I played the original Rainbow 6 Vegas to death, and it’s probably the game I have spent most time online with (which is really saying something) so when I first heard of the sequel I was really looking forward to it. But when I heard about the release date, I became very unsure about it because, in my opinion, one year isn’t enough time to spend on a game nowadays. But, like a sucker, I joined in bailster’s “Get it here for Β£30″ campaign (sorry for making you sound like a prostitute, bailey),and now I feel that I’ve played enough of the game to review it.
Vegas 2 was released as “part prequel, part sequel”, dealing with issues before and after the original game. It would be more accurate if it was released as “all the little bits that we didn’t think were good enough to put in the original game”, because that’s essentially what it is. It feels like Ubisoft ran out of pieces for their ‘Vegas’ jigsaw puzzle, so borrowed some pieces from the ‘Tom Clancy clichΓ© combat scenario’ puzzle, and then hit the jigsaw with a hammer until it looked like it fitted. It feels so small-scale as well; in the original you finished the game by disarming a missile on the Nevada dam, whereas Vegas 2 ends with a shootout in a tennis court.
The gameplay hasn’t really changed from the original: which isn’t a bad thing. Seasoned players will feel right at home, while new players will love the series’ unique gameplay. It’s still incredibly tactical team gameplay and brilliantly simple to control, but with new weapons and the ability to sprint (a la Call of Duty 4), Vegas 2 is definitely an improvement over it’s predecessor; even though you still can’t melee. What really impressed me about Vegas 2 was the excellent rank-up system, which is far and away the best system in any shooter I’ve played. There are 3 kinds of ways to level up; Marksman (for wimps who use sniper rifles), CQB (Close Quaters Battle, for the bastards who like to throw in flashbangs and shoot people while they’re defenceless) and Assault (for thickies who throw grenades like confetti), and each way to level up is well worked in the game, for example a headshot will earn you Marksman points, while killing someone from behind will give you some CQB points. Your character upgrades offline as well as on, so players who have been working through campaign or terrorist hunts on their own won’t find themselves with an equipment disadvantage when they come to play online, which I was personally thankful for.
The multiplayer, however, doesn’t feel as good as it used too. I don’t mean that it’s worse than it was before (although arguably some of it is, but I’ll get to that in a minute), but since the original Vegas came out we’ve had Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 come out. Vegas 2, while it does improve on the original, doesn’t improve enough to reach the high standards set by these two great games. Ubisoft have really shot themselves in the foot with the co-op gameplay too, by reducing the amount of players from 4 to 2. The reason Ubisoft have given for this is that it kept the co-op more like the single player storyline: which, on the stupidity scale, is up there with rummaging through all the cupboards in the Ikea displays to see if one of them hides Narnia. You can only get away with changing the gameplay to suit a storyline if the storyline is any good, and the Vegas 2 storyline is not. The only improvement comes with terrorist hunt, because you can now carry two weapons instead of one, but one improvement doesn’t make up for all the other disappointments that have come with the multiplayer.
Visually you’ll see a slight improvement on the original, for the most part. The characters look a little better than they did before, in terms of facial animation and expression and, in general, the little details are much improved on the first game. This is offset by the environments being very, very boring; lacking the originality and the vibrant colour that the casinos and theatres the original had. There is also the popping textures, that comes with any 360 game using the Unreal engine, which are constant during the game. It’s all very generic and under whelming, and feels incredibly rushed.
The game has two different sides to it’s sound. On the positive side, the soundtrack is excellent, and they’ve definitely nailed the musical score for the game. As well as the great orchestral score, the sound effects are superb; guns, explosives, and the ricochet of bullets all sound superb, and it really puts you in the moment. The voice acting is mostly solid throughout; although nothing in the world can stop your British team-mate sounding ridiculous. So overall the sound is very good; or at least it would be without the issues it has. The sound will bug out constantly; it can be something as minor as “why can’t I hear my gun reloading?” or as big as “what did that character say that might be important to the storyline?”.
On top of the mentioned niggling issues the game has, it also suffers from some performance issues. I’ve already mentioned the popping textures, but I’m going to mention them again because I can’t stress enough how annoying they are in any game. The single player missions suffer from some terrible frame rate issues, and these can last for as long as 20 seconds (if you manage to survive them), and these aren’t random occurances, they’ll happen at set times, and you can’t always find a reason why; it happened to me in a bathroom, nowhere near any large rooms or open spaces, and there were no enemies around, and there was absolutely no reason for it. Another issue is the cover system; for example, if you try to look round a corner, you will instead keep running as if you’re still on cover. This happened occasionally in 6 Vegas, but it happens even more in Vegas 2, and like just about everything else in the game feels rushed.
Story: 6/10 - definitely not worth sacrificing 4 player co-op for
Multiplayer: 7/10 - 2 player co-op is a step backwards, but the 4 player terrorist hunt saves it. Just.
Gameplay: 9/10 - it’s still very good gameplay, complimented by a superb levelling system. Easily the best part of the game.
Graphics: 6/10 - could have done so much more with it, but as it stands it feels empty and shallow. Still, at least the hats are shiny.
Sound: 7/10 - very good sound spoiled by the amount of glitches.
Design: 6/10 - missions in campaign are repetitive, and the maps for versus matches feel unbalanced. Why does Vegas 2 insists on having one spawn point still?
Overall: 6.8/10 - they really rushed this, and it shows. I’m not surprised; Rainbow 6 has been a factory game for years, and I predicted that this game would be rushed. But I’m still disappointed. The game screams out “Why didn’t you beta test me?” almost every time you turn a corner. I feel the series will become stagnant now, because now they have the cover system and rank up system, I can’t see where it’s going to go.
Images: http://uk.ign.com/