Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft

You have played this game before. Maybe you don’t know it, but if you have ever played the campaign of any Rainbow Six game before you have surely played this one. Hit the break for the full QP Review.

Welcome back to the same old story: You and two A.I. comrades run around breaching doors and clearing rooms and sometimes you drop in through a conveniently placed sun roof. If you’re not screaming at your completely unpredictable A.I., you’re saving hostages or disarming bombs (is that really all elite counter-terrorist operatives do?) In terms of what you’re actually doing in the campaign it’s just more of the same. There are only two good reasons to play single player and neither of them are for story or fun game play.

1. Achievement Points: Unless you want the 75 points for beating the game on “realistic” on top of your sundae, put this one on casual and stroll through the game for a cool 100 points.

2. The rank system for your character crosses over back and forth between single player and online play. Essentially this is an easy way to level up and unlock those sexy weapons.

Speaking of unpredictable A.I., I’ve never been able to quite figure out how your teammates can be Annie Oakley and Jesse James one minute, and Groucho and Harpo Marx the next. Yes, the A.I. is much better in this game, but somehow it’s just not enough. The best thing your teammates do is shoot from cover; other than that, they’re walking gun-shot victims. Ordering a teammate to toss smoke or a grenade is little more than a game of chance — not only in the accuracy of where they throw the derned thing, but also in if they throw it altogether. Enemy movements are little more than a shooting gallery: if you die and replay a section, they’re going to say the same things and move the same way.

The actual story itself, unfortunately, has very little to do with the first Rainbow Six Vegas . While you do follow the story of Gabe Nowak’s betrayal of the Six team, unveiled at the end of Vegas, all previous characters and story lines go nearly unmentioned (the exception being an off handed comment about terrorist ringleader Irena Morales.) I was honestly confused by the ending (don’t worry I won’t spoil anything) although spoil is too harsh a word to use in this context. As far as I can tell, they’ve set themselves up for Rainbow Six Vegas 3, which is a shame because this installment is going to feel more like a tangent in the overarching storyline that will become (hopefully just) a trilogy.

Where this game really shines, and where any Rainbow Six game really steps up to the plate, is its multiplayer. This time around the guys at Ubisoft took a few cues from next gen FPS’s that eliminate problems like spawn camping and interacting with the environment. Overall they’ve made the gameplay much faster. This time around we’ve received the sacred ’sprint’ which not only works in a more or less straight line (a la COD4) but in any direction you choose to move your character, which is much more realistic and useful when considering R6V2’s compact room-to-room level design as opposed to COD4’s sprawling, ‘b-line it for cover’ maps. Using ropes is also much more practical and way faster. In Vegas, using a rope was pretty much a death sentence as the animation of physically connecting to a rappel or fast rope took so damn long. The rope-and-rappel system works so fast now you’ll be tempted not to bust in through the ceiling or window every time. Another feature we’ve been bestowed is the smart respawn. Finally a million Rainbow Six fans breathe a sigh of relief as they are not respawned in the waiting arms of that guy who sits in the base and lights you up before you’re even officially connected.

Vegas 2 also boasts a healthy array of maps and multiplayer modes. Unique, well designed, maps are the game’s strength here. Previous R6 developers seemed to have virtual boners for choke points and making one portion of the map a veritable fortress for anyone holed up there. This problem is partially solved by the faster rope system, (I know I keep harping on something that may seem inconsequential, but believe me the ropes provide more diverse ways of navigating the map, and in turn more unpredictable firefights) and also by good ol’ fashioned re-tooling. The R6 team has built up so many good maps over the years that it’s arguable they don’t even need new ones. However, the new levels they’ve added tend to distance themselves from their poorly planned younger siblings (maybe should have used a contraceptive?). Vets will appreciate the return of maps like Streets, Presidio, Airport 2 (though the planes have been replaced with junked Vegas signs), Import Export, and even a retooling/homage to Subway.

As for game modes, players can find almost anything they fancy: Online Co-op, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Total Conquest, and Terrorist Hunt return, while Attack and Defend and Team Leader mark an entrance to the series. Attack and Defend is essentially three different game modes where you’re either rescuing hostages, retrieving a briefcase, or downloading intel. One team infiltrates, the other defends. Team Leader is like an actually playable version of Halo’s V.I.P. Each team has one “leader” that must be escorted to an extraction point. The leader is not gimped in any way and can use all of his or her weapons. As long as the leader is alive, everyone on your team can respawn. If the leader kills someone, they cannot respawn. If the leader gets killed, your team gets no more respawns, though you can still win by stopping the other team from reaching their objective.

My advice for anyone buying this game is: know what you’re getting into. Do not buy this game for its story or single player mode. You will be disappointed. Do pick this puppy up if you want to waste countless hours crashing in through ceilings and putting a .50 round through your buddy who’s Desert Eagle you stole last time you wasted him.

Write a comment