Smowy
30-03-2008, 12:16 PM
This marks the tenth anniversary of Tom Clancy, or in other words 10 years since he started branding them.. The first of his games was Tom Clancy's Politika. History Aside, the latest installment of rainbow six is out, but does it live up to the standards of it's many others?
You start the game with a character customisation. You choose everything, clothing, hair, skin tone, and much more. If you have a LIVE vision camera (only for the xbox,) it can take a picture of you and will change the charecter so that he resembles you. You unlock different items of clothing later on, like balaclavas, masks, hats and camouflage.
The story comes in around halfway from Rainbow Six Vegas 1. However, it's still a bunch of evil, swearing terrorists running amok and it's you and your squads turn to clear it up. The first mission is on a snowy mountain, 5 years before the begining of the events in Rainbow Six vegas 1, and is really just to get used to the style. However, there is no tutorial, nothing to tell you what to press so it pretty much assumes you've played the first one. Each mission is split up into little parts, which count towards achievements but are really just to either signify parts of missions or break up the action slightly. The first mission is about saving some guys, and is really just to set the theme for later events. However there is a long real time cutscene where you listen to someone talk for a few minutes, and the action starts again. The cutscene could have been livened up a bit, but thankfully there aren't many of them.
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-03/37189534.jpg
The second level really got you working with your squad, which on Xbox is bound to the dpad. Pressing forward commands your squad to a place, the A button makes them interact with objects. This means sometimes when trying to rappell you will make your teammates do it instead, which can be frustrating. A cool thing you can do is get them to go to a door, go to another entrance like a fast rope or rappel and tell them to break in from one side while you break in from either a window, or other entrance like a fast rope or rappell. It's great when you pull these off, you can make them throw a flash bang or a frag in for good measure as well. Your squad can die, in which either you or a teammate must heal them in time. Dying will result in you or your teammates results in going back to one of the few checkpoints. The teammates seem to talk a lot, however, telling you every detail of terrorists they've spotted, which is fine if you rely on your sqaud alot, more in later levels however.
The story hasn't changed much, killing terrorists, saving hostages and deactivating bombs. The story really starts when you break into a large hotel, and have to find and deactivate and some bombs. It's a very, very long mission, but still fun. It is rather upsetting for reasons I won't go into, but it definitely motivates you.
http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/vegas/vegas_2ndlieu_2.jpg
The terrorists are also a major part of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, so getting them right was important for Ubisoft. They've undergone some changes, but don't be fooled, they're still the same, stupid, badmouthing terrorists who shout every detail of their attack plan willingly. Their AI has been upgraded, but in terrorist hunts they still all follow each other, to the point there will be piles of bodies on the ground. One example is in Kill House, they all go down one rappell at a time giving you a ton of marksman points. After a few playthroughs of the maps, you will find the strategy or places to hide at certain times, which will result in terrorists coming one by one to be shot. However, they have lightning fast reactions. They'll shoot at you as soon as they see you, so if you're walking round a corner uncovered you will end up dead. This at least balances it out and draws the line from them being targets to worthy adversaries. They will still pin you down with a Spas 12 and keep firing until you get bored and throw a frag grenade, they still swear at you and they still seem to have unlimited ammo.
Probably the most anticipated part of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was all the new features. It includes a wide range of things such as: more character customisation, more guns and A.C.E.S. The new guns are pretty decent, a few being stupidly powerful (such as the 500 Tactical shotgun, or the Arctic Warfare sniper) but to get them you must go through countless levels of A.C.E.S, making it well worth the effort. Most guns have been redone to make them look, fire and sound better, with the new addition of firing through walls. The amount of cover you can shoot through is limited to obvious things like wood and glass, it would have been nice to have a few walls that crumbled or other materials. Possibly the biggest addition is A.C.E.S, the ranking system. Don't be fooled, not every little thing contributes, only certain little things. Killing someone at medium range does basically nothing to improve your skills. There are 3 classes, Assault, Close Quarter Combat and Marksman. They're all different, marksman focusing on long range and kills on mobile targets, QCB on short range surprise attacks and assault on explosives. I found Assault really hard to get up however, because of the lack of bad cover and difficulty of grenades. Going up levels either unlocks EXP or new guns relevant to the class. It's a nice addition, and gives you a reason to play as certain people you'd normally avoid.
