By Brandon Hofer - 22 Mar 08
In Rainbow Six Vegas 2 you are once again tasked with the mission of saving the city of Las Vegas from a group of terrorists. As you quickly learn, the events of Rainbow Six Vegas 1 & 2 are running concurrently, therefore you are fighting against the same group of terrorists in both titles. Going through the story mode you will encounter the familiar locations such as casinos and such, however, you will also go through an MLG convention hall, a theater and a few other new locations as well. Much like the first title you can go through the story by yourself or with a friend via co-op. Going through co-op this time around has been improved over the first game making this co-op experience a more well rounded experience. The “Terrorist Hunt” mode also makes a return and you can choose to tackle that either solo or with a buddy over co-op. Then of course there is the multiplayer aspect which features your standard fare of team deathmatch, attack & defend, total conquest and other modes that are similar. Customization is also a big part of the game as you can choose to customize your equipment, armor & clothing. Once you choose your weapons you can even customize those, choosing which type of attachment you would like to use and things of that nature. Going through the game you can choose to customize them even further by choosing whether or not you want to put a silencer on your weapon so that you can sneak up on enemies easier. As you progress through the game you will gain more experience, which will then unlock new gear that you can use to customize your character. You also have the feature to import your face using the XBox Live Vision cam, similar to how it worked in the original Rainbow Six Vegas. There is even an achievement for doing that so be sure to do that if you want some easy gamer score points.
One new addition that Ubisoft put into Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sprint button. While it seems like such a simple concept, when you went through Rainbow Six Vegas you were not able to sprint ahead. This lead to a lot of deaths when you couldn’t get to cover in time because your guy would simply walk over there instead of running. It should also be noted that a couple of the controls were changed for this sequel. In the first title you would tag enemies for your allies to take out using the “back” button. In this game Ubisoft changed it so that you have to use the “LB” button. To sprint ahead you also have to hold down the “LB” button instead of clicking the left stick like some other shooters. You still control your allies in much the same way that you did in the first title. You can still have them stack up against a door and then order them to clear out a room and all of that fun stuff.
Going through the campaign mode you will notice that graphics do look better than its predecessor, however, it is not a huge leap forward. They just tend to look a little more crisp and detailed in some areas. Another thing you will notice is that the frame rate tends to dip in certain areas of intense action. It is surprising that Ubisoft was not able to lock down a steady frame rate, especially considering I don’t remember the first Rainbow Six Vegas having that issue. With that being said, the frame rate dip does not happen often and only occurs in certain areas of the game. It is definitely not enough to ruin the game, it is just a minor annoyance. The online play in this title, however, seems to run smoothly. I have gone through the entire campaign with a friend over co-op and it ran without a hitch. There was no lag at all except for the aforementioned frame rate problems. If you went through Rainbow Six Vegas and still have the save file on your hard drive then as soon as you boot up Rainbow Six Vegas 2 you are immediately rewarded for being a “Veteran”. You will receive some extra XP which will help you unlock items in the game along with a flight helmet, ballistic goggles, a tactical helmet & Balaclava. In addition you can unlock a free map to be used alongside your other Rainbow Six Vegas 2 maps by using the code that we revealed earlier in the week.
Overall, if you were a fan of the first Rainbow Six Vegas, then you should enjoy Rainbow Six Vegas 2. There is nothing groundbreaking here however Ubisoft did improve on what was already there. The storyline follows the first game pretty well and closes everything off neatly as you finish the campaign. If you weren’t a fan of the original Rainbow Six Vegas then you probably won’t like this title either as it is more of the same. However for gamers who are fans of this series you should have a lot of fun going through the game’s various modes and trying to unlock everything in the game.
Game Ratings
Graphics
9
Audio
10
Gameplay
9
Longevity
9
Online Play
9
Overall 9/10 another great shooter!
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