so what is the spiritual successor to the earlier Rainbow6 games?? R6, Rogue Spear, Raven Shield?


Is there one?

Is it the same original games? Has the mod community grown since those were current?

I don't think there is one, not in the true R6 sense, with team and kit selection, planning and choosing waypoints etc... which is sad.
I'd buy a modern and up to date version with current graphics in a heart beat.

The only one that was being made was Takedown...and the obvious money shortfalls they ran into tanked it.

There was an R6 game in development that was canned, I think it might have been along those lines. The R6 they're making now is an MP-only affair and I think will go nowhere, just as Ghost Recon Online didn't.



The Jedi Master

The Rainbow Six series is dead. Might as well reinstall Raven Shield and its add-ons and play that.

While I enjoyed the two Vegas R6 games, I only bought them for the MP coop. I would never have bothered with them for the single player.

The successors are reinstalling the original old series games on Steam, or grabbing a rifle and going outside, yelling PEW PEW PEW and pretending

ETA: If they did make a new R6 game, I want true room clearing AI, not the silly waypoint stuff from the original games. It worked then, but nowadays I expect my little team members to know how to cover and clear various indoors architecture situations. Waypoints work from point A to B, but when giving a "clear room" order it shouldn't be everyone cram into the doorway and stand still on the other side, shooting the first thing someone sees.

The AI in Swat 4 was usually pretty good with clearing rooms.

I still have R6 Gold Edition and Athena Sword still on my lap top, and I play them on a regular basis when I am abroad with work... still gives me hours of fun, and because of their age they can be fully maxed out without any performance worries... Got them modded up as well

I even have Iron Wrath on a DVD back up somewhere. It's a major PITA to get it running, though. I wish Ubi would just release it on Steam for $10.
They never bothered releasing it for money because the demand cratered, and back then the physical copy distribution would've cost them more money on top of the dev cost than they would've made back, but with digital distro now it's a no-brainer.



The Jedi Master

Takedown flopped big time. Really there is just Ground Branch, although that is going to be more like Ghost Recon. They will be releasing a technical demo for free soon, and then move onto Early Access.

Serellan is also making another "tactical shooter" set in the near future. My guess is this will be more like R6 Vegas and not a true tactical shooter. Or at the very least, have some non-real world gear/tech in. I don't have much confidence in this project.

So really, that just leaves us with Ground Branch.



Agreed. It could be better, but they were alert, quick, and moved to all corners of the room.

I'd say Swat 4 was the last spiritual successor and thats been almost 10yrs since. Would love to see another type of game like this but I guess this genre is like combat flight sims, not enough reward for the risk of development.

Oddly enough, there are some decent flight sims out. And I'd think a realistic tactical shooter, while a bit more involved than a regular shooter, is still a lot easier for the average person to pick up.

I'm gunna play my Insurgency card here. As much as I miss the whole mission planning stage (which I always found strange since sh*t happens), Insurgency wins in terms of pure shooting joy.

You're right and I play some of them but its a niche market and the existing sims out there right now already had a huge customer base to sell to. Given we haven't seen a really good tactical shooter in years I just think we'll be lucky to get one at least on the scale of Swat 4 and the original R6. That said my wallet is waiting for a something along those lines, it would be awesome!

And that's the problem for lots of people... it's not the shooting but the planning and execution of the mission that is more enjoyable.
Seeing 'your' plan with it's team and weapon selection, choice of waypoints, method of movement, 'go codes' etc, was 'the' reason for playing

I'd say Door Kickers is the spiritual successor for the planning stages. It's actually easier to plan in DK than R6, and you can also do real-time planning+execution. The only thing you don't have is FPS.

The shooting/moving mechanics in INS are not that great either.

^Right and while Insurgency is great for coop based shooting fun its no R6/Swat. Even with the recent improvements to AI they still just come at you in a wave. I want to blow a door open toss in some flashbangs and neutralize some terrorists and rescue some hostages!

^You guys have a point.

I really miss having those SWAT4 guys stack up on two entryways for a simultaneous breach.

That is because the game is first and foremost a team VS team online shooter. IMO RO1 was better in just about every aspect. Larger scale maps, better weapon mechanics, better movement, more authentic (MP40s with aimpoints was an odd choice) and more. It is an okay game but I just can't get into it.

Though even RO is a different sub genre of the realistic shooter. Again, because it is multiplayer and team VS team. The squad micromanagement, loading and planning is what made R6/SWAT what they were.

Raven Shield, as good as it was, represented the beginning of the end. While the previous R6 titles were all about the setup and planning, and a good plan wouldn't even require the player to do anything but give go codes (I won multiple levels in Rogue Spear and Urban Ops that way), Raven Shield was the first game that allowed you to be highly successful without a plan, just winging it the whole way. In fact, some of the maps were so large and open that it was almost impossible to make a plan like in the UO days.
With that the planning stage became of secondary importance to the extent that in MP it started to be ignored. Once you could ignore it, why bother having it all?




The Jedi Master