Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

"Meet the new game, same as the old game...but still fun, dammit!"

Once again, Ubisoft Montreal has proven that Las Vegas is one of the worst defended cities in the United States with the release of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. Seriously, there's like 6 million terrorists in this town at a time with no police forces or anything to stop them, what the hell? Well, that's why Rainbow is called in yet again in an adventure that unfortunately feels exactly like the first trip to Vegas, but that doesn't mean it's not as fun and exciting.

VIVA LAS STORY

If I'm correct about this (and I believe I am), then Vegas 2 takes place before, during, and after the events of the original Vegas. The bulk of the game serves as the prequel, while the second to last mission is the “during” part, and finally the last mission ties up loose ends from both games. You take control of Bishop, a Rainbow veteran operative leading his two man team (Jung and Michael from the original game, for the most part) into a terrorist-filled Las Vegas in order to stop them from detonating bombs in various places around the city. Prepare to be shot at, yelled at by superior Rainbow officers, and other various generic espionage-story like events to occur. An interesting enough tale to keep you going to the end, but it's definitely not “best story in a game ever in the universe forever” material. It does have a satisfying conclusion for series vets, though.

VIVA LAS GAMEPLAY

As soon as you fire up the game (and after the 10-15 minute installation process), you'll be prompted to create your own Rainbow operative. The character you create will represent you in both single player and multiplayer modes, and in a first will also represent “Bishop” in story mode. Gender, faces, clothing, amour, and the like can all be customized with a good variety of different choices. It's also good to know that you can reset your character at anytime without loosing anything you've unlocked during gameplay if it turns out you want a change in looks. Using your own custom character for any game is always a plus for me.

Controls are basically unchanged from the first Vegas. The game gives you a few different button configurations, but unfortunately no custom controls can be made. All the good stuff is here: crouching, aiming down the sights, night vision/thermal goggles, snake cam to see under doors, yada, yada, yada. As a matter of fact, the only noticeable change made to the Vegas gameplay is the inclusion of a Sprint button. Yep…you can now run!! Typical gameplay innovation from Ubisoft right there!

Still, my little sarcastic remark doesn't mean that the gameplay in Vegas 2 is still a lot of fun. Story mode sees you leading your two-man team into various Vegas locals basically getting from one waypoint to another shooting terrorists and performing other tasks like bomb de-fusel and such. Levels are linear in nature, but give you a lot of options to combat your foes. For example, you could order your team to enter the doors at the bottom of a large hall full of terrorists, while you climb to the rooftop and pick them off through the glass ceiling. Or you could rappel down the side of a building breaching in through a room's windows while your team busts in through a back down, giving the terrorists the old pincher maneuver. Levels include gymnasiums, casinos, scrap yards, convention centers, and other Vegas locals that, truth be told, are pretty neat and offer up various different terrorist-killing paths to take.

Vegas 2 still lives and dies by its cover system. It's simple: holding the cover button near almost any type of environment will change the game to a third-person view while your character takes cover behind it. From here, you can tilt the left stick out to take shots at your enemies, and then let go of it to get back behind the cover. You can even perform blind fire by aiming with the left stick and holding the fire button, which is good to use against charging enemies. Enemy AI is actually pretty good, as they will take cover, blind fire, and try to flank you. Sometimes they may show some dumb behavior (standing out in the open during a firefight, not noticing the guy right next to him just got his head blown off), but for the most part they prove to be admirable opponents. Be prepared to retry some of the tougher parts of the game quite a number of times.

But good Rainbow operatives don't go at it alone, do they? Ordering around your AI-controlled two-man team is still as easy and awesome as ever. All you pretty much have to do is point to where you want them to do or where to go and order them there with the X button. Pressing down on the d-pad with tell them to hold or follow you, while tapping the select button will change their rules of engagement between assault (weapons free! Hoorah!) and infiltration (don't shoot at enemies unless they shoot at you first). For the most part, you'll be using these guys to breach doors and clear out rooms before you enter. After telling them to stack up to a door with the X button, you can press up on the d-pad to have them open and clear the room. You can also press left or right on the d-pad to have them frag, flash, or smoke and clear the room. The AI controlling the teammates gets the job done well enough, but there were times when they would rush out in the open during a fire fight or get in the way of my line of sight like a freakin' Medal Of Honor game circa 2003. Rounding out single player modes is the always fun Terrorist Hunt. Just choose your equipment, a map, and whether you want to take a team with you or go it alone. Then, just go through the map and kill all the terrorists. An excellent stress-reliever after a hard day's work.

