Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

"A bright Vegas - in more ways then one"

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Seems that every game UbiSoft make these day's seem to have Tom Clancy's name all over them, and the first question you are probably going to ask when you complete it will be along the lines of: 'Did he really write that' now it could be Mr. Clancy being lazy and churning out yet another special forces versus the super weapon packing terrorists of which ever country his dart land on this time. Unsurprisingly then, the story doesn't amount to much but more on that later.

Bright neon and a bit less
The graphics since it's a 360 title are for the most part, about what you see from other games out at about it's release. Look a bit closer and there's a lot of poor texturing and design especially in some of the inanimate objects such as cars. Running across these are a bit unusual though and for the most part Ubi have done a good job with recreating the lights of Vegas. Through most of the game you'll be working your way though various casinos and the bright lights and noise make a nice break from the normal, often repetitive run down urban areas of other games.

Like the sound of that?
Sound effects are as what you can expect, but a problem I had was with the progression of the (as mentioned before) uninspiring story. Instead of cut scenes the game advances the plot with radio transmissions from your support helicopter. This being all well and good for quite times, while gunshots and explosions are going off all over the show, even with the speech volume on maximum it can be difficult to hear what's being said forcing you to look at your objective to see exactly what you should be doing.

Not that it's much of a problem finding where to go since the levels are pretty linear, there maybe a few points of entry into the next room but there are no separate routes through any of the levels. To be honest, I'm probably making it sound a lot worse then it its. The visuals for the most part are good and the sound of the weapons are top notch.

Putting the 'I' back into AI
One of the most disappointing aspects of these type of games is the AI, both of enemies and friendlies. However, Vegas does it very well; allies are not idiots who idly stand directly between your gun and the enemy you're aiming at, in fact unlike almost all other squad based shooters, your team mates are actually useful clearing out rooms and holding their own very easily. The enemy AI is just as good. Each group of terrorists have a team leader who'll constantly bark out orders which are obediently followed. Enemies will probably surprise you too, not only trying to out flank you but using their full range of weapons and grenades to blind or confuse you while you move. This added to the very low amount of damage you can sustain makes for some truly exciting battles where you have to use your head and basic tactics to get the win on some of the harder parts.

If you have played Ghost Recon for the 360 then you'll probably be familiar with the team orders system. The idea of only firing back when attacked first or all out assault, as well as the go to and fall back commands are all present and correct with only a few alterations. However, the cover system both for the team NPCs and for the PC himself could have been a lot better. Sometimes getting your squad to take cover behind a wall can be difficult when your under heavy fire and often you will find that you've stuck your head out when all you wanted to do was have a look around, for a game that requires you to think and not just run an' gun everything, compared to Gears of War the cover system is extremely poor. As well as this, the A button for move just doesn't feel quite right, and the regroup and hold command mapped to the same button forces you to give the wrong order sometimes.

Overall
Although the Clancy badge may make you think otherwise, right until the end this game is all about gameplay. There's rarely a more exciting moment as when you think you've cleared a room, only to have an entire team of soldiers fast rope from the roof forcing you to find whatever cover you can get to, and apart from a few repetitive protect a team member as they hack a computer the game never feels like your playing through the same thing over and over again. The graphics are reasonable for what is being produced at the minute but can't compare to some of the 360's better looking titles.

The learning curve may take a bit of getting used to, especially if you've come from the more gung-ho side of things, you will die very quickly if you're shot and health (it's the recharging kind) takes a while to come back. The save points are also a bit unforgiving too and it seems a distinct absence of thought was put into their placement.

On the though, if you enjoyed other games of this soft from Ubisoft then you'll probably like this. If you're new to this sort of game I'd recommend getting Ghost Recon instead then rent it. If you're a run and gun sort with no time for strategy then this really isn't for you; on the positive side, if it's one genre the 360 has no shortage of it's shooters so try F.E.A.R instead.

Graphics: 7/10
Sound: 8/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replayability: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/22/07