The lights are on
Let me set this one up for you. I'm on a mission in the game where I need to find and defuse a couple of bombs on the roof of this building. I've lost one guy already for unknown reasons (more like because the controls are so bad that I can't hit anything while trying to shoot) and the third member of my team is a replacement because I had lost a staple of my three man squad in a previous mission. I have no idea where I am supposed to go and I have mere moments before the bomb goes off and I lose again.
And thus ends my frustration with the game, because in all honesty that is what it was. It just was a bad game and that is all that really it comes down to. I love old shooters personally, before the regenerating health and the slight auto-aim came into effect, where as long as your cursor was on the screen it would target the people in front of you. I don't mind that kind of play at all. I do mind however when I go to turn ever so slightly that the gun jumps five feet to the direction I was trying to go.
The controls though are only the second biggest complaint I have about the game. The top one is the gameplay itself. In the story mode you are the leader of a group of a special operations unit codenamed Rainbow Six. Your job is to combat terrorism on all fronts and to stop them whereever they go. So tell me though, if my job is to combat terrorists why in hell can't I have a freaking medic? Even someone with a medical kit would be appriciated. Instead though I have to make sure that I am so good that terrorists with their seemingly random AI never see me or even get a chance to see me so that I can kill them all before they shoot me or else I have to risk carrying around an injured comrade for the rest of the campaign.
Now I do give it credit. For it being a very early title on the PSone and one of the first FPS games for the consoles it gave it a good try. However though the game suffers what most FPS games suffer from and that is the fact it does not hold up over time.
Score: 5.5/10
I realized I didn't give a breakdown on the scores like I said I would. I'll post them below though for you.
Gameplay 2/10 - Difficult and confusing, not to mention the fact that people don't seem to ever heal from minor injuries makes me not want to play the game. Poor controls also deter from the experience.
Visuals 4/10 - Even back when FPS games were first going to consoles the game's visuals don't hold up. Everything looks shoddy and half-finished.
Sound 7/10 - I like the sound, it definately adds to the game and makes the experience much better. The music and the character voices in game are good. I just wish that the terrorists that I was killing off made any kind of noise when they were being shot or saw me.
Replay Value 5/10 - There just isn't enough reason for me personally to go back through the campaign a second time. Maybe if I wanted to test myself on a harder difficulty I would, but other than that I see no reason to play it again.