grenade launcher, and if your secondary weapon is on your primary weapon like the SR2, then this also activates that. To use grenades you now pull the L trigger and you're given a SOCOM-like arching display that shows you where your grenade will end up. I can't say if I prefer this or not; it certainly can come in handy but I do miss just chucking grenades blindly without worrying about where they landed. Without this it would probably be a lot harder to use grenades however, as getting them through windows or doors is hard and would be nearly impossible without the display. It should be noted that you now throw with your left hand and don't pull the pin while holding the L trigger, so those instant karma grenade kills aren't possible anymore.

Switching between visions is now accomplished with the white button and you'll have to cycle through night-vision and thermal-vision instead of having a button for each one. A new single player only vision mode has been added, where you can detect enemy heartbeats and this is used via the back button. Finally, the Y button switched between your third and fourth equipment selections, which can be a wide selection of grenades, a claymore, gasmask, door-breaching charges and so on. This is also where your Persistent Elite Creation character's skill-based equipment goes, but we'll get to that later. Unfortunately, remote charges have been removed, but it's obvious why when some of the new toys are discovered.

One of the biggest changes made to the single player missions is the inclusions of the sniping section. Here your goal is to take out enemies from a huge vantage point, such as a high rooftop or a helicopter, usually to clear the way for your teammates on the ground below. The missions can be pretty exciting and you'll definitely have to make use of all your vision modes to spot every enemy (though even the hard to find ones are given away when you figure out that your teammates always look towards them; a handy tip). Of course, you'll also find the typical explosive barrels scattered around the environment for quick explosive kills, but you don't have to use those. The sniping bits are a good addition, but overall the single player section of the game feels very familiar. Is that a bad thing? Not really, no - but don't expect this portion of Lockdown to push the FPS genre anywhere it hasn't been numerous times already, with the exception of the well-done voice commands you can give your teammates - however, this has been a feature since the original Rainbow Six 3.

Your heads-up display (HUD) looks drastically different in Lockdown. Almost everything about it has changed and there is even a subtle outline of your character's goggles or helmet (even if you aren't wearing one). As you take damage it shakes - and this is the best effect I've ever seen to indicate that you're taking damage in a FPS - eventually starting to crack. Walking through steam or mist fogs it up and drops of water slide down it, and yes even blood splashes onto it.

The display always gives a clear indication of what gun or equipment you're using, how much ammo is remaining and how much health you have left. It takes some adjusting to but the new HUD is a great addition to the game. For fans of RS3 you'll be happy to know that you can now also turn off the gun display, so you only see a targeting reticule, making it feel more like the original Rainbow Six and Ghost Recon. Players may find themselves doing this only to escape the new iron sight view that many guns now come with, which blocks a lot of the screen but also adds to the experience big time.

Personally I couldn't bring myself to turn the gun off; Red Storm have outdone themselves when it comes to how the guns look, animate and light. The lighting changes everywhere you go, the recoil is very well done and the reload animations are simply superb (especially with those snazzy new gloves you're wearing!) However, if you're more concerned about performing well than watching cool animations that help make the experience more exciting, then the option is there to turn the gun display off.

The new goggle view does help make the game feel more like you're in control of a character and not a gun-mounted camera, but unfortunately looking down still reveals nothing but thin air and no actual body, which is a real shame. Another surprising move is that the game just generally runs and moves faster. Characters run around quicker and Rainbow fans will definitely be able to tell that they're running faster than they used to. The increased pace and emphasis on more run-and-gun/pray-and-spray tactics does make the game feel more arcade like, a little more like Counter-Strike perhaps, and it loses a bit of the tactical roots that the game was born with. This by no means makes Lockdown a bad game, just different, and one that some Rainbow fans will not be happy with. You have been warned!

The various multiplayer modes actually feel drastically different from each other and require different styles of play. In Team Sharpshooter you respawn, causing you to throw worry to the wayside and just run into a battlefield guns blazing. If you die, no problem, you'll respawn in a few seconds anyway. However, Team Survival has no respawns and you'll find yourself playing much more cautiously, knowing that when your one and only life is gone, it's gone. Retrieval and Total Conquest return and haven't changed too much, however free-for-all Survival and Sharpshooter have been abandoned completely and there is no longer any multiplayer mode that isn't team-based.

Lockdown actually feels like a sequel to Rainbow Six 3 and not an expansion. Some people may not think it's necessarily a good sequel, but it at least advances and evolves the franchise and is a good game, regardless of its likeness to the previous version, which of course fans can still continue playing if they're not so keen on the direction the series has taken. No new feature says that louder than the Xbox exclusive Persistant Elite Creation mode, or P.E.C. for short. Or... PEC, for shorter.

When you play online in a PEC match, which you probably will do for the majority of the time, you're playing a career. You start off by selecting your soldier's career path (Spec-Ops, Commando, Engineer or Medic), then choose your outfitting and look, and you're set. This character is linked to your Gamertag forever and you can play as the class you select and only that class. It is possible to switch classes at some point, but it will cost you a lot of levels. The great thing about this is that it is stored offsite, meaning that you can take your Gamertag to another Xbox, pop Lockdown in and have all your character's information right there.

As you progress through games you earn credits, which are used to buy anything from new clothes to armour and equipment, like claymore mines and grenades. You also gain experience, just like in an RPG, and once you earn a specific amount you level up. Every level gives you a new training point, which you can put towards increasing gun power, accuracy, reload time, body armour efficiency and other class specific skills. Every five levels gives you a new ability and sometimes you'll even get rewards to select from.

