Graphics
Ubi Soft made the conscious decision to keep PC system requirements low for Black Thorn
(i.e. the same system reqs as for RS). This is unlike South Korea's Kama who upped the
system requirements for R6: Take-Down to accommodate larger maps and more detailed weapons
models. Although fans with faster CPUs and newer graphics cards may complain that the
RS engine looks dated, I think that keeping the system reqs the same as RS was a wise choice
for Black Thorn to reach a wider audience, as not everyone can afford to upgrade every time
a sequel comes out.
My first impression after playing through all the BT maps is that the textures in the maps
tend to more vibrant and "colorful" than what I remember in RS/UO. I don't know if it's related
to the brighter color of the textures, but there weren't any maps that I got the feeling
of "atmosphere" like the dreary grey rain-soaked Kosovo map in RS or the stuffy claustrophobic heavy
feeling in the Jungle map in COE.
To be honest, the quality of Black Thorn's maps (graphics and layout) do pale
when compared to the quality of maps we saw in RS/UO. However, to be fair,
considering RS/UO maps were done by Red Storm veteran artists who have had
years of experience with the R6 series, this first attempt by an external Ubi Soft
Montreal team is an impressive job overall. Details like being able to see the
individual Mah Jong tiles on the tables in the Japanese Embassy map, and
reading the labels on containers in the Thai hospital
map were pretty cool. Also, the Ubi Soft team used animated textures well,
such as the spinning rotors on the CH-47D Chinook
transport helicopter, and smoke coming out of campfires in the Jungle Camp map.
Sound
Sound-wise, not much has changed in Black Thorn since RS, but that's okay as RS was already
one of the best examples of how to use Creative's EAX 2.0 (3D positional
surround sound). Musically, you won't tire of the magnificent orchestral score
by Bill Brown,
but it's too bad that he didn't write anything new specifically for Black Thorn. The
music tracks are identical to the 13 CD redbook audio tracks found in Urban Ops.
Ubi Soft Montreal did splice together some of Bill Brown's music tracks for the
background music for Black Thorn's introductory video. I'm glad to see Ubi Soft
kept the tradition of all the R6 intro videos by showing the tangos assaulting
their targets and RAINBOW being deployed. The video even shows the
computer transmissions made by the Copycat leader which nicely forshadows story
developments later in the game.
One other audio aspect I'd like to mention is that I am really happy about the quality of voice
acting in the R6 series. It's great that Ubi Soft was able to get the same voices for the
Narrator (Mission Control), John Clark, and Kevin Sweeney for Black Thorn. In fact, Ubi Soft went
one extra step further as these voice actors had to be recalled at the end of the project
on short notice to re-record script that was modified due to the events of September 11th.
New Maps
Black Thorn offers up 15 new maps: 9 single player "campaign" maps and 6 dedicated
multiplayer maps. Black Thorn offers a good
variety of gameplay with both indoor and outdoor maps. After almost 45 different
single player scenarios in the R6 series ... R6=16 maps, EW=5, RS=16 (2 were repeated as recon missions),
UO=5, COE=3 ... not to mention the many multiplayer-only maps, I'm glad to see Ubi Soft
Montreal was able to come up with some fresh ideas.
Of interest is to note that
Black Thorn originally was meant to have ten single player
maps. However, because of the events of Sept. 11, the original first mission, which
involved rescuing hostages from a hijacked airplane, was removed. As there was already an
excellent 747 map in Rogue Spear, I personally am not too upset that this map was removed.
The other major change in Black Thorn because of Sept. 11 was the Bus Station map. This map
seemed awfully large to be a bus station, and indeed was originally an airport terminal. The
strange thing is that the UK version of Black Thorn still features an airport terminal, which
unfortunately makes this map unplayable in multiplayer with the US and European versions of Black Thorn.
I have no idea why Ubi Soft would want to release a different version of this seventh map in
Black Thorn, and I think this was a poor decision.
