Lockdown is the third Rainbow Six game to appear on the consoles, this time with Red Storm Entertainment fully behind the wheel. Once again, you play as Domingo 'Ding' Chavez, leading a small commando team on black-ops missions. This time, however, the developer strays from the realistic squad-based action in favor of more arcadish gameplay. The main single player campaign is based around a dangerous virus and hostages. In certain missions, you play as sniper Dieter Weber, picking off terrorists from higher ground and providing cover while the team infiltrates the building.

The differences between the console versions are the number of missions and the availability of certain gadgets. There is an offline two-player, split-screen cooperative mode available (up to 4 over Xbox live) and full online multiplayer up to 16 players featuring traditional deathmatch, objective-based games and CTF modes, on Xbox and PS2. While the PS2 version includes a Rivalry mode, Xbox online multiplayer has an RPG element: the P.E.C. mode (Persistent Elite Creation). Before playing, you choose an avatar and a class with specific abilities (commando, engineer, spec op and medic). While playing, you earn credits and experience, which can be traded in for new weapons, items or armor. Gear regularly needs to be repaired, shown by the durability level, and experience can be used to assign skills points to abilities, individualizing your character.