Rainbow Six: Vegas.... Cha-Ching!!

This is the first Rainbow series game I have played. The first Tom Clancy game I have played was GRAW2. I am fairly new to the Xbox 360 (March 2007), but the first game I bought for it was GRAW2. My brother-in-law talked me into getting Rainbow Six: Vegas, which I am glad he did. It is another Tom Clancy game I am hopelessly addicted to.

I have played through two single player levels so I do not know exactly how the story unfolds. The game starts in Mexico. This level serves as training and is an actual mission at the same time, which I found pretty cool. You walk the streets with two of your team. After an explosion, you find yourself alone, and mad. You are sent to Vegas, without your two partners, with some resistance. You pick up two new teammates and head through a casino in Vegas. This is the extent of my single player knowledge.

The gameplay of single player is very quick, with rather smart AI terrorists. The AI is drawn to noises and doors being opened close to them. Even the AI on your team is not incredibly stupid, like some other games that require you to control a team. You team will find cover and shoot at the most dangerous terrorists first. You can send your team to one door, while you breach through another door, which is a quick way to clear a room. You can have your team go all out and shoot at anything that moves, or have them shoot only when shot at, to help get a good position before striking. You can also have your team flash, smoke, bang and clear rooms.

As far as controls go, it took me a bit to get used to (Slightly different than GRAW2). However, the controls are easy to learn and navigate on the controller. You can cover on pretty much everything you see with the pull of the L-trigger. This feature is very helpful around corners or in door frames. While in cover, it switches to a third person view (which I am used to with GRAW2) making it easier to see what lies ahead. While in cover you can lean out and fire, or just pull the trigger and blind-fire (only useful if terrorist is 2 feet away).

Now it is time for multiplayer action. This game is very active online. There are several game modes and maps to keep you interested for a long time. The game comes with 10 original maps for Vegas, and 2 (now) free downloadable map packs (Red and Black) that adds around 8 or so maps. Games can consist of 2 to 16 players per room. Some of the popular games modes are Co-op terrorist hunt, attack and defend, and team sharpshooter.

Rainbow Six: Vegas has an online ranking system to help keep interesting. You play for experience points which rank you up from private through elite. Ranking up early on is quite easy, but in the later ranks takes a lot longer. For each rank, you get some kind of unlockable. The unlockables could be; armor, weapons, clothing, or camo. If you play anything but co-op, you get some sort of experience points, even if you lose, which is nice. Experience points range from 25 – 1400 points, depending on the matches setup. There is also a co-op story mode, which you can complete online with 1-3 of your friends. It is broken down by checkpoint in the single player mode.

I will take a step back to explain the goodness of unlockables. As you progress through ranks you get different items, which you can equip your online identity with. This gives you a chance to look completely unique from everyone else. You also get some better weapons available to use in multiplayer as you rank up. Rainbow Six: Vegas also allows you to import your own face onto your character, if you have the camera for your Xbox 360.

However, there are some flaws to the multiplayer. You can glitch up ranks. Someone could go from private to elite in 4 minutes, which takes down the awe of the ranks. There are also glitches in each level which some players love to exploit. For example, one could take cover, lean over and shoot out a window, but can not be shot at because they are in complete cover from the outside. The graphics take a little hit, but that is expected to help reduce lag of the game. The last thing, I can think of, is if your team is getting beat early and badly, players on your team will just leave, making it nearly impossible to post a comeback.

Visually this game looks amazing. I play it on a standard definition TV, and I still think the graphics look great. I have played it on a HD TV, and boy does it make the game look smooth. The surroundings of the game are unique and very sharp looking. There has been a lot of attention to detail for the surroundings of the game. Even on some weapons you can see a serial number on it. A great part, visually, is when you first fly into Vegas from Mexico. You can look down upon Las Vegas, seeing all of the casinos and hotel’s that can actually be found in Vegas. Almost everything you see can be shot with some sort of reaction. For example, you can shot slot machines, making coins fly out of them, or shoot an aquarium and watch water pour out of your bullet holes.

Overall, the single player seams interesting (thus far), the multiplayer is loads of fun and addicting. The graphics are amazing, matching the great gameplay. I would recommend Rainbow Six: Vegas to anyone who likes shooter games.