Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the sequel to Rainbow Six Vegas, which was released around the same time as Gears of War, but received good scores, averaging around 8.9. Even though a lot of people see Rainbow Six 2 as more of an expansion, more of a RSV 1.5 than 2, I’ve really enjoyed the game up to now, just as I enjoyed the original.
Story - Not very gripping, very confusing, 5/10:
The game has you playing as Bishop, leader of Bravo Team. Bravo Team consists of the Team Leader, Bishop, and two others, Jung Park (electronics and recon specialist) and Michael Walter (heavy weapons and demolition expert). Although this lineup is highly overused (Conflict: Denied Ops being the first to come to mind), everything works out as it should do, and you often find yourself sprinting over to a team-mate to save them. The story can get extremely confusing at times, sometimes you’re in 2005, and sometimes in 2010. Having the story progress in this way helps shed light on the story of the original Vegas, which left those that completed it with a cliffhanger. Players of the original will keep recognizing names and locations mentioned to you over the radio, for example, Sharon Judd, your Information Officer, at one point tells you that the character you played in the original is going after the villain of the original, which is probably the first time I realized that I wasn’t playing the same person as last time around. New players, however, will find the story hard to understand, but that doesn’t take away any of the fun that’s to be had by… Well, by shot-gunning terrorists in the face.
Gameplay - Shotguns, terrorists, faces. Need I say more? 9/10:
Gameplay hasn’t really changed much from the original, but, I didn’t really want it to. The game really plays out as a slow paced, tactical and stealthy game, which really has you thinking about positioning, targeting etc, but there’s still room for some good old running-and-gunning, especially online.
The few commands you can give to your team are all you really need, and include: Go to, Follow, Hold, Throw Flash-bang / Smoke / Frag, and the various breaching orders; Open, Frag, Flash, Smoke.
The controls are also similar to the original, but now with the addition of a sprint button, which, I have to say, I only really use for getting around the levels faster. Speaking of levels, most of the ones you play are situated in Vegas, during the daytime. Whilst Vegas in the daytime may not sound like the best place to be, the maps and locations are designed and play out well. The game starts off with you in the Pyrenees, which are somewhere in Europe. Exactly where, I haven’t a clue. Anyways, after running around there for awhile, you’re flown into Vegas, and some of the levels include Bars, Health Clubs, Bars, A Library, some casinos etc. etc., but the highlight for me has to be the Gaming Convention, it really is quite awesome to be shooting terrorists whilst having a Major League Gaming logo being projected around the room.
Multiplayer - Quite a few modes, including Story mode Co-op and Terrorist Hunt Co-op, 9/10:
Multiplayer was the reason I bought the original, and was a major contributing factor towards buying this one. Multiplayer plays out like the Terrorist Hunt mode, except with more camping. People tend to crawl around instead of camping, which is good, and leads to some excellent firefights. I definitely prefer the run’n'gun strategy here, I own with the automatic shotgun, but on larger maps it just doesn’t work. The co-op modes are excellent, with both Live and Split Screen co-op, for Story Mode and Terrorist Hunt, and they add a hell of a lot of replayability to the game.
Replayability - With the Persistent Elite Creation system, you won’t want to stop, 10/10:
The original was highly addictive, and I found myself playing it a lot, and I’m finding the same thing with this one. When you first start you game, you can customize your character to your liking, and all his stats, weapons, armor etc. are persistent throughout both Multiplayer and Singleplayer, with rewards unlocked from playing both. The rewards range from clothes, purely for looking good, to armor and weapons, which can make the difference in any scenario. You receive experience from killing terrorists and enemies, online and offline, and also from completing missions or winning matches. When you have enough, you level up, and are awarded Armor, Clothing or a new Camo, which can be used to further customize your character. There is also an A.C.E.S system, which is a system which rewards you for killing enemies in a way which relates to either Marksman, CQB (close-quarters) and assault, and as you level up each, you are awarded weapons (or a large experience bonus) which relate to that category, for example, if you kill enough enemies at close range, you unlock shotguns, and at a distance, you unlock sniper rifles.
These systems alone make it very addictive and highly replayable, but I find the story mode, even though I haven’t yet completed yet, is still very replayable; I often find myself playing through a few chapters that I’ve already played.
Grievances - More than a few glitches here and there, 4/10:
We’re not going to get a glitch free game any time soon, but even so, an excess of glitches in RSV2 take away some of the magic. There are the graphical glitches which you just can’t seem to get away from these days, textures not loading, framerate issues and so on, but also more serious ones, such as the fact that taking cover on a brick wall can sometimes be as effective as running around in terms of the protection it offers from bullets (I forgot to mention that you can shoot through cover, but, brick walls?), but also things such as an extremely thin piece of wood being as impenetrable as Fort Knox. There are also issues with the amount of damage enemies can take, they usually drop with a burst from a machine gun, but sometimes can take a few (dare I say it) shotgun shots to the face. I’ll also mention the fact that a few achievements are glitched, for example the achievements for completing the game on the Realistic difficulty, and also for reaching the rank of Private First Class. Oh, and please don’t call me an achievement whore for saying that. >.<
Verdict - 9/10:
This is a truly awesome game, with loads of replayability and fun to be had. A must buy for any fans of first person shooters, or other Tom Clancy’s games. Mentioning other games, I noticed that after completing a mission, and getting into the helicopter to be extracted, what was basically Sam Fisher (from Splinter Cell) boarded with me, and I can’t for the life of me say why.
And so, in the words of Warren doing an impression of me;
“I like it because Bill gates probably likes it.”.
In all seriousness, I love it.
~ Adam
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