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Rainbow Six: Vegas
Rainbow Six Vegas sees you playing the lead character Logan Keller, the leader of a three man counter-terrorism assault team. You are initially called into Mexico in an operation that goes wrong and you will find yourself in Las Vegas to finish off the operation. The storyline in this game is rather thin and weak but the game play is absolutely immense.
The game is split between first person shooting and a third person perspective. The third person perspective is activated once your character goes into cover mode. Walls, slot machines, cars and anything solid can be used for cover by pressing L1, in the third person perspective mode we will see our main character and the surrounding environment which also makes it easier for us to target enemies and quickly nip out of hiding to get a perfect headshot.
You are joined by two team-mates throughout most of the game. You must command these by moving them into position by pointing to where you want them to go and pressing ‘X’. There are various other commands such as ‘Stacking up’ on door entrances just before lobbing a grenade into a room. The artificial intelligence is very impressive for these characters and they seem to negotiate the environment with ease without ever getting stuck and frustrating you.
The game usually has multiple entry points in rooms, car parks and buildings etc. The fun and satisfying part is getting your unit to work as a team to get a successful and speedy takedown. There are various manuvours at certain points. Pressing ‘X’ on a ladder will get you climbing or sliding down them while pressing ‘X’ on a grapple hook will get you to grapple down buildings and smash through windows. A successful team takedown could involve getting your team to stack up at a door while you find another entry point into the room, then commanding your team to burst through the door trying to clear out the enemies while you use stealth tactics and nip round the back to clear out any remaining enemies.
The difficulty setting is reasonable; your character does not have traditional health packs or an energy bar. When you get shot, your vision will begin to blur and start to black out until your eventually dead. A well aimed shot to the head will kill you instantly. Your vision will recover if you move into a safe place which will replenish your health to full.
The game uses checkpoints to save your progress. Team-mates will take damage and when they fall, you will need to heal them before they die or get your other team-mate to heal him for you. Enemy AI is very impressive, they will take cover, grapple from skylights and throw grenades to try and defeat you. If you dare, the ‘Realistic’ setting is a real test of nerves. Bullets will almost kill instantaneously which means you will have to use your tactics more effectively. For example, night vision, infrared goggles and smoke grenades.
The game really comes to life once it is connected to the PlayStation network. Here you can battle it out in multi player battles in a range of modes such as Team survival, Solo Survival, Capture the Flag etc. Alongside this, you can choose to play the single player campaign in co-op mode with up to four friends.
The game features impressive graphics, especially on the main characters. The animation is fluid but the lack of non playable characters is disappointing. There could have been crowds of people on the Las Vegas and Mexico streets to add atmosphere, excitement and realism. The game is left rather bland because of this and everywhere feels like a ghost town.
Rainbow Six is an excellent game and definitely an essential in PlayStation 3’s small library of games. Short term fun on the single player campaign, but infinite amounts of fun online.
Overall 8/10
Review by William Li
