Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Review

Written by: Darren Cartledge Posted: 31st March 2008

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The Rainbow six team head for the glitz of Las Vegas again.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Details:

Goto Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Game Page

	First Person Shooter
	PC/PlayStation 3/Xbox 360
	Ubisoft
	Ubisoft

16+

Out Now

N/A

In the game you take up the role of Bishop, leader of one of the rainbow teams. Your mission is to stop a group of terrorists unleashing chemical weapons on the city of sin and creating havoc.

As with many recent first person shooters Rainbow Six Vegas 2 requires you to create your character who will gain experience as you play. Experience comes in three categories, Marksman, Close quarters combat and assault and you gain experience for each of these depending on how you approach the game. You gain experience from headshots, kills at long and short range, shooting blindly from cover and shooting an enemy through cover. You also gain experience from ordering your team mates to perform certain actions such as breaching doors and killing enemies and so on. Experience in Vegas 2 allows you to gain new ranks which in turn gives you access to better weapons and equipment, allowing you to customise many aspects of your character.

The games story mode offers a good playing experience, controls are very easy to get to grips with and the game also features a very good order system with pretty good squad AI, the game also utilises voice commands for those of you who have access to a headset. Enemy AI is of a good standard, if you make a little too much noise they will get spooked, and if you persist they will come and look for you!

Missions in the games story mode consist of two differing types, assault and infiltrate. In assault missions, the enemy knows you are coming, although they won’t know your exact location they are expecting you. In this mode there is no need to be subtle, guns don’t need silencers and you can use frag grenades and breach charges and let all hell break loose on the terrorists. The other game mode is infiltrate, as the name suggests the point of this combat style is to be discreet and not alert the enemy to your presence. When playing in the game infiltrate frag grenades and breach charges are replaced by smoke grenades and flash bangs allowing you to take out the enemy before thy know you’re even there.

Both styles of play are very good to play but for me the infiltrate style is the stronger part of the game, as it requires you to use a more stealth based approach, similar to that which many will have experienced in the Splinter Cell games, and whilst the assault mode is very solid it does tend to make the game feel a little like any other first person shooter.

Vegas 2 also features a very good cover system, which allows you to effectively take aim from around corners or pop up from behind walls. The games cover system also allows you to blind fire from behind cover if you are under heavy fire. This is useful as enemies will often run for cover allowing you to take a proper shot at an enemy.

As solid as the game is though it isn’t without its bugs, when playing an infiltrate mission my team was moving along an outside wall of a room in which several terrorists were stationed one of my team members suddenly disappeared through a wall and was in the room, so the enemy was alerted to our presence. This happened on a couple of occasions.

Another minor announce is when you order your team to do something you are required to order them to follow you once more, which can mean you find yourself all alone if you forget. Your team will often also stop following you after engaging an enemy, so it’s always wise to make sure they’re still with you.

As well as the games story mode Vegas 2 also features a single player terrorist hunt option, in this mode you go through a building try to locate and kill all the terrorists that reside there in a set time, battles can be a little intense but for me it would have been better suited as a multiplayer option.

When it comes to multiplayer support Rainbow Six Vegas 2 seems to fall a little short with the exception of the games co-op mode. The game features all the usual deathmatch, team deathmatch, a conquest mode and two other game types some of you may not be familiar with these are.

A variation of attack and defend in which teams compete to either extract an item, rescue a hostage or demolition a specific target. The final online mode is team leader in this game the two teams must defend their team leader whilst trying to eliminate the rival teams leader.

Despite the varied game types in Vegas 2 online mode, it isn’t really the most appealing game to play online especially when compared to other first person shooters available. The game also seems to take a graphical hit, as the characters seem to look a little duller.

Graphically Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is solid, the game makes use of Epic’s Unreal 3 engine so character models and animation are both good. Environments are fairly well detailed and certain elements will move around when shot.

Sound is also top notch. Voice acting is very good, although a little stereotypical at times, whilst background sounds and those used for weapons fire are all very authentic. Music is very fitting, and wouldn’t be out of place in an espionage style movie and it really adds a level of depth to the games theme.

As mentioned above most of the Rainbow Six games have been well received and the sequel to the award winning Rainbow Six Vegas is a welcome addition to the Tom Clancy based games, with an excellent single player campaign, the stealth based aspects give the game a real tactical feel. So if you’ve enjoyed previous game this latest offering is a must for you.