I remember as a kid, even as a young teen, not really knowing what Rainbow Six was.  I saw the boxes in the store, and just sort of glossed over them, in favor of what, I'm not too sure.  If I had known what was inside that box, I would have jumped all over it.  It was exactly what I was wanting, without knowing it existed.  I played the Delta Force games, Soldier of Fortune 2, and a few other shooters, and I really got hooked on America's Army when it first came out.  I was broke, and it was free.  Joined a clan and everything.  It was everything I wanted.  A realistic look on combat, with a solid group of guys that worked together tactically and just immersed you in the scenario.  Operation Flashpoint, and Joint Ops: Typhoon Rising were also on my play list.

I finally picked up Raven Shield, I think after seeing some trailers for it, and being wowed by this one: Watch on YouTube
I was amazed at how tactical it was, and the story told in those 3 minutes.  If that's how the game was going to be, I had to check it out.  It was everything I wanted it to be. You got to intricately plan out your hit with your Rainbow assault team, with a cool looking 3d map of the target.  You then got to run the assault in any position you wanted.  It was great.  I didn't really have a lot of friends with gaming PC's, so my experience was limited to single player for the most part, except when I could get online and play adversarial modes, and that was always a blast.

Unfortunately, that was the peak for the Rainbow Six series.  Once RS3 ported to consoles, it was the beginning of the end for the tactical shooter.  We got Lockdown and Critical Hour, which both sucked, and then the Vegas games, which, while good games, didn't really have the same feel as Raven Shield.  The serious tone.  If you haven't read the book, I highly suggest it.  Well, maybe not now, since it will just sting that much more that they've abandoned all the characters.  They'll retire Ding Chavez, but poor Sam Fisher is still climbing up the sides of buildings as he's pushing 60. But hey, he's got some Benjamin Button syndrome or something, since he looks younger in Blacklist than he did in the first game.

To wrap up, seeing all this stuff in a game just wasn't enough for me, so I decided to get into the counter terror field for real.  I love the fluidity and dynamics of structure clearing.  It requires teamwork, trust, and an absolute knowledge of your skill sets.  A well executed room entry is a thing of beauty.

Started playing with the release of Rogue Spear,can"t remember what year that was .Have all versions and add-ons through Vegas 2. My favorites in the series have to be Ravenshield and Rogue Spear.

My first time playing Rainbow Six was on the PC at my older brother's house back in 1998. Needless to say I was very impressed. The series has stuck with me and I've owned every Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell game on one platform or another all the way up to Siege, Future Soldier and Blacklist.

And now thanks to Recognition I'm enjoying RVS again with friends from all over the world. Thanks dude!

Hell yeah man!

Are you on our Discord? www.r6chat.com
Or Steam Group?  http://steamcommunity.com/groups/ALLR6/

...when it was released. i went to public game  rooms with friends to play it, cause internet was shit at Serbia at the time...now years later, finding this community,,just great 8o

I was 14 or so, got suckered in by the cool front cover of the game!
Never quite found a game that compares to RVS though

Around the time Roque Spear was released. I remember I started playing the original Rainbow Six when Roque Spear was released.

I really kicked it off with Raven Shield, though. In 2003, my family decided to go online which allowed me to play coop with some friends from school. Awesome times.