Last week Ubisoft stopped by the GameSpot offices to show off the then-unannounced Rainbow Six 4 (working title) on both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox. Although our time with the game was quite limited and we didn't actually get to take the controls ourselves, there were plenty of things on show for us to get excited about in both the campaign missions and the two versions' very different online features. We can also report that, online features aside, the differences between the two games looks to be far less pronounced than they were in Rainbow Six 3, which is great news for those of you who might have been expecting to get shortchanged on the PS2 after playing that game.

Your squadmates will be far from generic this time around.

Aside from some visual differences, the 16 story-driven campaign missions on the PS2 and the Xbox--which can either be played solo or cooperatively--will essentially be identical. Although details of the game's storyline are being kept under wraps at the moment (it's something to do with an insane guy getting hold of nanotech viruses--the usual stuff), we can reveal that Team Rainbow will find itself having to adopt a defensive rather than offensive posture for much of the game. We can also say that some of the enemies you'll be facing (the game will boast three distinct levels of enemy artificial intelligence) will be the products of military training not unlike that attended by your Team Rainbow squadmates. In other words, even those of you who have cruised through the campaigns in previous Rainbow Six games should find the tougher of the game's two difficulty settings suitably challenging. Ubisoft is also hoping to make Rainbow Six 4 more accessible for newcomers to the series than its predecessors have been, so it will be implementing a number of optional features for inexperienced players. A couple of examples of these features include highlighting enemies that might otherwise be difficult to spot and assisting with your aim.

Regardless of your experience with previous Rainbow Six games and which difficulty setting you opt for, you'll find that the Rainbow Six 4 development team is going to great lengths to ensure that the game is as easy to pick up and play as is possible, given that you'll be commanding a squad of four for the most part. The briefings you'll be given before each mission, for example, will now be presented as just a handful of bullet points and slides that will outline your objectives and draw your attention to potential dangers. Taking the time to read a particular mission brief, for example, might alert you to the fact that the enemy has access to nerve gas, so then you'll know to equip your squad with masks--which takes us nicely to the team-outfitting screen.

Your goggles won't always afford you such a clear view of the action.

One of the first things you'll notice when equipping your team before a mission is that unlike your colleagues in previous Rainbow Six campaigns, who were all quite generic, Rainbow Six 4 will see you fighting alongside a cast of 10 different characters from all over the world, including females. One of the development team's goals with Rainbow Six 4, we're told, is to team you up with characters that you'll actually care about and become attached to as you progress through the game. We haven't seen nearly enough of Rainbow Six 4 at this point to know how successful that aspect of the game will be, but we can tell you that the differences between the characters definitely won't be limited to their appearances--as evidenced by some of the in-game radio chatter that we got to hear during our demonstration.

There are several other new features in Rainbow Six 4 that you can't help but notice the first time you play the game, the most obvious of which is that the entire screen is framed by a pair of goggles. Initially, the goggles will make no difference to the gameplay whatsoever, but as you progress through the game they'll further immerse you in your role as a Rainbow team leader. Your view through the goggles becomes partially obscured by raindrops, cracks caused by enemy attacks, and suchlike. Weapons with zoom functions will also look a lot different in Rainbow Six 4, and the zoom effects will vary for each weapon. The one that we saw in action didn't incorporate a zoom lens per se, so its zoom feature looked more like we were just getting our head down and looking straight through to the other end of the barrel. The effect of the gun model moving to the center of the screen, getting bigger, and blurring out of focus felt very realistic and, of course, it afforded a slightly easier shot at an enemy who was some distance away. Each of the weapons in the game (there will be four new ones added to the extensive Rainbow Six 3 arsenal) will also boast realistic recoil-induced camera shake. Perhaps the most impressive weapon that we saw in action was a high-powered sniper rifle, which will be the weapon of choice during the all-new sniper missions scattered liberally throughout the campaign.