Rainbow Six Vegas

By: RadcliffeV
Date: Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The world’s in trouble and it needs you to lead a blacker than black ops team into the heart of fear to save it. That’s right, team Rainbow is back, and this time you’ll be deployed in Sin City, but you won’t have time for strippers and keno.

First off, those unfamiliar with the series might be perplexed as to why we are in Las Vegas in a series famous for global anti-terrorist action. The game is heavily connected to Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, which deals with an ultranationalist revolt in Mexico. Rainbow Six Vegas starts off in Mexico, where GRAW2 left off, and quickly moves the action to the Vegas strip. While the interconnection between Tom Clancy franchises will please fans, it isn’t confusing enough to put off those who are just jumping into the series, and it is compelling enough to drive players through the single player mode.

In fact, the story interconnection may be the only thing that pleases diehard fans. To accommodate the Xbox Live generation of gamers, the realistic gameplay has be heavily watered down. You can’t go prone, you can’t “cook” grenades, the game has a severely limited selection of weapons that operate more for balancing purposes than in any realistic fashion, and most off putting is the new third person cover system. This system was designed for those who are more familiar with the Metal Gear series, and when you put your back to a wall or behind an object you can place the camera in third person to give yourself a better view of your surroundings. This is great for those who are new to tactical shooters, because it makes it much easier to get the drop on your enemies, but for those who grew up on previous Rainbow Six installments; it destroys the realism that was pioneered by the series. Couple this with a less realistic health system ala Call of Duty, and the lack of pre-planning before an op, all you have is a recipe for rejection.

If you are new to the series, however, you’re in for a treat if you’re in the need for a slower paced first person shooter. This game easies you into the game mechanics quite nicely, and you’ll be taking down tangos in no time. The controls are smooth, and commanding your computer controlled teammates is easy and effective. Never before has a realistic shooter been this user friendly and inviting, and it shows because it’s one of the most popular games on Xbox Live.

So how does the game fare online? Rather well, with one major flaw. The game is designed for team work, and tactical strategies, but because it reaches out to an audience that is mostly used to “twitch” based shooters, you’ll find it difficult to find a team that really works together. Because of this, almost all matches are totally unbalanced, and despite the skills of individual players, if the other team has even an ounce of coordination, they will stomp their opposition heavy handedly. The only way to prevent frustration online is to start a clan or only play on the same team with friends. Other than this, the game works well online, and despite some glitches that need to be patched, delivers on a solid experience.

At the end of the day, Rainbow Six Vegas is a great game if you are new to the tactical shooting genre, but if you are a fan of the older games you may feel left out. It’s not the best looking game on the Xbox360, but it delivers solid game play and a wonderful online experience (provided you have friends that work together). It’s a must buy for those who don’t like Halo, and a rental for fans if only for the single player story.