Rainbow Six Vegas is a first person squad based shooter, it is set in Tom Clancy's Rainbow six counter terrorism squad universe and follows the exploits of an elite counter terrorism squad as they combat a terrorist threat in Las Vegas. This game follows on from the first Vegas game, though you will have to try real hard and do some research to follow the story.
To be fair this is the type of game that doesn't really need much story, you go here shoot all the bad guys and then go on to the next place and shoot all the bad guys, sure a story would be nice but in all fairness Ubisoft know that the audience for this game doesn't really give a damn. There is some nods to the first games story where you find out that one of the Rainbow team has turned traitor and is arming and aiding the terrorists, in this game you are ultimately on his trail while you stop his terrorist chums from blowing things up.
During the game you save some hostages and a stadium full of people get gassed before you can save them, however it all feels disjointed this time compared to the first game. There are no real cut scenes of note with the longest coming at the end of the game and the story is mostly thrown at you by talking heads in your helmet heads up display, similar to Graw. By the time I got to the end of the game I didn't even remember the bad guys name, possibly I never knew it.
The biggest criticism of Vegas 2 is that it is really just a new campaign for the first game, maybe if they had labelled it as such and charged a tenner less they might have got less backlash and whole lot more sales. Still I may sound harsh but I would not hesitate to recommend this game to any fans of the first, if you liked the first Vegas then please get this one, you won't be disappointed.
Vegas is a first person shooter with elements of third person built in, when you hold the left trigger near a wall you switch to third person view and go into cover, where you can blind fire or pop your head out and snipe carefully, the game is built around this mechanic and you will have a much harder time if you play using the normal fps view and neglect the cover system. The weapons are many and varied, the usual rifles, pistols, sniper rifles etc. with a smattering of grenades. You can rappel down the side of select buildings and take pot shots using your pistol from the ropes. Tactics play a big role in the game, though you can get by being gung ho and going it alone your squad can be very effective, there are literally hundred of times in the game where you are outside a room with terrorists, how you enter the room is paramount to the ease of the game. You can slide a snake cam under the door and examine the amount and position of terrorists inside and then send you men to one of the mandatory second doors into the room, you then tag terrorists for them to take out and enter the room together and headshot the lot in one go, well that is what you try to do, sometimes you pull it off, others you don't.
The games levels are well designed, there is always a thought for form and function in these games which is to be applauded, all the structures are real world structures with good reasons for you being there. There are sports centers, a theatre, convention centers, construction sites, rail-yards, industrial factories and plush villas. All seem logical and correct, maybe even modeled on real world locations.
Vegas 2 uses the unreal engine, it has terrible texture loading at the start of each scene, why? just keep the screen black while they load! That aside the graphics are satisfactory, the characters are well detailed and animated, the environments are at times good, but mostly adequate, there is no real wow factor with the graphics in this game but also no real game breaking flaws either.
The multiplayer and single player game give you points for killing enemies, you get five to ten points per kill plus a 2-3 point bonus for style, say killing using blind fire, at long range or close quarters. As you gain XP you rise through ranks which unlocks weapons and clothing. There is no real benefit to this, the weapons are only slightly different, and it's just as easy to kill with the first weapon you are given than the last unlocked, same goes for the armor and clothing, it's all for looks, as four bullets to the body will kill irrespective of your gear. Certain camouflage and guns show that you have played the game a serious amount of time, it's all about social standing online.
It also appeals to the completionist and the score junkies. There is a gauge along the bottom of the screen at all times which shows how close you are to the next rank. The just one more go syndrome is there to get your score just that little bit higher and rank up. It's as usual completely pointless, but it can and does suck in an awful lot of people and that isn't a criticism.
One of the best things about vegas in my eyes is the co-op story mode. You simply have a friend take over from one of the team and have them jump in and out seamlessly from your game. Stuck on a particular area, call a friend in to help, simply put I think that co-op story modes are essential and within reason every game should have one. Things like Dark Sector, Call of Duty 4 Bioshock and Orange Box were crying out for co-op play. GTA 4 really should have had co-op play in every single player mission. I realize that this is a processor intensive and lag inducing feature, but surely Call of duty 4 would have been much more fun to work through the story with your friends.
The normal multiplayer modes are all there, death-match, teams etc. It is the terrorist hunt mode that I feel is genius. You have up to four human players against 50 a.i. bot terrorists. It's hard work but it's fun and I have met and chatted with some entertaining people while playing it. It's a great fun watching others after you have lost your two re-spawns, urging them on with mounting excitement as the number of terrorists dwindle. This mode has it's flaws though only five or six terrorists are in the map with you at any one time and once one dies another spawns, sometimes right behind you.
A.i. is excellent especially in terrorist hunt probably due to the flaw mentioned above, you can be guaranteed that if you can't see them in front of you then they are about to sneak up behind you. When in battle they use cover well, though sometimes stay in cover beyond being sensible as you get right in close and hammer them when they reload. There are no real boss fights, just areas with many terrorists that take a lot of working through, the final battle with a chopper and about twenty terrorists is a doozy and I never even tried it on my own. With two human players it becomes much more manageable.
The now normal checkpoint system is used and there are a few times when you wish that the checkpoints were a little closer together, however it's nowhere near as game breaking as some games.
I played through the games single player mode twice, once on my own and another time with a friend, also played a ton of multiplayer, I ended up with 405 achievement points, which I feel was a little stingy for the amount of time I put into the game.
Scoring
Graphics 7
Gameplay 8
Story 4
Level Design 9
A.i. 9
Score 7.4
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