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Categories: Review
Tags: fps, rainbow six, vegas, xbox 360
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: Xbox 360
Released: 3/18/2008Rainbow Six: Las Vegas’ “To be continued…” promise is immediately broken by Vegas 2’s flashback opener: a hostage rescue mission in the French Pyrenees gone horribly wrong. While this sparks the motivation for a Rainbow team member’s treasonous turn, it’s a step back from the first game’s jaw-dropping cliffhanger – disarming a missile, finding out that all your personal information has been sold to terrorists, and watching the game’s villain fly away in a helicopter.
Having misjudged the landing, Vegas 2 hobbles onward serving more like Rainbow Six: Las Vegas Gaiden than a true sequel. Logan Keller is replaced by Bishop, a he/she character ala Mass Effect’s Shepard, but he’s backed by returning squad mates Jung Park and Michael Walters who disappear at some point to show up for their roles in the first game. There’s also a fourth character, Knight, available for co-opers. Since Knight appears and disappears based on player two’s availability and has limited ability to advance the game’s story he’s best seen as a splinter of Bishop’s psyche.
I should point out that I actually like Vegas 2. Aside from a story resembling a human woman reconstructed by a Talosian, it’s a four-star game, easily. But the rating is purely for the gameplay, character customization, and cohesion between story, terrorist hunt, and multiplayer modes. The storyline itself is bollocks. Part of the problem is that any time plot happened, it was related by three people talking over each other and bursts of gunfire. Also, with major chunks taking place outside America, it’s not that Vegas-y. Honestly, by the time Vegas 2 clumsily dovetails into Vegas 1’s denouement I wasn’t sure what happened or how I got there.
Vegas 2 works because it improves on Vegas 1’s formula. The main campaign is fully co-op, instead of Vegas 1’s CliffsNotes scheme. A third difficulty level, Casual, is more forgiving. Single-player terrorist hunt now brings two squad members along for the ride. Respawns have been added to the splitscreen terrorist hunt. And the squad you command now carry 10 of each grenade-type, which can be used on the fly. This, plus the ability to shoot through cover, sharper graphics, the RPG-esque A.C.E.S. “Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization” system and battlefield promotions are more than enough to cover the fact that you’re still gunning down stupid terrorists.
The biggest and smartest change to the R6 template is having a single avatar which follows the player through the campaign, terrorist hunt, and multiplayer modes. The player character has a customizable appearance which is quickly hidden behind layers of unlockable weapons, armor, clothing and camouflage. Vegas 2 lets the player gain experience in every mode with every kill — and even rewards the player for kills made by teammates. As players increase in military rank, new clothing, armor, and camo options are available.
A.C.E.S. has three components: Marksmanship, Assault, and Close-Quarter Battle. Players earn points for making specific types of kills — grenades, scoring headshots, killing enemies blinded by smoke — raising the levels of each component and unlocking new weapons. Let me emphasis, that leveling up Marksmanship doesn’t actually make your character more accurate – it just opens up new weapon options.
Five years ago I could have told you what differentiated Rainbow Six from other first-person shooters. Today I’m not sure I could. Strategic planning has been replaced by tactical combat. On-the-fly squad controls, realistic armor and weaponry, and use of cover are now commonplace. Core Rainbow Six objectives like hostage-rescue and bomb-disarming are no longer the main focus. Ubisoft Montreal continues to do a great job, but Team Rainbow needs to deal with their mission drift.