Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas (Xbox 360, 2006)

The Rainbow Six series is well known as one of the forerunners of tactical, one-hit, one-kill shooters. Rainbow Six Vegas is the latest member of the series, and shakes up the formula a bit while still keeping the same general concept behind the game.

Vegas puts you inside the body of Logan Keller, a newly appointed squad leader within Team Rainbow - the world's finest anti-terrorist group. The game starts out in Mexico in a prologue that sets the stage, but quickly moves to its primary location: Las Vegas. Throughout the campaign, you'll be taking part in standard anti-terror operations: hostage rescue, bomb defusing, information gathering, and simple "kill the bad guys".

To accomplish this, you lead a squad consisting of two other men. You have a command system that's basically a cleaned-up version of that in previous Rainbow Six games. You can order your men to follow you, or you can have them go to move to a specific place. Your two comrades move as a pack - there's no way to order them two different places, but between the two of them and the one of you, you can do quite a bit of flanking of the bad guys. If there's cover near their destination, your team will get behind it. This doesn't always work very well, however, since you usually end up with one guy behind cover while the other simply stands out in the open. Needless to say, this can get annoying, so you need to be really careful about where you tell your team to go. Fortunately, your teammates are made of some very strong stuff. If they get killed, you have a roughly 30-second window to get over to them and give them a shot. If you reach them in time, they'll happily pop back on their feet without a single injury. If you don't get to them in time, it's game over for everyone. This makes the game much more forgiving, since you don't have to worry about losing your entire team for the rest of the level just because of a single stupid mistake.

On a more personal level, there are a number of changes to your character. In a break from the typical Clancy realism, Vegas features a regenerating health system a la Gears of War. If you get shot, your screen starts to blacken. If you manage to get behind cover, your health will slowly return to normal, and you'll be good to go. If you keep getting shot, though, you die, and there's no "magical injection" that revives you like it does your teammates. This system makes the game much less frustrating, since you no longer have to worry about a single injury crippling you for the rest of the level. You can afford to stick your head into danger every once in a while, since you'll be fine if get behind cover when you're shot.

So therefore I say, BUY THE FRICKIN' GAME!!!!!

Rainbow Six Vegas offers one of the best online components to a game since Halo 2. There are a multitude of modes and up to 4 player co-op of the entire story mode and terrorist hunt scenarios. There’s an online experience system and you can customize your own online persona. I was actually driven to buy and play this game from all of the other reviews and critical acclaim that the game had received. Let’s just say that Rainbow Six is a very deserving title of all the positive reviews and remarks.

Gameplay: 9/10
Pros: The cover mechanic is far superior to Gears of War’s and there are almost too many weapons, all with customizable scopes, lasers, etc. The 1 player campaign has a nice streamlined and easy way to command your team and some of the firefights in the casino are truly epic. There are tons of different multiplayer options both online and on a single console (split screen co-op for example).
Cons: Online, it is very hard to understand why you win/lose a firefight. Unlike Halo 2 which has a clear health indicator, R6 Vegas uses a blur mechanic (the blurry it is the closer you are to death). This is really cool offline, but online there have been times I swear I should have killed my enemy first, and vice-versa. Online is very intimidating at first because of all the modes, weapons, options, etc.

Graphics: 9.5/10
Pros: The graphics are gorgeous! The neon lights of Vegas, the strip and all of the locations look amazing and near photorealistic. There’s really nothing that looks bad in this game. Check out the video above to see that.
Cons: This is a slight critique, but I don’t think that the rifle fire lines that burst from your rifle are exactly lined up to where you are aiming or where they actually hit. I’ve seen my fire look like it’s hitting a car only to have the guy slightly right of the care get torn to shreds by my rounds. It really only happens when you are using the scope, but seems off.

Sound/Music: 9.5/10
Pros: All the guns sound different and get your adrenaline pumping. The voice work is topnotch and the music wraps up and rounds out the package. One of my all time favorite things is shooting up a slot machine only to hear the pings and dings and tune go crazy before it shorts out.
Cons: There is no voice overview or direction during a co-op game whether on the same console or online.

