Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

"Terrorism Takes a Gamble"

As much as I do not like Rainbow Six Vegas, I still have to give this game a great review because it is one of the best tactical games out to date. My problem is that this game is most unlike the original games and has strayed very far from the original book and concept of the Rainbow Six team. Rainbow Six Vegas still gives you the best modern tactical experience that no game has yet to even breach. Unlike the numerous sequels after the original Rainbow Six, the series had taken a cheap cut to the first person role with limited orders to give your AI teammates and the very difficult AI enemies popping up from everywhere to make you have to play through in trial and error mode. Rainbow Six Vegas replaces the lazy first person mode with one of the most advanced third person tactical games to date. The game is all about the experience of the game play and you will notice a lot of great things that come from this.

Story

Terrorists have taken over parts of the Southwest including the city of Las Vegas to wage an uncanny war against the Rainbow Six team as it rushes to stop the imminent attacks of the terrorists. The story seems kind of unreal as the terrorists obtain some very expensive equipment and the big problem is determining how all of them got hired. Of course, everything is settled in the following Rainbow Six Vegas game, but this first Vegas game focuses on the surprise attacks and the rush to beat time. It is not poor development that leads to this short and ultimately cliche story, but the concept of an entire city taken over terrorists along with the cliff hanger ending is something only TV soap operas should have a monopoly on. You will not be interested at all with the story as the real driving force of this game is totally on the game play and multiplayer aspects of the game. This game is definitely a long way home from the original book and games in the series.

Game Play

Rainbow Six Vegas has the problem of being almost indistinguishable from the sequel Rainbow Six Vegas 2. So what is great about this game is that it is still very fun to go back and replay. The game puts you in the third person with one assault weapon and a pistol along with two special items like grenades and breaching devices. You have a variety of options with these weapons to set them for special circumstances such as single shot silenced, or full auto burst for whatever you run into. No other modern war game gives you this many options for weapon selection. You can play by yourself and enjoy what meaning you can get out of the story, but the real fun is playing cooperatively. I have spent many a good long night with my playing through the story mode (as well as terrorist hunt). Playing the story mode on cooperative will take care of having to suffer through the story so that is some great stuff. The tactical part of this game comes from taking cover and moving to flank enemies. This isn't real easy as running and gunning will get you gunned down pretty quick. You have some easy controls to take cover and peer around corners to trade shots, but also you have to have someone watching your back as enemies can outmaneuver you and appear right behind you.

The AI is somewhat smart and as you come up on them they will toss flashbangs, grenades, and smoke to quickly abruptly stop your advance and that gives them time to take cover and start trading shots. A lot of the strategy in dealing with them involves taking cover and using smoke to take out all of the enemies in a room while they stand there. Of course with a great new experience that this game brings the game is not without some odd glitches. With the smoke grenades, enemies will simply stand in place so you can almost walk right up on them. The door system is also an odd glitch. By standing in front of a door you will befuddle, amaze, and completely hinder any enemies from taking you by surprise. You can take out a bunch of enemies this way by repeatedly opening and closing doors.

Terrorist Hunt and online multiplayer are two great cooperative experiences. The multiplayer does require communication and usually the game you will most likely play is Attack and Defend on Calypso Casino. Terrorist Hunt is a fun cooperative experience usually played on LVU campus, but it requires coordination and people watching your back to complete. Both contribute to your ranking status that unlocks prestige and items so it is worth the time to try out, but the experience is very enjoyable.

Graphics

Graphics are definitely up to par although I would think they favor the PC crowd a little more than they should appear on a console. Items on shelves will move around if an explosion occurs or if you shoot them. Other than that, most objects in the game are very stationery. The only visuals that stand out are the characters which you can custom create to add different colors of camouflage. Scenic graphics are very nice especially when passing over areas in a helicopter. Enemies are very generic and do not stand out from each other and all seem to have the same voice. At one time there were actual advertisements in the game seen as posters on walls for movies like I Am Legend and Die Hard 4. That was pretty cool and the advertisements gave you a reason to log in online every now and then.

The sound effects stand out especially with explosions of the grenades and C4. You feel it when these go off. The weapons also have sound variations when you switch between automatic and single burst fire. Bullets flying by and hitting walls and cars made shooting weapons all the more fun. The voiceovers were not all that important as the plot was not all that important to me, but the biggest annoyance are the guards who will shout out to their partners standing next to them what they will do next along with various obscenities and remorseful remarks such as “He owed me money!” If I was a highly equipped terrorist with the world's greatest tactical anti-terrorist force shooting hot lead by my head I doubt I would be worrying about who currently owes me money. The music diverges from the classic Rainbow Six tune and features more subtle in-game music along the lines of a summer blockbuster movie.

Replay Value

Rainbow Six Vegas is great for playing cooperatively and in online multiplayer. Of course the online community may be much smaller now than what it used to be you had a good setup which is kind of basic between the ranked and unranked matches. Playing a cooperative game is where the fun comes in. You can play up to four either going through the campaign mode or by eliminating terrorists in terrorist hunt. Doing this will unlock some multiplayer achievements for you. The achievements are moderate to difficult in getting. Some require playing through the story mode on the hardest difficulties while others require that you find an online ranked match and shoot it out for a while. There are no achievements that are just out there, but all are situated in completing all missions, terrorist hunt missions, or playing in all maps in ranked multiplayer matches.

Final Recommendation 7/10

Rainbow Six Vegas is all about the game play and unfortunately nothing else. This is one game that actually could have probably done very well without a single player mode as most of this game is not enjoyable without playing with somebody. The point system requires you to play with somebody online (something later fixed in Rainbow Six Vegas 2) and the story is nothing but a cliffhanger for the sequel. So Rainbow Six Vegas loses a lot from the original series. I do not understand why the concept of the setting up of waypoints for computer allies to follow was never capitalized on as this was an excellent feature of the beginning of the series. Anyway Rainbow Six Vegas has some excellent game play in terms of the tactical style it presents and regardless of how far off the map it is with the Rainbow Six franchise it is overall a great game. Rainbow Six is definitely worth the discount or rent especially if you want to know what is going on for Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/23/08

Game Release: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas (US, 11/20/06)