Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

"Sin City"

If you are anything like me, you have probably lost count of how many games are released under the Tom Clancy license. From Splinter Cell to Ghost Recon, it seems that there is a new Tom Clancy game out every few months. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, most of the time Tom Clancy games are some of the best (Double Agent and G.R.A.W. anyone?). I'm glad to say that Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas does not disappoint and keeps the winning streak going.

Duck, aim, shoot, repeat. Sounds like Gears of War doesn't it? It's true that Rainbow Six: Vegas steals the cover-mechanic from GOW but why would that be a bad thing? For most of the time, the game is played in first-person, but when you get behind cover, the camera switches to third-person. This is actually a pretty good idea because it satisfies both gamers that enjoy third-person games and gamers than enjoy first-person games.

The cover-system is far from perfect, however. Sometimes you'll get behind cover and the camera won't position itself correctly, causing you some inconvenience, but you are usually able to just get out from behind cover and go right back to fix the problem. Also, sometimes it won't let you take cover behind a certain object that you know you can take cover behind (this problem is usually fixed by taking cover behind something else and then returning the object you originally wanted to take cover behind).

An interesting change of pace from previous Rainbow Six games is present in Vegas. This change would be the fact that the game just kinda strings together level-by-level. This really helps out the story and it makes you interested in what is happening in the game, unlike previous Rainbow Six installments.

How many times have you actually found saving hostages in a video game to be entertaining and not unbearably irritating? Well, with the snake cam as a gadget in Vegas, you can take care of hostage situations swiftly and easily without much annoyance. The snake cam allows you to look under door cracks to see into rooms. From here, you can set markers on enemies you want your squad-mates to take out first.

Speaking of squad mates, I loved commanding your team in Vegas because it was much simpler than most other games. You can tell them to stand by doors and where they take cover. You can tell them different ways to enter rooms like in the previous games, but one thing I found annoying was that not all of the choices were available at one time. For example, if you needed to use a flashbang grenade but your choices were breach and clear, frag and clear or smoke and clear, you'd be kicking yourself pretty hard.

Since I brought up grenades, I would like to point out that the accuracy of grenade-throwing is top-notch, but some of the grenades are rarely useful like the incendiary grenades. The smoke that comes up after throwing a smoke grenade is almost never useful because it seems that the enemies can see right through it, which always leaves you at a great disadvantage in a fire-fight.

The co-op mode is probably the most disappointing aspect in the game and it's what keeps it from being truly great. The co-op mode chooses not to follow the story-line, but just throws you in the levels you choose and takes away checkpoints which just makes it feel like a watered-down version of the single-player campaign. This is such the same since Vegas had some real potential as a co-op game. Hell, it probably could've reached the superstar status of co-op games like Gears of War and Halo.

Have you ever been walking past a bunch of slot machines and then hearing gunshots and having quarters fly everywhere? You can experience situations like these in Rainbow Six: Vegas because nearly everything in the environment is destructible. This leads to some very intense and memorable battles that will leave many gamers speechless from the sheer awe at the destruction. This definitely saves Rainbow Six: Vegas from mediocrity.

One of my biggest complaints of Rainbow Six: Vegas is the checkpoint system. The checkpoints are poorly placed throughout the levels so it either makes the levels way too simple or way too hard. This is a major disappointment because it really hurt the gameplay in some situations.

Like I said earlier, the story in this Rainbow Six installment is noticeably better than the previous games. Of course, it involves terrorists which goes without saying, but the squad is much more in-depth. Also, there is a new leader of the squad, Logan, who I enjoyed much more than the previous leader (his name escapes me). Fans of previous Rainbow Six games don't have to worry though; the guy from the previous games does have a small role in Vegas.

Honestly, I haven't seen worse textures in a video game since the Nintendo 64. It's a real shame since Vegas had the chance to be on the best-looking games on the 360 if the developers put in more effort. Don't get me wrong, some of the graphics are pretty amazing, but other times the textures are painfully horrible. Also, the game was overly shiny and took away some of the grittiness that it would otherwise provide. Character modules were average, but looked really comical when their facial expressions didn't change during intense situations.

Bullets blasting, grenades exploding, cars being ripped to shreds by war…all those situations should have noise accompanying them, shouldn't they? Thankfully, the audio in Rainbow Six: Vegas is one of the best I've experienced and sometimes it actually felt like I was in the battle. Any gamer would be impressed.

Rainbow Six: Vegas's length is just right. Not excruciatingly long and not annoyingly short. You will be fully satisfied by the end of the game, but there isn't much replayability if you don't have Xbox Live or if the co-op mode doesn't excite you.

With another great game on the shelves, you've got to wonder when the winning streak of these Tom Clancy licensed games will end. Hopefully, it never will and great games like Rainbow Six: Vegas are still being produced in the years to come.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/29/07