Rainbow Six Lockdown Desert Village

Djaskra, Algeria May 13th: During the apartment raid in the previous mission, the team marksman Dieter Weber was captured by forces loyal to the weapons smuggler Faisal Amidan. NATO is refusing to authorize a rescue mission, so the onsite coordinator John Clark is stepping aside and yielding operational control of the mission to rescue Weber to Ayana Yacoby.

The elite multinational counter-terrorism unit codenamed Rainbow Six is called into service against a worldwide terrorist threat from an organization known as the Global Liberation Front, a group that is comprised of various leftist, anarchists, and third-world organizations opposed to western civilization. Rainbow Six is tasked with tracking down GLF cells in various countries and either capturing or killing that cells leader.

Rainbow Six Lockdown is the fourth game in the Rainbow Six series and was released in February 2006 for Windows having been developed by Red Storm Entertainment. It is the first game in the series to feature advanced graphics effects and physics objects, and is the first game in the series where the planning phase was removed from the pre-mission setup.

This series of after-action reports is intended to be a higher level summary of the flow of each mission with some commentary offered under most of the screen shots provided. The game is presently available on Steam for $9.99.

Setup Phase


The Mission Setup panel indicates that the action is to take place in Algeria on May 13th in nighttime, starlit conditions.


The Briefing Overview panel indicates that Clark has yielded control of the operation to Ayana Yacoby as NATO has not authorized a rescue effort.


The Briefing Intel panel indicates that the first map load is a buildup compound area with multiple corners and levels of elevation.


The second map load is a more liner path though a winding tunnel with a treacherous ravine path (location three).


The third map load is divided into two rather large areas that feature several buildings and additional elevated positions.


The Team Outfitting panel indicates that I will be taking Chavez, Price, Loiselle, and Raymond along on this mission. These are hard coded selections made in the campaign design and I do not have the ability to alter my team members, but can adjust their equipped kits.

I issue the entire team the MP5SD6 with Red Dot scope, a suppressor for the side arm as well as flash bang and smoke grenades, while retaining the default desert battle dress uniform. My thought process at the time was a rescue mission might benefit from suppressed weapons.

Action Phase


The team is inserted over a retaining wall into the area of operations and is tasked with searching the village for a cave entrance.


The first map load featured numerous corners both covered as well as open to elevated positions which made maneuvering the team forward while minimizing risk a challenge.


The motion sensor indicated two tangos on the other side of this wall. We tossed a flash bang in there and then rushed, only to have the AI get stuck trying to navigate around the wooden structure right in front of me in the screen shot. It was too late to regroup as the enemy was alerted and Loiselle went down.


The device proved quite useful when combined with sound tactics that took into account the nature of computer AI: in this instance I backed off the two remaining operators to provide cover fire as I used the a fluid motion to slowly roll the door open revealing the two tangos behind the wall to the left, which the AI promptly eliminated.


The cave entrance is discovered and the second map level loads.


The cave system was a very dangerous area to operate in as it was similar to a roller coaster ride with multiple rises, falls, twists and turns to contend with. It also featured occasional keyhole long range line of sight corridors such as this one that we frequently took fire from an adjacent area.


This open cavern area was quite a challenge to push through as there were sharp changes in lighting and tangos in key overwatch positions on the other side which required some precision fire to move the remaining team members forward.


This rope bridge was also decidedly vicious with multiple threats as well as severe changes in available lighting making the effective use of night vision equipment problematic.


Some of the tangos were well positioned around corners during the final stretch and required patience to put down.


The cave complex objective is achieved and we move on to the next map load.


The terrorist base level loads and we are tasked with a new objective, locating and rescuing the team marksman Dieter Weber. Pushing through the initial area was quite dicey as there were tangos popping up all over the place.


Moving forward triggered a cut scene in which the terrorist begin interrogating Weber (who oddly enough is still in full gear, complete with weapons). How freaking lazy can you get?


The team makes entrance into the area where Weber is held triggering his release, and is presented the final objective of making it to the extraction area to hold off the onslaught of the enemy.


During the final stand at the extraction point the Blackhawk swoops in with mini-guns blazing away at rooftop targets (kind of like in Blackhawk Down). It is too little too late as both Price and Raymond go down to enemy fire.


It is just Weber and I left standing at the extraction zone as the mission concludes.

After-action Report


109 tangos: Bloody Hell as Chef Ramsay would say. I remember the good old days of Rogue Spear when there were actually missions where stealth and recon were required (so much for taking along suppressed weapons).

Post Mortem

There is a lot wrong with this scenario, from the very beginning. First off, I was not even aware that the team had a marksman deployed on any previous mission as it is not covered anywhere in the briefing material provided. Previous games in the series featured multiple teams and the ability to select specific operatives (where the employment of a sniper could actually be done, to include their own waypoints).

With Lockdown there is only one team, and the members are preselected by the mission designer. While load out kits can be altered, the actual operator cannot be changed and so far the only hint of a sniper being available is the storyline of Weber having been abducted at the end of the last mission.

The other odd thing here is that for anyone who actually read the novel “Rainbow Six” by Tom Clancy, the John Clark character would never leave a living operator in the field (also checkout the excellent book “Without Remorse”), and most certainly would not yield control of the rescue operation to someone else (even a Rainbow operative).

The cut scene where Weber’s interrogation begins and he is kneeling there in full gear with knife, sidearm, ammunition and communications equipment still attached is plain and simple laziness on the part of the game developer. If they cannot be bothered to create a static mesh for a captive NPC then don’t bother with the cut scene at all.

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