Reviews// Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)

If you never liked Rainbow Six or tactical shooters, then R6V2 is not the game to change your mind about the series. It is definitely and proudly more of the same, but better than its predecessors.

If, however, the reason you have never liked Rainbow Six or tactical shooters was the lack of sprint feature, you might like to review your prejudices. Sprint is in. It is there along with a cache of new weapons with which to wreak havoc upon the tangos, or, even better your best mate. Also new is the A.C.E.S. (Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization) system, which is sort of a class-based, extra-eXperience-Point system, overlaid on the basic XP system.

A.C.E.S. has three classes with 20 levels in each class. Every other level in each class unlocks a weapon, the remainder are flat XP bonuses. The three classes are Marksman, CQB (Close Quarters Battle), and Assault; Marksman being the easiest to progress though.

You get Marksman points for all sorts of things that you’re going to want to do anyway. These include killing people at long range, killing people while they’re on a rope, killing people while you’re on a rope and, of course, headshots.

CQB points, as their name implies are gained by short range kills and blind-fire kills.

Assault rewards are achieved by blowing stuff up with C4, grenades, and environmental “explosives of opportunity”; killing people manning light machine gun emplacements and shooting people through cover.

The basic XP system governs rank, which unlocks armour, clothing, and camo patterns. Overall I feel the new system to be superior to that used previously. It's not that much work to unlock all the weapons in the game, which ameliorates any complaints that newcomers might have as to imbalance caused by superior weapons being available to only those who’ve committed an unreasonable amount of time to the game.

Additionally, the “pinnacle” weapons aren’t as big of a deal. Many of the best players I know swear by the 552 Commando… personally I favour the L85A2 (because I can), or the M468, mostly because the M468 is dead sexy. It is vastly easier to level up in Vegas 2 than in the previous incarnation - the number of points required is lower, the A.C.E.S. bonuses are huge, and you get experience points during the campaign. So, gaining Elite status won’t be as big of a deal...

...not that it ever was. Half the Elites I met were skilless wankers but they sure were proud if the rank they no doubt cheated to get. Yes, 'boosting' is CHEATING^† …after coming across a few rooms full of people cheating I have to look at everyone and their ranks with a large degree of scepticism.

^{†Boosting engaging in a 'conspiracy' with all (or most) of the players in the room, for the purpose of gaining XP as fast as possible, with total disregard for the spirit of the game. One team agrees to lose, quickly... they may take turns, the losing team can even gain a nice chunk of XP... If you didn't know.}