Rainbow Six: Vegas
By Nick Hackett
Tuesday. Sep 04, 5:43 PM
Stack up: it’s time to frag and clear Las Vegas.

Platform: Xbox 360 (also PC, PS3)
Rating: M (mature 17+)
Genre: Action/FPS
By: Ubisoft

The Tom Clancy franchises have a nice stranglehold over the modern/near-future military genres in video games. Each game features realistic weapons, scenarios, and technical detail that make them a little more engaging than the usual “kill the aliens” games. For example, the Splinter Cell series is one of the best for stealth action, while the Ghost Recon series is a top contender for team-based tactical shooting. Until recently, the Rainbow Six games differentiated themselves by being primarily strategy based. Before each mission, the player would script (in incredible detail) where their troops would go, which direction they would fire in, and what they would do in certain scenarios. The games were notoriously hard and would usually consist of 20 minutes of pre-mission planning and three minutes of nerve-racking execution.

This changed a few years ago with the release of Rainbow Six 3, which put the player in control of the leader of a three-man team. The emphasis was taken away from the planning and put into the action of the game: running and shooting terrorists. Essentially, the game became more of an action FPS and less of a military chess match. Rainbow Six: Vegas follows this same format. The player controls Logan Keller, the commander of a small unit of elite Rainbow anti-terrorist agents, as he battles against terrorists leading a massive assault on Sin City.

In terms of first-person shooters, Rainbow Six: Vegas delivers in all the ways that gamers have come to expect from a Tom Clancy franchise. The graphics and sound are top-notch, with incredible attention to detail. Slot-machines belch out coins when damaged, cheesy music fills the casinos, and walls chip and crack when shot. The game places a lot of emphasis on realism, from the gun details to the inability of Logan to carry more than three weapons. It can even be played on “Realistic” mode, where enemies (and friends) die from single bullet wounds instead of the usual 50.

Rainbow Six: Vegas stands above most other shooters for a few reasons. One reason is that you (and your team) are capable of some pretty sweet tactical maneuvers, like rappelling down walls and breaching windows, or sneaking in one door while your teammates set explosive charges on another. The game also excels due to an excellent cover system, which works a lot like the cover system in Gears of War. By pressing the trigger, Logan can hide behind almost any object and then peek out to shoot or toss grenades. These features together allow the game to play in a more strategic, tactical way than your average shooter.

Another noteworthy feature (a throwback to its Rainbow Six ancestors) is the ability to command the other two members of your team. The team can be ordered to any spot with a single button press and can also do context-specific actions, like disarming bombs or throwing smoke grenades into a room before clearing it out. The team is generally intelligent and helpful, capable of holding their own against terrorists. When everything works out, you really feel like you are commanding a team of badass soldiers that can clear a warehouse without being noticed. Sometimes it doesn’t work out so well and one rogue terrorist slaughters your team simply by getting too close. Fortunately, there are more instances of the former than the latter.

This is all good and plenty, but the truth is that the game does come across as a typical FPS in some ways. The story is a pretty average action-thriller, with the standard plot devices (crazy terrorists are going to kill everyone) and a disappointing ending. Fortunately, the game shines in the multiplayer department, with a rich set of multiplayer options that extend beyond the usual “deathmatch” or “capture the flag.” The game would be pretty thin without this online component, and it’s even better that the multiplayer is so strong. Both cooperative and competitive modes are available.

It is difficult to say whether the evolution of the Rainbow Six series has been entirely positive or not. Rainbow Six: Vegas is certainly a great game, but it seems like the series is covering the same territory as Ghost Recon (near-future squad-based first-person shooting). While I can complain about little details here and there, the game is rock solid on almost every level. I can lament the passing of the old Rainbow Six games, but really I’m just looking for a reason not to gush about one more awesome shooter with next-generation graphics and sniper rifles. Really, I’m a sucker for any game where your teammate says “tango spotted” before kicking in a window and wasting bad guys with a silenced FAMAS. You had me at “Tom Clancy,” game.

Nick Hackett

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