This wouldn't be a Vegas game without online multiplayer and co-op modes. After a rocking first week on the PSN where online play was almost broken, things have been getting a whole lot better after a quick trip to the repair shop for the Vegas 2 servers. Gameplay still suffers some bouts of lag, but for the most part online plays very good. Up to 14 players (or 16 on a dedicated server) can go at in deathmatch, team deathmatch, attack and defend, and a few other modes that are exactly the same from the previous game. The game's awesome co-op modes allow up to four players to team up in a terrorist hunt, and up to two players to go through story mode. While this seems like a downgrade from the original Vegas's four-player story mode, all the cut-scenes, mission briefings, and other stuff were added in. Co-op terrorist hunts are always great fun, if I do say so myself. Leaderboards and voice chat is also fully supported.

Holding all the modes together is the only “major” addition to Vegas 2: the experience and ACES system. Basically, in any single player or multiplayer mode, you'll earn experience for killing terrorists. Each time you rank up to a new level you'll unlock goodies like new clothes, armor, and camouflage. In addition to earning XP, the ACES system gives you additional XP in three different categories. The Marksman category gives you XP for long range shots and accuracy; The Close Quarters category give you XP for short range and grenade kills; Finally, the Assault category gives you XP for defeating enemies through cover and shields. Leveling up these categories will unlock additional bonus XP and weaponry for you to use online and off. While some may scoff at this addition and say “Call of Duty 4 biters!! LAWLZ!!”, I found it to be a very cool rewards system.

The biggest thing going against Vegas 2's gameplay is that…well, it doesn't do anything that Vegas 1 already did. Besides the sprint button, everything in Vegas 2 basically remains unchanged from the previous game. Newcomers won't mind, but series vets will most likely be pretty disappointed from the lack of any new innovations. While the game is still loads of fun, it just doesn't do anything to make it surpass its predecessor.

VIVA LAS GRAPHICS

More proof of Ubisoft copy and pasting, Vegas 2's graphics don't look any different or better than the original game. Running on Epic's Unreal 3 engine, the game's character models do sport a good amount of detail, and most of the levels and maps are well designed and look pretty decent, but it also looked the exact same way in Vegas 1. Texture pop in still exists, and while the framerate runs pretty good for the majority of playtime, there is still a hiccup here and there. One good thing is that the environments seem to be more interactive, as some cover can now be shot through and a lot of things can be destroyed or blown up.

By no means an ugly game, but it's just not as impressive as it was back in 2006 (or early 2007 for PS3 owners). As a matter a fact, it's just “exactly the same”.

VIVA LAS SOUND

Music and sound effects are all pretty good and get the job done. Some pretty impressive voice acting as well, although enemies still seem to spout some of the same lines from the first game. I did run into a glitch online where the sound of a gun firing wouldn't turn off for a few minutes, but those instances were few and far between. Good workout for surround sound systems.

LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN…OR SNAKE EYES?

People could definitely get into the multiplayer, while loners have three different difficulties for the 6-8 hour story, along with the Terrorist Hunts that span across twelve maps. The experience and ACES system should also get people to keep playing. You can also unlock various awards by completing different tasks in the game. You'll definitely get your moneys worth.

That is, unless, you're a series veteran who'll probably feel like they're playing Vegas 1.5 instead of Vegas 2. Besides sprinting and experience, nothing to knock peoples socks off has been added to this installment, and that unfortunately can only make this game equal, not better, than the first one. However, the gameplay and online is still very fun, and series vets and fans of tactical shooters should definitely give this one a try.

KEWL
+Gameplay is still a blast
+Decent story
+Player customization
+Fairly good enemy and teammate AI
+Experience and ACES system is a very welcome addition
+Many rewards and equipment to unlock
+Versus and Co-op online modes are great fun
+Good sound
+Tons of replay value

LAME
-“Sprinting” is your only major gameplay innovation here
-No customizable controls
-AI still shows some instances of “dumbass-ery”
-Graphics are decent, but were only mind-blowing back in 2006
-Some framerate hiccups
-Some lag issues online

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/08

Game Release: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (US, 03/18/08)