The first Rainbow Six: Vegas was the one first tactical first-person shooter to have reached mass success on the console market. Its success, not to mention the cliffhanger ending, assured that a sequel would be forthcoming. As a result the expectations were high, maybe a little too high. That’s not to say that RSV2 is a bad game. By all means, I am loving my time with it, but it does have its fair share of flaws and miscues. And although my review is going to focus on the negatives, I really do like this game.
The original Rainbow Six, for the PC, was a far cry from what it would become. It focused more on the tactics and preparations before the mission, but only allowed for control over a smaller portion of the actual execution. As the series began to shift on to consoles, the games started to rely more on heavy action. RSV2 is the culmination of that transition. The action does not stop. There are still tactical elements involved in the game play that shows up during the single player mode, but during co-op the only tactic that matters is deciding which enemy each player is going to take. In fact, I only ordered the CPU team members to breach a room once, a tactic I used on nearly every room in the first game. That might be my biggest disappointment with RSV2. Rainbow Six has always been about the tactics, but with this installment the series has devolved into a first person cover based shooter.
We all know that the true meat of the Vegas games is the multiplayer. And this time around the multiplayer is very good. All newcomers should beware; it has a steep learning curve. The newly embedded core of gamers have already begun to learn all of the little secrets and will ravage the untrained gamer. I was also disappointed to find that most players are only involved for their own success, rather than for the good of the team.
The story of RSV2 is obviously not the focus of the development, but for a first person shooter. In order to really understand it you have to have at least some knowledge of the story in the first game. There is one moment, near the beginning of the game, that is particularly shocking and shows that the story could have been much more.
In order to create an accurate representation of Las Vegas, Ubisoft had to sacrifice a few things. One of which was the graphics. They did move up to the Unreal 3 engine, but used it to create a vibrant world rather than a sharp one. As in the first game, the cover system reigns supreme over any other shooter in the genre. Its strength lies in the realism of the combat. Cover fire is inaccurate, it’s hard to shoot while running, and, most importantly, you are not a tank.
Despite its flaws, RSV2 was the best co-op experience I’ve had since Gears of War. This is a great game for anyone who wants to have a good time with a friend. If you’re in the market for a tactical shooter, with a decent plot and great game play, RSV2 is for you.
B+
The original Rainbow Six, for the PC, was a far cry from what it would become. It focused more on the tactics and preparations before the mission, but only allowed for control over a smaller portion of the actual execution. As the series began to shift on to consoles, the games started to rely more on heavy action. RSV2 is the culmination of that transition. The action does not stop. There are still tactical elements involved in the game play that shows up during the single player mode, but during co-op the only tactic that matters is deciding which enemy each player is going to take. In fact, I only ordered the CPU team members to breach a room once, a tactic I used on nearly every room in the first game. That might be my biggest disappointment with RSV2. Rainbow Six has always been about the tactics, but with this installment the series has devolved into a first person cover based shooter.
We all know that the true meat of the Vegas games is the multiplayer. And this time around the multiplayer is very good. All newcomers should beware; it has a steep learning curve. The newly embedded core of gamers have already begun to learn all of the little secrets and will ravage the untrained gamer. I was also disappointed to find that most players are only involved for their own success, rather than for the good of the team.
The story of RSV2 is obviously not the focus of the development, but for a first person shooter. In order to really understand it you have to have at least some knowledge of the story in the first game. There is one moment, near the beginning of the game, that is particularly shocking and shows that the story could have been much more.
In order to create an accurate representation of Las Vegas, Ubisoft had to sacrifice a few things. One of which was the graphics. They did move up to the Unreal 3 engine, but used it to create a vibrant world rather than a sharp one. As in the first game, the cover system reigns supreme over any other shooter in the genre. Its strength lies in the realism of the combat. Cover fire is inaccurate, it’s hard to shoot while running, and, most importantly, you are not a tank.
Despite its flaws, RSV2 was the best co-op experience I’ve had since Gears of War. This is a great game for anyone who wants to have a good time with a friend. If you’re in the market for a tactical shooter, with a decent plot and great game play, RSV2 is for you.
B+
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