Lasting Appeal: 10/10
Pros: With 4 player online co-op, 16 player competitive multiplayer including attack and defend, team slayer (sharpshooter), team survival (no respawns last team standing wins), etc. there is plenty to keep you occupied. Add to that a fully customizable online identity and an experience system that unlocks new outfits and features leaves you with the best Xbox Live experience around.
Cons: Fairly short 1 player experience, though more significant and lengthy than Gears of War.

Average: 95.00%
Tilt: +/- 0.00%

As many options and finesse that this FPS has, there isn’t the same visceral excitement that some matches of other Online games create. Don’t get me wrong R6 Vegas is a must-own title, but its steep learning curve hurts its instant appeal and can be very frustrating online. R6 takes time to get used to before you can really enjoy it. I was lucky enough to meet someone online who sort of walked me through some strategies and general tactics as well as suggesting a weapon for me to use after seeing how I played. read the rest @ gnadegames.blogspot.com

Tom Clancy games have had a long history with us gamers. From the 1st Rainbow Six on the PC to the newest Ghost Recon 2 on Xbox 360, it's always lived up to it's name. Unlike most games of a series, these seemed to have been a little more low key in the gaming world. Sure everyone knew who Tom Clancy was but not everyone played them. Some suggest it was the complicated layers of planning and/or the ultra-realistic gameplay that caused this niche. After playing something fast paced like Doom, Quake or Half Life so jumping into a Clancy game was very overwhelming.

Thankfully that isn't the case today. The developers have made their games more accessible and away from the intimidating stereotype. The days of extensive pre-mission planning, gratuitous team selection and weapon load out are things of the past. Some PC gaming purists would say it was "dumbed down" for the consoles. Yes and no. It is true that they had to scale down previous titles to work on early consoles but if you compare the games of today you'll find that is no longer the case. It seems simplifying some of the gameplay mechanics was beneficial regardless. Now the PC and Consoles play almost identical to each other.

Still reading? Okay lets get to Vegas shall we? Since we're talking about "simplicity", I'll just say that Rainbow Six: Vegas is a great game. The important area's like Gameplay, Graphics and Sound were all done to high standard. This wasn't some inbetween Clancy game or Add-on, it's a solid stand alone for sure. The single player was as fun as it was frustrating. There were times where you could feel the tension in the air before any shots have been fired. That's when the smile cuts across your face. While other times you'll be completely irritated for having to do the same sequences over and over again. That's when cursing becomes an art form.

If it was just the difficulty I'd have given RS:V a 5/5, but there were some issues that held it back a notch. For starters the A.I. ain't all that bright. There were numerous times where one or both of my squad mates would get hung-up in some corner forcing me to reload a previous save. I've also noticed that unless they perform a door breach, they won't always attack who ever is infront of them right away. The enemy A.I. has their "special" moments too. I remember a few times where I could shoot one of them dead with none of their adjacent comrades being the wiser. While at the same time I'd get caught sneaking along a dark and far back wall causing everyone under the sun to shoot at me with uncanny precision. Go figure. Other than that the single player was great and kept me sane enough to the end.

The Online multiplayer is the life after single player death here. After playing through the campaign you should be somewhat ready for the online matches. I say "somewhat" because there are a lot of hardcore players out there. But after a few hours online you'll understand. One thing I didn't like early on but loved later was the character customization. When you start out there isn't much to work with, but later on the options are great. Seeing all the cool uniforms people had, I realized this is the closest thing to playing real live GI-Joes. Vegas isn't the killer app but its definitely up there.

*Note! Although I condone simplicity here, I still stand by my argument on Splinter Cell Double Agent's mutilated Spies Vs Merc mode. Read my SC:DA review.*

It's pretty easy to imagine that plenty of eyes rolled when Ubisoft revealed that the next game in the Rainbow Six franchise was going to be set in Las Vegas. It sounded like a move that only the creatively bankrupt would undertake, and the Rainbow franchise is certainly getting up there in terms of years. It also seemed kind of fitting, since Vegas is where all the washed up entertainers eventually wind up. Well, any such notions are a big mistake, because this new Rainbow Six is like the new Las Vegas. It's refreshed, reinvented, and ready to take on the world, and it's also one of the best tactical shooters on the Xbox 360 to date.



