Call me old school, call me an old fogey, call me a boomer, quite frankly I could not care less. Some things get better with time, some things stay the same, but some things stop working altogether, as is the case with “Rainbow Six Rogue Spear” on the PC. For years now I’ve been hounding on the tails of forum posts that have been long forgotten, questions posted on messaging websites, and asking general friends in person and online what to do about playing “Rogue Spear”, and for a brief moment, I managed to cobble together a working format of the game I had played ages ago. There were graphical glitches, crashes, and it became a chore and an anxiety test every time I fired it up, wondering when it would fall apart thanks to the newest Windows update that changed some background protocol that made all my effort in making this ancient game work, moot. All of that due to Ubi Soft’s insincerity towards their customers in caring about their wishes.
For years fans have been clamoring for an official remaster, or at the very least, a re-release, of the original “Rainbow Six” and “Rogue Spear” sequel, the former of which is only available on GOG.com, while the latter has disappeared entirely, almost as if they are blatantly trying to hide it for some unknown reason. For years the internet has been dotted with periodic questions about how to get it running. Now, finally, that is all over. Coming to everyone, free of charge, as a labor of love, by some skilled anonymous user online, there is “Rainbow Six Black Ops”, an amalgamation of both “Rainbow Six” and “Rogue Spear”, and all the expansions that followed them, rolled into a single-package installer, easily downloaded and run and then launched from one’s desktop to immediately jump in and play with. While it is not a 1-to-1 perfect conversion, with some levels having notable differences such as differences in textures, fog and lighting, and some enemy placement, the effort is borderline perfect.
Once again I can rage in anger at failing a near-perfect execution, falling short because a single stray bullet did not quite go where I wanted it to, while also cheering in relief and excitement when I finally accomplish proper procedure and end a mission with zero casualties on my end. The thrill of rescuing hostages, defusing bombs, and infiltrating enemy territory is at my fingertips. And when I get tired of doing missions, I can hop on over to the custom missions to play various levels with different flavors, turning hostage rescue missions into terrorist hunts, or defensive onslaughts, or other various game modes.
It also comes with translations, a custom manual, and even has extra multiplayer mods adding in additional maps and skins. It is the quintessential format for experiencing this old game in a new era. There is even multiplayer functionality through a manual join function through virtual lan programs, such as Hamachi. This is clearly the most love these old games have received in a very long time which, to be frank, Ubi Soft has never shown really any of its classic titles. From “Rayman 2”, to “Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30”, to “Ghost Recon (2001)”; Ubi Soft tends to have a bit of a record when it comes to ignoring its older roots. They see fit to give full HD re-releases to commercial bombs like “Beyond Good & Evil”, ignoring franchises that are still going strong today, one of which being “Rainbow Six” with “Rainbow Six: Siege”, a game which is considered by many to be among the best online shooters currently on the market.
So with their ignorance taken to heart, it is left up to the loyal and the caring to take matters into their own hands, to do what should have been done, which is to give these games a platform to be experienced on, which they more than deserve.
One thing that I feel these older games highlight is the gradual drift the genre (Being tactical shooters) has experienced over the years, from being actual, genuine, hardcore realistic shooters that take things such as bullet penetration, planning, and team-based tactics into account, to being run-n-gun loot-n-shooters.
“Rainbow Six: Siege” has turned into a veritable gambit for the genre. While I previously mentioned this game in a positive light, it was more towards the relevance of the franchise, not necessarily an endorsement of it. It does not at all represent the original, or even any of the more recent “Rainbow Six” games. Your operators are the equivalent of superheroes each with their own gimmick that they exploit to gain an advantage, things which could be available to virtually any of the operators, but for the purposes of the gameplay style, are left isolated to their specific personalities. While “Rainbow Six Vegas” was a major departure going from open-based level design to tightly corridor-ed and highly scripted extravaganza shooters, it still kept some tenets of the genre intact, such as an emphasis on planning your next move carefully, utilizing your team to the best of their capabilities, and offering a full load-out customization menu. All of that is now gone, in both “Rainbow Six”, and “Ghost Recon”.
Which comes back to why maintaining the integrity and availability of these older titles becomes such an enduring and important task within the gaming community, and the industry at large. They need to be remembered not just by the people who were fond of them when they released, but so newer generations can experience the roots of the genres they now play, and they can understand the core concepts of their formation, or other-wise lose all sense of personality and just become another blatant agenda for marketing “EXCITING NEW THING” and keeping those old franchises from turning into another fucking god damn “Raving Rabbids” nightmare.
So, go play it. Whether you are a fan of the original, someone looking for something to challenge their skills and sensibilities, or a fan of the new games and interested in seeing where it all began. You can find it on Moddb.com, under the title “Rainbow Six Black Ops 2.0”. That is an order, operator.
For other recent blog posts…
The Callisto Protocol (PC) Review
GENRE: Action-HorrorGAME LENGTH: Average (10 Hours)REPLAYABILITY: MediocreDIFFICULTY: Moderate Made by the devs of the original “Dead Space” series, “The Collisto Protocol” serves as a spiritual successor to said franchise, while also serving somewhat as an amalgam of what they potentially wanted to do for “Dead Space 3” but were not allowed. The only problem is…
Once A Porn A Time (PC) Review
GENRE: Visual NovelGAME LENGTH: Moderate (8 Hours)REPLAYABILITY: LittleDIFFICULTY: Extremely Easy ‘Once a Porn a Time’ is a Ren’py visual novel/dating sim/corrupter type game where you crash land on a planet inhabited by nothing but androids meant to fulfill some old forgotten tycoon’s plan to create a whimsical fairy-tale land, complete with a variety of princesses…
Gaming Collapse 2.0
As someone who believes that capitalism is perhaps the most efficient economic model we have yet as a species, there is the undeniable fact that – like all other economic models – it has its flaws. From the communist reliance on dictatorship and tyranny, to the socialist reliance on other people’s success, capitalism has its…
Angry Fish Head 