Gameplay
Critics will inevitably say that Black Thorn is "more of the same" and the engine looks "out-of-date". Personally,
I do not mind "more of the same" if more of the same in means GOOD QUALITY gameplay. What I'm trying to say is that
although Black Thorn doesn't improve much engine-wise or graphically, it can still be an awesome product if care is put
into interesting and original single player mission objectives, cleverly laid out and
well-balanced multiplayer maps, and
a good logical storyline. Fortunately, Black Thorn has succeeded in meeting most
these criteria. I'll explain more below:
Planning Phase
The planning phase is essentially the same as in RS/UO/COE. One very useful and
practical modification to the weapons menu was newly added abbreviations such as
"SMG" (submachinegun), "AR" (assault rifle), and "SG" (shotgun), after each of
the weapon names. This is helpful for those fans who aren't to familiar with what names belong
to which class of weapon.
Another positive thing for those of you who couldn't bother with the planning phase and like to jump right into
the action, Ubi Soft Montreal has taken the time to include full pre-mission plans for all the maps.
One area of improvement I can see in the planning phase is that the Intel section
could have
given us more info on the historic CT operations that were being emulated. I guess this gives
us a good reason to go out and buy COE which has a "Training Disc" with encyclopedia-like
articles for your CT education.
Action Phase
After playing through all the new Black Thorn maps (including the multiplayer ones), the
two maps that really stand out in my mind are actually two of the earliest ones. The first one is Mission #2: a large cruise ship where you have to simultaneously assault
a casino and bar at opposite ends of the ship. Now, several missions in Black Thorn state
that the tangos are in radio communication with each other, but unfortunately, the tango's
radios on this cruise ship must be defective as I can easily take out one group of tangos at a time
without hostages being executed or the ship being blown up. In fact, the final mission
suffers from the same defective radio problem as I can clear three floors of tangos without
the copycat leader doing anything. (Contrast this with the Nuclear
Power Plant level in RS where you can tell the AI tangos do tip each other off.)
My other favorite new level is mission #3, a very original sniping mission based in a
small African village. It is original for two reasons: it is outdoors
with lots of small buildings for building-to-building fighting; and it has a sniper target
that is the best one since the Oil Tanker level in RS. In fact, you cannot even reach the
sniper's target by foot in this level.
All in all, I'm glad to say that missions were well thought out. Finishing the game is very
rewarding, and the copycat leader you find in the end is sure one scary looking guy.
I am also glad to see that Ubi Soft attempted to make the Thai
Hospital level similar to the Turkish Bazaar level in UO with lots of innocent civilians
getting in your way.
There is one small "first" for Black Thorn: shooting through opaque textures like
the paper windows on the doors of the gazebo behind the Japanese Embassy.
I don't remember that we could shoot through walls or doors anywhere else in the RS series
(without breaking glass). Too bad this shooting through paper doors was not explored further
in other maps like the Japanese Pagoda multiplayer map.
As in UO and COE, the Custom Mission generator greatly increases the replayability of this
title. Ubi Soft Montreal has made all six gameplay types available for each of the new maps,
including the Defend mode.
So any complaints? Many reviews say how the single player campaign in the R6 games
just takes a few hours complete. Sure you can blow through the game if you tolerate losing
half your team in each new level. I'd like to see how those reviewers would take to
finish the game in
the elite difficulty without losing any operatives ... now that's where the challenge lies
in the R6 games.
Just to make it clear, there is no change in the enemy AI in Black Thorn.
So this still means that that tangos hardly ever miss hitting you when they got
you in their auto-aim sights. (One big improvement to the realism in GR's AI is that they sometimes miss
when they shoot at you!) However, I didn't expect Ubi Soft to change spend time and
resources changing enemy AI in a game which main mission is really to give us more maps.
Also, Black Thorn does not have any strictly recon missions. I actually don't
miss this, as those were some of the most frustrating missions to finish in R6/RS. However, it
would have have been cool if they finally made a mission based on the defend mode and facing
some grenade-throwing tango AI which has hardly been used in the other RS mission packs.
