Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Posted: 03/22/08

The Rainbow Six franchise is one of the few that started life on the PC and successfully migrated over to the consoles. It flash banged its way to television sets on the original Xbox where the brand spanking new Xbox Live service put it over the top. It’s been a console staple ever since with 2006’s Vegas the culmination of years of abridging the formula for controller comfort. It’s just a year and a half later and the sequel is already hitting the strip, but has it been enough time to build a solid hand or is it a royal flush?

The first trip to Vegas told a chilling tale of the ultimate mancation destination crumbling into a cloud of dust. It shook men at their core, convincing them to plow forward through the neon jungle in search of vile terrorists that would hope to destroy their paradise. Vegas 2 does double duty as prequel and sequel, as it jumps through time, making it extremely difficult for those who didn’t enlist the first time. Not that it matters. You’re after a terrorist, and just when you seem to catch him, he slithers between your fingers and gets away. The story is practically transparent—told mostly through on-the-fly briefings and picture-in-picture events. It’s probably best that way, but that can’t hide the fact that it’s a far cry from a Tom Clancy novel.

Rainbow built its name on multiplayer gameplay, and the first Vegas did its legacy proud. The sequel doesn’t disappoint. You can play with four friends through 12 different maps in terrorist hunt—setting just about every conceivable parameter to make it as challenging as you want it to be. Adversarial options are solid, though fairly traditional.

The typical deathmatch and team deathmatch clashes will always be fun when one burst of machine gun fire forces a respawn, and you get some more strategic modes as well. Attack and defend plays like CounterStrike, where one team must plant and detonate while the other tries to diffuse. Then there are takes on VIP and territories to round out the mano a mano battles.

Normally we talk about the single-player campaign first in our reviews, but it’s such an afterthought in Vegas 2 that we almost consider it an extra. It’s painfully short and repetitive, and while you can play it cooperatively with a friend the second gunner has no control over squad tactics.

If you’re a fan of the series, then the lack of a compelling or lengthy campaign won’t hurt much. If you’re looking for the next shooter epic then keep on hunting.

The first thing that should be mentioned is that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is built to reward the player. Every thing you do in every mode you play gives you experience points. These points then unlock new gear and weapons for use both online and off. While it doesn’t quite reach Call of Duty 4 levels, it makes sure that you never feel like you’ve wasted your time.

The campaign is all about leading a three-man team through networks of office buildings, casinos, and convention centers—clearing them room-by-room until you reach a waypoint. At which point another waypoint is presented and the process repeats itself. It all becomes repetitive rather quickly. You walk up to a door, use the snake cam to survey the next room, tag any enemies, and then allow your squad mates to invade using smoke, flash bang, or frag grenades. Then you run in to clean up any stragglers.

Your teammate AI is intelligent enough to keep up and take cover when sent to a general area. They’re also dead shots that can clear a room faster than you ever will, and eventually they become a crutch to lean on. Even so, Vegas 2 provides the same white-knuckle, close quarters combat that makes each skirmish feel immediate, and each mistake potentially deadly.

The fundamentals are all nailed. The weapon selection is great, and each gun really handles differently and has its strengths and weaknesses. The cover system allows for blind firing, or tipping the analog stick to either side for well-targeted shots from relative safety. Commanding your dynamic duo is easy, the aiming is probably the best on the consoles, and overall, Ubisoft has basically managed to find the sweet spot between functionality and usability. At the same time, this was the case with the first Vegas, and the addition of the sprint is more about keeping up with the Jones’ than breaking new ground.

Online, the game manages to run at a consistent clip—even with servers loaded with 14 players. Vegas 2 technically supports up to 16, but in order for that to happen the server must be dedicated, so these instances are rare.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 plays amazingly well. The cover system is smooth and predictable, the guns perform realistically, and it’s still one of the most intense shooters on the market as it leaves you constantly guessing at what lies around the next corner. At the same time there’s no real innovation and most players will have a hard time telling the difference between original and sequel.

When the original Vegas was released it was absolutely stunning. Bathed in the neon of the strip, it has a very distinctive look, and shootouts inside casinos don’t hurt its appeal, either. The sequel takes you away from the action to desolate signage graveyards where sin city’s failures go to die, and through abandoned convention halls rife with blatant in-game advertising. The stellar character models only make the drab environments all the more obvious, and Vegas 2 stands as a testament to how quickly standards can change in the HD era. It’s not an average-looking game by anyone’s estimation, but it’s not on the bleeding edge, either.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 doesn’t feel much like a sequel. The limited development time has allowed for few improvements and a truncated, forgettable campaign. The good news is that the formula is so strong that it remains a compelling play. Tossing a smoke grenade, turning on your thermal visor, and mowing down enemies dumb enough to charge recklessly through the haze just never gets old. It still enables the minute-by-minute survival instinct that keeps online servers flooded, but those without an online option will feel a disconnect from Rainbow nation.


Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Release Date:
PC, PS3, Xbox 360
Shooter, First-Person
Editors' Choice

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