Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

December 29,2006 - The last Rainbow Six broke away from the mold, and many fans questioned the direction in which the series was heading. While Lockdown brought fresh ideas in the form of customizable characters and new online options, the game ultimately failed to deliver, particularly in the way of multiplayer. Thankfully, Ubisoft took all their fans' comments to heart and have made Rainbow Six Vegas one of the most satisfying multiplayer games on the Xbox 360.

Built from the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter engine, Vegas looks and feels a lot like its Clancy franchise squad mate. The gameplay is similar to G.R.A.W as well, in that taking defensive action against gunfire is crucial to your survival. Players must hide behind solid objects and peek around corners to get the location of an enemy as well as a clear view to take a shot. But Vegas is much more action-oriented than the other Tom Clancy titles, as it gives you more control over your allies’ movements as well as your own personal progress. Using the left trigger to hide, you can then tell your squad to go to any destination with a simple button click, and your squad will do a damn good job of staying alive as they make their way to the requisite point of attack. Even though they shoot at enemies and hide intelligently, they will die a fair amount through the course of the game, and trying to revive them is sometimes more trouble than it’s worth.

Part of what builds the sense of realism in Rainbow Six Vegas is the unflinchingly brutal enemy A.I. Enemies will run for cover and flank you, even double-team you if you venture off by yourself. The same can’t be said about your squad mates, who will always drop to their knees in missions because they wander into groups of heavily armed gunmen. The intelligence of the enemy’s movements added together with the relative stupidity of your squad mates always makes for intense moments of gun fighting, whether it’s intentional or not.

To help relieve the sheer clumsiness of your squad, you now have access to new gadgets, which will help making it through the missions alive that much easier. Taking a page from the stellar Splinter Cell, the Rainbow Six soldiers can now use fiber-optic snake cams under doors to scope out their surroundings before charging into the room. To add more incentive on strategy, you can even tag enemies in the room so your squad mates will shoot those designated targets before any others. This is an especially useful tactic in close range fighting or hostage situations. Of course, simple breach and charge tactics are still here, as well as the power to tell your squad mates to hold their fire and shoot only when they are fired upon.

New to the series is the use of fast ropes and other acrobatic maneuvers. Your squad can now escape from danger faster, and attack in a much more orderly fashion than before by breaking out their ropes. Using fast ropes and rappels, they now climb up the sides of buildings and even hang upside down and shoot through windows. Simple maneuvers such as sliding down ladders help change the pace of the game, making it both tactical and action oriented.

But all of these shooting tactics would be useless without beautiful and inspiring locations to test them out in. Thankfully, Rainbow Six Vegas does just that, delivering an impressive in-game Las Vegas and its surrounding territories. About three quarters of the game actually takes place in Sin City. The rest will have you exploring a war-torn Mexico (similar to Advanced Warfighter), as well as the Nevada Dam. All of these locations are recreated with chilling authenticity, despite a few name changes. Thankfully, the game looks about as excellent in online play as it does in solo play.

The multiplayer in Rainbow Six Vegas is definitely the highlight of the game, outshining the single player in both presentation and excitement. The Rainbow Six games have always been one of the top multiplayer series in gaming, utilizing numerous online features with thousands of players. As a matter of fact, all of the Rainbow Six games on the Xbox have accumulated more online play-time than any other series on Xbox Live. Rainbow Six Vegas is no exception as a massive following was present just a few days after the game’s release and is currently in the top three on Xbox Live, being outplayed only by Gears of War and Halo 2. Considering the popularity of those other two shooters that’s an impressive feat, but what differentiates Rainbow Six from those other top titles are the numerous options available to customize both your game and characters, as well as some of the best multiplayer levels in any online game.

Although the numerous Vegas-themed levels add a sense of excitement to the online experience, what makes the multiplayer so much fun are the different game modes and options you can participate in. Playing in these different modes nets you experience points, which can be used to upgrade your character. Win or lose, you will earn experience points after every round to further your character’s rank. By achieving different ranks, you can then unlock new weapons, gadgets, and clothing accessories. With over thirty different clothing styles and fifty weapons to choose from, no two characters will ever look alike. To help create a sense of individuality online, Rainbow Six Vegas also allows players to hook up the Xbox Live Vision Cam to their 360 and take a picture of themselves to put on their character. Surprisingly enough, the game does an incredibly good job of accurately depicting your facial features and creating a reasonably balanced clone of yourself.

Once you finally get everything organized, you can than choose from the different types of game modes that are available. The classic Rainbow Six modes are still around, such as Survival (last person alive wins, no respawns) and Sharpshooter (infinite respawns, person with most kills wins), while some new modes have been added into the mix like Attack and Defend (a new take on King of the Hill) and online co-op. Each room can hold a maximum of 16 players, and this coupled with the nearly 5,000 different customizable options allows for endless possibilities of what is offered to players.

Rainbow Six Vegas is a groundbreaking entry in the series as well as a foundation for what online shooters should aspire to be in the future. It delivers some of the most thrilling, realistic gunfights in any shooter, and sports impressive visuals and above-average online multiplayer—all of which make it into one of the must-own titles for your Xbox 360 this year.

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