The drip-drip of information for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow 6: Patriots begins apace now, even though Tom’s still furiously at work for at least another year before it’s out. As the seemingly forgotten series comes back to life, it’s time for a new home-grown enemy, the True Patriots, who are as far as I can tell the militarised wing of the Tea Party movement. Which, according to this press release, is “capturing the reality of modern-day terrorism”!

So it’s a new Team Rainbow, and a peculiar new tone if the weirdo rendered trailer is anything to go by.



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Apparently you’ll be asked to make ethical decisions as you put down the American rebellion, along with some other features announced today. And they are?

Well, there’s an “Unprecedented narrative”. I’m fairly sure just saying that is preceding it, which makes for something of a problem. However, they say that it’s inspired by real events and characters, which is intriguing. It will also be experienced from multiple perspectives, which is interesting bearing in mind you’re apparently playing just one guy. Oh, and also “unprecedented” will be the “level of immersion”. Those are words.

It’s obviously going to be a cover shooter, along with the squad control that makes the series distinct. The latter sounds especially streamlined when they say, “At the press of a button, the Rainbow squad will perform the most efficient and deadly tactic given the context of the situation. When extreme measures are required, or when players call for it, you can take full control of your squad to plan the perfect assault.” It does seem that the (boring) bit in R6 where you meticulously planned may now be only a last resort. And the former is, they boast, to be “pushed to the next level”, with Rappel and Breach mechanics, apparently. You can look forward to “Wall & Ceiling Breach, Fast Rope Rappel, inverted ‘Aussie Style Rappel’, and Infiltrate & Subdue.”

Obviously there’s a big focus on multiplayer, because that is THE LAW, and here Mr Clancy is trying to program it such that working as a team gets you rewards. There are special features to help with this, like Sandtable, a holographic display in which you can look at level maps and say, “coo”, coordinating your plans to take out those confused anarchists. Clearly they’ll reveal more of these in a painfully protracted process throughout the entirety of 2012.