You'll go from the slums of Mexico to the glittering casinos of Las Vegas in this intense tactical shooter.

In Rainbow Six Vegas, you play as Logan Keller, the leader of one of Rainbow's elite three-man counterterrorist assault teams who is called into action after an operation in Mexico goes bad and, for some reason, the terrorists strike the casinos and high-rise hotels of Las Vegas. Your job is to stop them and ascertain their intentions, which involves the standard McGuffin device that will kill millions and a secret military base hidden inside a massive hydroelectric dam. The story borrows a few too many plot twists seen in other Ubisoft games, namely Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and the lack of a satisfying resolution also makes the plot feel like a paper-thin reason to battle an army of terrorists in Las Vegas of all places, but it's easy to overlook because the combat in Rainbow Six Vegas is simply excellent.

What elevates this chapter of Rainbow Six is the cutthroat tactical combat, which is far above anything seen in the series. The combat elevates the action for shooters in general, but Rainbow Six Vegas happens to arrive on the heels of the superb Gears of War, and it's eerie just how similar the combat systems in both games are. It's hard to say that one cribbed from the other, since both games were in development at the same time, but it's easy to get the feeling that the maturation of tactical combat is an idea whose time has finally come, and the result is a lot of intense action as you scramble for cover from all the bullets headed your way.

In Rainbow Six Vegas, just like in Gears of War, slabs of concrete are your best friend, along with the edges of doorways, slot machines, the side of an SUV, and pretty much anything else solid that you can put between yourself and the enemy. By moving up to those objects and holding down the left trigger, you can "hug" the cover and then poke your body out from the sides or the top to shoot at the enemy before ducking down again. Or, if you're under heavy fire, you can poke your rifle around the corner and fire blindly to keep the bad guys at bay. The game seamlessly transitions from first-person to third-person perspective when you do get behind cover, so you get a very cinematic effect of watching yourself huddle while bullets impact around you.



If you're in trouble you can blind fire around corners to keep the bad guys at bay.

You don't fight alone in Rainbow Six Vegas, either; you're usually accompanied by your two teammates. The artificial intelligence does a great job of controlling these agents as they follow you. Pathfinding, for instance, is very rarely a problem, as they can navigate the cluttered environment effectively, and they use cover just as well as you do. Controlling your teammates is simple, too..

this is possibly the best fps for the 360 yet

this game, like other tom clancy games, uses real guns and pretty accurate stats for them
each gun type can be used for different strategies

maybe u will a use a light machine gun and keep someone under cover while ure friend sneaks up on him and caps him with a shotgun
or maybe u will use a grenade and make someone run away before shooting them down with an assault rifle

gears of war is often said as a great game
sure plenty of blood and gore
but to play vegas, ure not only gonna need a good shot, but a good strategy

communication is very important
so important that ubisoft decided to make ure online character move their mouth whenever you talk (no joke)

vegas online provides several game modes such as attack and defend, neutral capture the flag (retrieval), survival, and sharpshooter and of course terrorist hunt

even if you dont have xbox live, u can still have a lot of fun in single player
u control ure character and give commands and orders to ure teamates
commands can be via the action button (a) or through speech

u can play 2 player co-op or terroist hunt off one consle
if u want to play with more, each person will need their own copy of vegas and a 360 unfortunatly (meaning 1 tv per person too)

all in all Rainbow Six Vegas will let u feel like u r actually part of a special forces team

graphics 10/10 (for fun turn ure brightness to 1 and put on nightvision perminatly, it looks amazing even if its not the smartest thing)
offline play 9/10
online play 13/10
sound 8/10
realism 9/10
overall 10/10

a must buy for anyone whose a fan of first person shooters

game is worth at least $70 to me