Showcasing the P90 SD, M60, and SSG3000 sniper rifle
The Pagoda multiplayer map |
New Weapons
Out of the entire Black Thorn package, I think it's the new weapons that will be the
main area that veteran R6 fans complain about. The weapons have been well-balanced since
Urban Ops, and adding so many new weapons has made a lot of choices redundant.
It appears more weapons were added for the sake of "more weapons" and not much resources
went into balancing the new BT weapons with the older UO ones. This is
one case where "more" is not necessarily "better".
That being said, my biggest complaint about Black Thorn is that they created an
uber-weapon with the P90. It has a huge 50 bullet clip,
and the reticle hardly blooms when moving or shooting. This promotes the "run and gun"
Quake style of play that I think RSE was trying to avoid when slowing down the pace of RS compared
to the original R6. Furthermore, the silenced version
of the P90 is not really "silenced" well and is
quite loud compared to a silenced MP5.
Thus, as the MP5 PDW was the weapon of choice
in close quarters in RS/UO/COE, the P90 is the gun that I've seen most players toting
around now in multiplayer games. Furthermore, with only one new suppressed weapon
offered, I am guessing most people will pick the P90 SD for most
single player missions.
Out of all the new weapons, the ones I ended up playing around with most
were the P90, M60 and SSG3000 sniper rifle.
Multiplayer
For some, multiplayer is the best part of the whole R6 experience. If you are familiar with
multiplayer in RS/UO/COE, once again, not much has changed. The biggest change is a new
place to play called Ubi.com.
I managed to get onto Ubi.com a few times to test multiplayer. I'm glad to report that all
the new maps I tried played very well in multiplayer. To be honest, I didn't have time to check out all the start points in multiplayer,
but the ones I found seemed reasonably balanced. Out of the new multiplayer-only
maps, I found the layout of the Pagoda was unique and the catwalks above the Chop Shop
allowed for interesting game play.
There is a new multiplayer mode, Lone Wolf, where one player
uses his weapon of choice against everyone else using pistols. I tried to get a Lone Wolf
game going on Ubi.com, but no one was interested at the time. I think this mode would be fun
with a LAN setup.
Playing Black Thorn as a Mod
Like COE, Black Thorn does not support mods. Urban Ops is the only title in the RS line
of games that allows mods. Thus, I consider UO to be the "mother" of all the other
titles since RS, COE, and now Black Thorn can be played as a mod under UO. Under this
setup, you can combine the new Black Thorn maps with your favorite fan-created weapons
mods. (Check out instructions about how to play Black Thorn as a mod
here.)
Unfortunately, it looks like
the only way you can get UO now is by purchasing the RS Platinum Pack, but if you don't already have it,
it's worth the investment.
Conclusions
For a mission pack that was not meant to be, Black Thorn has turned out to be
a well-made solid package. From what I can ascertain, the top brass sent down
the Black Thorn order to Ubi Soft Montreal with two objectives: to allow players
to re-enact historical scenarios and to give players more quality maps. (Note that it was NOT
Ubi Soft Montreal's job or intention to revolutionize the existing gameplay in RS.)
Given these objectives, the team at Ubi Soft Montreal made the best of what they had available
(a loose story framework, inexperience with the RS engine) and executed very well.
In comparison with the rest of the R6 titles, few of Black Thorn's maps are up to the
same par as the Red Storm-made maps in RS/UO/COE, but they are
definitely much better than what was produced by Zombie in COE.
As an aside, many people complained that Eagle Watch, Urban Ops, and Covert Ops only
had a few new maps. However, I would rather see a few higher quality maps than several
mediocre ones. Who can forget the Space Shuttle mission in EW? Or firefights through
the abandoned buildings of a warehouse district in Mexico City? It will take more time
to find out which maps in Black Thorn become most memorable and truly stand out.
If you are new to R6, Black Thorn is a good primer for the whole series (definitely a
better introduction to R6 than COE was). If you are a R6 vet, for $29.99, BT is
still a worthwhile title to pick up to complete your R6 collection.
The Future of the Rainbow Six Series
I think COE and Black Thorn are indicative of a future trend in how R6 titles will
be produced. Even RSE was not shy about out-sourcing the production of console
versions of the R6 titles, and I'm sure Ubi Soft will continue the same approach.
I am going to go out on a limb and say that in the future, we might not
see many new R6 products made directly by Red Storm itself. We are likely to
see more R6 products "out-sourced" to external development teams. I think
Ubi Soft will use Red Storm as a development house that creates cutting-edge military
sim engines, such as Ghost Recon, and that other development teams in Ubi Soft
will create the levels.
For example, with all the resources that went into
developing the GR engine, how hard would it be for Ubi Soft to decide
to produce a new R6 title based on the Ghost Recon engine?
Sure there may not be a detailed planning stage that was characteristic of
the previous R6 games, but
if GR's "on-the-fly" planning system (an approach also used in SWAT 3) proves popular,
Ubi Soft can once again have an external development team make smaller-sized levels
(with a R6 Close Quarters Battle flavor) and put the R6 franchise sticker on them. I am definitely NOT saying that
this is a good thing, I'm just saying that it might happen.
In any case, I don't think I'm the only one that hopes Ubi Soft will call it quits with
the RS engine after Black Thorn. Don't get me wrong, the RS engine is a tremendous achievement,
but even Red Storm knew it was time to move on. Let's leave any further map and story ideas
for R6: III when it comes out on a new-generation engine!
Exclusive Interview with Patrick Naud,
Black Thorn Associate Producer
As an addition to this review, Ubi Soft has granted Rogue Spear Retreat an exclusive in-depth interview with Black Thorn's
Associate Producer, Patrick Naud. Our questions cover subjects including behind-the-scenes
work by the Ubi Soft Montreal development team, what role Red Storm played in Black Thorn's
creation, concerns about weapons balancing, the effect of the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks on the final product, and more. We hope that you find this an enjoyable and
informative interview. Check out the whole interview here.
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