Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sequel to the award winning Rainbow Six Vegas from Ubisoft, in which you played as Logan Keller, a squad leader in team rainbow who, with the help if his two team mates, managed to destroy a terrorist plot to detonate bombs and whatnot in Nevada. In Vegas 2, you play as a different squad leader who goes by the name of Bishop and the story moves along in the same time frame as the original game; however you are put through a different set of events which ultimately wrap up the story rather nicely. Alongside the campaign there are terrorist hunts which can be played in single player and multiplayer and there is enough variety in the online modes, coupled with a new rank and unlock system, to keep you busy for a good few hours. This game does, however, have a few problems, most of which are in the technical side of things, but overall it’s a fairly decent package for any shooter fan.

As mentioned before, you play as Bishop, another typical American badass with a thirst for blood and violence and a real hatred for terrorists, which is just about all you will get to know about him throughout the game. As a squad leader in team Rainbow you will have two other men under your command as you burst through the campaign and even in terrorist hunts. As the game’s story takes place in the same time frame as the first, it is closely linked to the events which happened before, however it’s simple enough to understand if you haven’t experienced the first Vegas game. Overall this campaign feels more fleshed out and generally more interesting than the first, as it includes not only bombs, but more bombs and a little bit of betrayal too, however I will keep the details for myself in case you want to play through it. The reason for this campaign being better is mostly down to the variety of environments, before you were stuck to the stereotypical Vegas with casino’s and restaurants and while they do play a small part in this, you also get a taste of the Pyrenees at the beginning, not to mention a gaming convention and huge hilltop hacienda. This variety keeps the missions from getting too repetitive and it somewhat helps to disguise the fact that this game can get quite monotonous.

While the story may not keep you on the edge of your seat for too long, the action certainly will, and there is plenty to go around. The game has preserved that tried and tested cover mechanic from the first game to keep the action fast paced and intense and to help along the way, they have added a new sprint feature… if you can call it a “feature”. The game play is fun but as mentioned before the usual run and gun techniques where you get thrown into a large area filled with bad guys and ample cover can get a little tiring, if there is one thing I would have liked from this game it would have been more stealth missions since there are very few opportunities to go through an area unseen, and this is partially due to the incredibly awful AI.

Whether its enemies running into a fire fight backwards, or blurting their battle plans at the top of their voices or your team mates getting stuck in doorways and running head on into a fire fight only to get ravaged by a hail of bullets, the AI is likely to slightly ruin the experience. At times I felt my team were more of a threat than the terrorists as I was team killed numerous times by poor grenade throws and other general friendly fire incidents. There were also a number of times where they ended up accidentally killing hostages which often lead to me ordering them to stay the hell away from the action and twiddle their thumbs until I got back, at least, that is if it wasn’t already too late. Of course, the terrorists aren’t exactly the smartest bunch either, while they tend to be quite effective at taking cover, some will just do the stupidest things like dropping grenades near their allies or shooting nowhere near you. Overall I think they could have done a much better job with the AI and it really is a shame that it is such a shambles. If it is any consolation, your team mates do provide a pretty effective mobile decoy and are often good at taking enemy fire, allowing you to get the kills unharmed.

Aside from the single player campaign, there is also a good range of multiplayer modes to go through, and it’s the multiplayer component where you can see the improvements shine through, as well as quite a few problems. There are a range of game modes including the usual team death match types etc, however the main improvement is in the co-op. you can now jump in and out of a co-op game at any time as you replace one of the AI squad mates, this makes the experience more streamlined as you don’t have to sit in a lobby waiting for people to join. There are also a lot of co-op friendly instances such as rooms with multiple entrances and the like and it is this which brings the most out of the campaign, and I have to admit, it was a real blast while it lasted. Of course the standard terrorist hunts are still available, but one thing which confused me is this, there are actually fewer multiplayer maps in this game than in the first, when some of them are ones from the first. They could have easily put all the maps from the first into this game and then added some, but instead they have limited it to a frustratingly low number of maps which can get quite boring fairly quickly. It’s not all bad though, as I said there have been improvements, most noticeably the new A.C.E.S combat system. Basically, this has introduced a new rank and unlocks system to the game and whenever you play on your own or online, you collect experience points in three areas, close quarter combat, assault and marksmanship. These areas correspond to different playing styles, for example, getting short range kills will help your close quarter combat, grenade kills will help assault, and long range kills and headshots will help your marksmanship. These are just a few examples; since they added bullet penetration you can also get extra points for killing people through cover.

The reason for all this of course, is so that the experience is added up and you rank up, unlocking new weapons, clothing and equipment, you also unlock special types of weapons from each speciality, for example you will get snipers from the marksmanship ranks etc. This system simply provides an incentive to keep playing as even if you are doing the campaign it will still add all the points you get. I admit, it may not be as good as the one from Call of Duty 4 but it still helps and provides extra goals for you to achieve whilst playing the game.

By far the most lacking area in the game is its graphics and sound. Both Vegas 2 and its predecessor use the same engine, the Unreal 3 engine, and while this is a truly amazing piece of technology, it feels like they have just cut as many corners as possible in this area. The textures are bland, the levels aren’t incredibly detailed, and the only noticeable improvement is the addition of some more dynamic lighting. However this would be a good thing if the game actually ran at a steady frame rate, and considering the game doesn’t look as good as many shooters out today, having frequent drops in frame rate really collides with the experience. I really don’t see where all the time between the release of this and the first has gone, because the sound is even worse. While the guns all have pretty authentic sound effects, dialogue is terrible, much of it has been recycled from the previous game and I keep hearing terrorists blurting out the same old crap they did the year before, it just seems like such a half-assed attempt which is a shame because it really is noticeable if you have played the previous title, of course, if you haven’t then it wont seem too bad, but even if it was all new dialogue, its nothing too impressive, the lip-sync is terrible and all the terrorists sound exactly the same and say exactly the same things…it just gets too repetitive.

To make things worse, the game is still buggy even after a patch. I get frequent crashes in both single and multiplayer which tend to lead to restarting my machine, which I don’t like doing without a proper shutdown. I’ll warn you now not to press SHIFT(sprint) and ALT(fall in/hold position) at the same time as every time I do it I end up restarting my machine. Not only this but online there is a lot of trouble with lag and gun sounds often get stuck and loop until you leave the server or a new round starts, this all just gets annoying when you are trying to play the game.

I really have mixed feelings with this game, while the addition of the sprint button, the A.C.E.S combat system and bullet penetration have brought some new excitement to the game, too much has simply been recycled. This would fit more appropriately as an expansion rather than a sequel, as in some places it actually drops in quality since the release of the first Vegas game. On the other hand it is still, undeniably, a lot of fun. The game play and cover mechanic keeps the action rolling in and it is genuinely enjoyable, therefore I would recommend this, it is a fun game, just don’t expect too much from this title as it is essentially the same game we saw the year before, but with a few bells and whistles strapped on.