Think about Wolfenstein and how each class had specific abilities and then take that to the extreme. Commandos are strong soldiers that have the ability to use heavy 200-clip weapons and eventually can do so with no recoil at all. They can use riot shields and create a barricade for other soldiers trying to do something behind him. This class starts with assault rifles and moves onto heavy weapons, but also can unlock shotguns or a special state of the art gun that only they can use - they also can use heavy armour and become the ultimate Rambo fighting machine.

Spec-Ops are stealth operatives that use sub-machine guns but eventually can unlock either a knife or a sniper rifle, both of which only a spec-op can use. They can hack enemy radar and visions so they simply do not work, a great tactic when combined with smoke grenades; hilarity also ensues when enemies cannot tell friend from foe! Eventually they unlock a special thermal-vision that is vastly superior to the vision other classes use.

Engineers and Medics are harder to use and their abilities aren't too obvious at first, but they're definitely there. Engineers are the only class that can upgrade their shotguns and having a fully accurate shotgun with max damage makes you absolutely lethal. The Super 90 scoped shotgun can pick people off from a good distance and packs an amazing punch up close; and a 20 round automatic USAS? You can blast through hallways of enemies like nothing with that, if you know what you're doing.

Medics have the unique advantage of being able to heal themselves on the battlefield, as well as the responsibility of healing teammates. They start off using the sub-machine guns and since the P90 is in that class - widely regarded is one of the absolute best guns in the game - medics have it pretty good. Both classes unlock plenty of great skills over time, as well, such as the Engineer's ability to have every explosive he or she carries (which is more than anyone else can) pack a bigger punch.

The new PEC mode is a great addition and I'm sure I don't need to tell you that it's addictive as hell. Aside from levelling up and earning new skills, your character can also earn medals for accomplishing specific goals like 100 kills, 100 canister captures in Retrieval and some more odd ones like winning 20 squad matches in a row, getting 90% accuracy 20 rounds in a row and even playing every day for one week! Medals give you a surplus of credits and almost always shoot you up to a higher level. However, many of you will miss playing Rainbow like you did on Rainbow Six 3; being able to use any weapon you wanted, not having to buy grenades - and that's fine, because you can just as easily play non-PEC matches that are identical to how Rainbow Six 3 worked.

Co-operative Terrorist Hunt and Mission modes return as well, but oddly the Reverse Terrorist Hunt mode that was promised seems to be missing. I'm pleased to say that the mission modes are highly enjoyable with friends, especially when the enemy plants mines and booby traps on the other side of doors. The map designs are excellent and a joy to play with buddies on, however the Terrorist Hunt mode is just way too easy. You can no longer change the difficulty from the server and even if you do, it just isn't a challenge like it used to be and nowhere near the quality of Ghost Recon 2's equivalent mode.

Rainbow's graphics have been taken up a notch, particularly when it comes to lighting and how it plays a role in the game. The menus all look great and are easy to navigate through, a good thing since you'll be doing it often in PEC mode, however don't expect the graphics to be absolutely mind-blowing. They're what you'd expect from an Xbox game and better than a lot of other games out there, however there have been some odd changes that may throw off some gamers who were addicted to RS previously.

For one, the characters lips no longer move when you're speaking into your headset, a great little detail of the old game. The rag doll physics are better than ever now, as they've been combined with some predetermined death animations. Depending on how you die you can get one of several animations where your character falls over, or he'll die instantly and fall lifeless, often times sliding down objects, doing back flips, or dying in mid-run and rolling across a whole room. Characters also bleed... a lot. If they're hit by a grenade or another form of explosive, the entire wall next to them will be covered with blood. A lot of blood. If multiple characters die near each other, then expect the entire room to look like a scene from Kill Bill!

Red Storm has also improved the physics of other objects lying around the levels. Things can be blown off walls and then down halls, crates and boxes fly in all directions when hit by explosives or a powerful gun, many objects even react when you run into them now, including open doors that are only halfway ajar. A great map for this is Clinic, one of the game's best maps (and really, all the multiplayer maps are fantastic and far better than the previous titles). Here you'll see objects being blown down corridors like crazy and doors even come off their hinges after big explosions.

Unfortunately, I can't say the sound has improved much - the music is non-existent for much of the game, but at least the menu music is a good take on generic hard rock, though it is a big switch from the menu music of Rainbow Six 3 and Black Arrow. The voice acting is fine, with the exception of your new boss - I've never seen a character emphasise all the wrong things at the wrong times so much. Bring back the old voice actor, please! The sound overall is good, but not great and I'm very let down by the near lack of effects for the little things like doors and footsteps. They might be there, but you don't notice them nearly as much as you did in RS3 and that hurts the experience. It could also be one of the reasons people see it as a less tactical game, as sound plays a big part in tactics. After playing Battlefield 2 and seeing how utterly amazing sound can be in a shooter, Lockdown's sound effects just don't compare.

If you don't have Xbox Live then you aren't going to get the full package, it's as simple as that. Missing out on the excellent PEC mode is a shame and since the campaign mode is fairly short and similar to the previous title, it hurts Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown quite a bit. The new feel of the Rainbow team is nice, where you see a huge quantity of soldiers, and the involved story mode is appreciated, but it doesn't change the fact that the single player is, for the most part, more of the same, even with the new additions. It's good fun for the time it lasts, but doesn't do much to push the genre like the multiplayer mode does. The fact that the enemies are hardly intelligent doesn't help matters at all and while I wholly enjoy this game more than Rainbow Six 3 (even if it isn't always as tactical) it pains me to score this a 9 out of 10. However, if you have Xbox Live and like shooting things then I can fully recommend this game. The Xbox Live side would gain a 10, no question, but I can't give that to Lockdown as a whole when so many gamers will only ever experience the single player side.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).