The Snake-Cam: Your new best friend and the best way to find out what's behind door number 3.

Your parents always wanted you to be on an elite counter-terrorist strike team. Remember how they would incessantly harp on it over the dinner table, even when you were only 7 at the time?

Well, now they get their wish, thanks to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard, the first Rainbow Six franchise game to come to the iOS platform. You take control of an elite unit tasked with taking down elements of a widespread global terrorist organization, the game breaking from the standard first-person shooter "run-n-gun" play style with tactical elements. For example, prior to entering a room with an unknown number of gunmen and hostages inside, you might utilize a snake camera under the door to see what's inside, check the heartbeat sensor to see if they know you're coming, assign your team members individual targets to attack, and finally throw a flashbang grenade as you enter the room to blind your opponents and take them down.

And now to test the warranty on your body armor...

In addition to good graphics, sound, and vocal work, the tactical elements really make the game work. Like other Rainbow Six games, this has a fun sense of palpable tension, in that you know your characters are fragile and can't laugh off multiple bullet and grenade rounds. You'll have to use a better set of tactics than your opponent to survive. The end result is a first-person title based around stealth, the game rewarding you for not alerting any of the opponents you have to take down in a given level while also offering the sheer joy of sneaking up behind an opponent and performing the perfect silencer-assisted headshot with your weapon of choice.

Have turret, will annihilate anything within firing range.

And role-playing elements make the game that much better -- Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard awards experience points at the end of the level to unlock additional weapons and add-ons (silencers, laser sights, extended clips, etc.) to allow for a wider arsenal and better variety of choices depending on the level. While this doesn't make all the difference in the world, it does allow for a decent level of customization: You get to fight the way you want to as well as carry over everything you've earned into multiplayer gameplay.

Although it's still at version 1.0.0, Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard's multiplayer options are fairly ambitious. The title currently supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth protocols both over the Internet and your local wireless network with both co-op and deathmatch game modes. While the game was unable to find a match in a browser, it was able to join a quick game as well as act as a server and create its own match, the gameplay itself being as brisk as single-player mode with no substantial lag during the round.

Checking around the corners: it's a good thing.

The developers have certainly crafted a good title, but there's still room for improvement. While the interface works and it's easy to issue tactical commands, switch weapons, duck, take cover, reload, and so on, the main issue comes down to how tightly compacted the icons are on the right side of the screen. Moving your right thumb incorrectly on the right side of the screen will have your character move his head, shoot his gun and/or throw a grenade at nothing in particular. Simply put, there's not enough screen real estate for the interface elements intended on the iPhone or iPod touch, and this will take some work in the next update -- or perhaps be a better fit on the iPad.

The bottom line. Even with the control/interface shortcomings, Rainbow Six: Shadow Vanguard delivers on its promise of bringing a fun Rainbow Six title to the iPhone and iPod touch. And while this isn't the deepest game in the world, it runs well and manages to pull you in. And the tactical elements are as fun as any other title in the series.