Reviews// Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (Xbox 360)

A minor gripe I have is in the multi-player front end…when you fail to join or quit a match it automatically kicks you back into searching for matches and fails to retain any filters you’re using. This is annoying and consumes time that you might want to put to other purposes, like searching for a match you actually want to play, changing your equipment, or a different game mode.

One good thing I noticed is the game no longer rewards you for dragging the match out. Although there was certainly some fun and a challenge to be had in waiting until the last second to reach the extraction point with the package, removing the incentive for wasting time is a good thing. Some players of the older game are a little slow to pick up on this, though.

Terrorist Hunt is offered in both solo and cooperative modes, and enables you to clear the multi-player maps of nasty mercenary-types. Unfortunately this is another place in which I found room for improvement. Once again enemies spawn within visual range, sometimes in ridiculous positions.

In one anecdotal instance, a terrorist with a Spas 12 materialized inside a tight defensive perimeter and killed off three out of four of us from behind with his first three blasts.

In another instance, one popped into existence about five metres away from me (naturally also armed with a Spas) while climbing though a window into a room I’d visually cleared. Also, there seem to be specific numbers of enemies who appear every time, then you have to “trigger” a new wave. Something more flexible, varied, and transparent is called for.

Solo hunting at the highest difficulty is VERY difficult, the last 10 or so generally rush you and are quite capable of quietly flanking you, or running away to ambush you when they’re among the last few alive.

Cooperative Story mode is fairly self-explanatory, with the second man taking the role of Knight, Bishop’s protégé. It differs from previous co-op offerings by limiting you to two players and keeping AI squad members. Apparently there are some serious flaws in this mode as well, running from a lack of music or cutscenes playing at the wrong time to dynamic lighting being disabled.

[b]Conclusion
Overall this is a very strong showing from Ubisoft. The strongest criticism I’ve heard elsewhere is that it’s too much like its predecessor - fans of the series and those who enjoyed the original Vegas will no doubt see this as a very good thing. I, for one, am glad that the core gameplay is unchanged. Now, if only we could forget Advanced Warfighter ever happened and pick Ghost Recon up from where GR2 left it...

At least we can be satisfied that unlike its current major competition, CoD4, Rainbow Six never abandons the realism in favour of cartoonish “superpower” perks and whatnot.

This game is nothing earth-shattering, and is certainly not innovative. It is an incremental improvement on a very solid and enjoyable multi-player experience. The single-player campaign is strong, too. It’s a nice, juicy steak with a baked potato with sour cream, chives and bacon bits; sure to satisfy the hungry gamer’s appetite for tactical shootiness. Vegans need not apply.

SPOnG Score: 90%[/b]