Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

"A 4 out of 5"

"A 4 out of 5"
Okay, I rate games funny. 5/5+10 or 9. 4/5=8 or 7. 3/5= 6 or 5. 2/5= 4 or 3. 1/5= 2 or 1. So there.

Rating
M for blood, Intense Violence, Strong Language, and Suggestive themes.
The game is fairly bloody, violence is indeed intense, I remember 2 suggestive themes, but the LANGUAGE is awful. They swear worse than a bunch of ten year olds on Halo 2. The AI is just non stop. They go as far as "Mother ****er!!!" Yeah. It's pretty bad.

Gameplay
AI
The AI is pretty good, but a load better at trash talking than much else. They do take cover, they try to outflank you. But they announce everything they do. "Grenade!" "Reloading!" They give you nice little hints as to when to shoot them. Also, if you are not actually firing at them they will peak out, more often than not into your perfectly lined up shot. They CAN shoot well, defiantly something to watch for. Not idiots, but defiantly not brain surgeons either.

Controls
The controls are well plotted, in a typical FPS scheme. R1 shoots, R2 grenades, L1 makes you take cover. Square reloads, Triangle allows you to switch between your weapons. Pretty hard to mess up.

Weapons
Defiantly important for a shooter. There is a wide variety of weapons to choose from, including SMG's, Assault Rifles, LMG's, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, a SWAT Shield, and of course, pistols. The weapons are also customizable, in the way of scopes, lasers, and silencers. They all look pretty good, and are pretty well balanced. For example, a LMG has a ton of power and accuracy, but the recoil can be really bad. An SMG, on the other hand, has less power and accuracy, but less recoil. A job well done, here.

Difficulty
Rainbow Six Vegas is unmerciful. Not to say it's unbeatable, but it is a challenge. This is because you will die in 1-3 shots on realistic. Normal is a little more merciful, giving you 3-5 shots. This does not include headshots, which can end your life before you even know there was an enemy

Gameplay itself
First off, this game is a FPS3PS. I mean a first person/3rd person shooter. Whenever you are walking around, the game puts you in first person. Once you take cover, however, the game goes into a third person view of your character, allowing you to see around yourself. In this mode you can also blind fire, but doing so is horribly inaccurate at anything other than about 5 feet.

The game is fairly linear, but offers you multiple ways to flank (or be flanked by) your enemy. This really helps out with replayability (we'll get there later). Room Takedown is maybe the most fun thing to do in Rainbow Six Vegas. Basically, your team "stacks up" around a door, then you can order them to open the door and take a specific approach to the situation. Your snake cam will help you out now, allowing you to look under the door to spot and tag terrorists for your teammates to kill. Then, you can even go to another door to get a multi-angled approach.

Sometimes, though, you may not to let every terrorist in Vegas know where you are. You have the option of switching your team into "infiltrate" mode, equipping silencers and only firing when fired upon. This also gives you the option to have your team throw flash bang grenades into a room rather than frag grenades, which is very handy when dealing with hostages.

The firefights are intense and have a good amount of thinking. That thinking pretty much bases off of "Where is the best place for us to kill the terrorists?" Sometimes you will find an excellent position for your team, order them there, and have them ambushed and wiped out, and suddenly you are all alone with a room full of angry terrorists. Other times, you will be walking down a hallway, and BAM, someone comes around the corner and puts a shotgun blast into your spleen. Very fast paced, very well done.

Another awesome part of the game is the vast amount of "techniques" you can do. You have Rappels and Fast Ropes. Fast ropes are like fire fighter poles in the firehouses; you slide down them really fast, sometimes through glass. Rappelling allows you to descend or ascend a wall via rope, and then maybe smash windows to enter a room. Or maybe you'd prefer to flip upside down and pistol people (in Sam Fisher style) before entering.

Sound
No complaints. Guns sound like guns, and no two sounds alike. Voice acting could have been better, but oh well. The only real thing I dislike is that the M40, Scout Tactical, and the other Bolt action rifle sound pretty similar.

Graphics
This is why I docked the points. Normally I wouldn't, but the game looks SO much better on the Xbox 360. I am one of those people not blessed with an HDTV, so I can't say from that point of view. But, seriously! The character models are good, but only good. The terrain seems bland or blurry at times. It looks rushed and slapped together.

Multiplayer
The only multiplayer I've done is Co-op terrorist hunt and story mode. Co-op story mode is pretty much the same, while in terrorist hunt you and a buddy are placed in a map against a bunch of terrorists. The one thing I would have liked to see in non online multiplayer is a deathmatch mode, though this can be solved by clearing an area and duking it out there via friendly fire.

Replayability
For single player, I spent time beating the campaign twice (on normal and realistic) and spending a while on terrorist hunts. Maybe not as much as some games, but defiantly worth the money. Again, I can't say about multiplayer.

Buy or Rent?
I would buy it. The only reasons not to: if you hate language, difficulty, or can't stand blood and violence. Multiplayer is defiantly a great thing to have; link up your PS3 to the internet and don't suffer like I do.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas gets a 4... Out of 5
Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Posted: 10/15/07

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/15/07

Game Release: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (US, 06/26/07)