To sum up, it's good. It's pretty much Rainbow Six Vegas 1, and more. It's not revolutionary, the campaign is short like every other game these days. If you loved the first, buy it. If you love blazing, fast paced and witty action maybe consider it. If you have a short attention span then don't bother, combat is slow online and off.
You start the game with a character customisation. You choose everything, clothing, hair, skin tone, and much more. If you have a LIVE vision camera (only for the xbox,) it can take a picture of you and will change the charecter so that he resembles you. You unlock different items of clothing later on, like balaclavas, masks, hats and camouflage.
The story comes in around halfway from Rainbow Six Vegas 1. However, it's still a bunch of evil, swearing terrorists running amok and it's you and your squads turn to clear it up. The first mission is on a snowy mountain, 5 years before the begining of the events in Rainbow Six vegas 1, and is really just to get used to the style. However, there is no tutorial, nothing to tell you what to press so it pretty much assumes you've played the first one. Each mission is split up into little parts, which count towards achievements but are really just to either signify parts of missions or break up the action slightly. The first mission is about saving some guys, and is really just to set the theme for later events. However there is a long real time cutscene where you listen to someone talk for a few minutes, and the action starts again. The cutscene could have been livened up a bit, but thankfully there aren't many of them.
http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2008-03/37189534.jpg
The second level really got you working with your squad, which on Xbox is bound to the dpad. Pressing forward commands your squad to a place, the A button makes them interact with objects. This means sometimes when trying to rappell you will make your teammates do it instead, which can be frustrating. A cool thing you can do is get them to go to a door, go to another entrance like a fast rope or rappel and tell them to break in from one side while you break in from either a window, or other entrance like a fast rope or rappell. It's great when you pull these off, you can make them throw a flash bang or a frag in for good measure as well. Your squad can die, in which either you or a teammate must heal them in time. Dying will result in you or your teammates results in going back to one of the few checkpoints. The teammates seem to talk a lot, however, telling you every detail of terrorists they've spotted, which is fine if you rely on your sqaud alot, more in later levels however.
The story hasn't changed much, killing terrorists, saving hostages and deactivating bombs. The story really starts when you break into a large hotel, and have to find and deactivate and some bombs. It's a very, very long mission, but still fun. It is rather upsetting for reasons I won't go into, but it definitely motivates you.
http://media.teamxbox.com/dailyposts/vegas/vegas_2ndlieu_2.jpg
The terrorists are also a major part of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, so getting them right was important for Ubisoft. They've undergone some changes, but don't be fooled, they're still the same, stupid, badmouthing terrorists who shout every detail of their attack plan willingly. Their AI has been upgraded, but in terrorist hunts they still all follow each other, to the point there will be piles of bodies on the ground. One example is in Kill House, they all go down one rappell at a time giving you a ton of marksman points. After a few playthroughs of the maps, you will find the strategy or places to hide at certain times, which will result in terrorists coming one by one to be shot. However, they have lightning fast reactions. They'll shoot at you as soon as they see you, so if you're walking round a corner uncovered you will end up dead. This at least balances it out and draws the line from them being targets to worthy adversaries. They will still pin you down with a Spas 12 and keep firing until you get bored and throw a frag grenade, they still swear at you and they still seem to have unlimited ammo.
Probably the most anticipated part of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 was all the new features. It includes a wide range of things such as: more character customisation, more guns and A.C.E.S. The new guns are pretty decent, a few being stupidly powerful (such as the 500 Tactical shotgun, or the Arctic Warfare sniper) but to get them you must go through countless levels of A.C.E.S, making it well worth the effort. Most guns have been redone to make them look, fire and sound better, with the new addition of firing through walls. The amount of cover you can shoot through is limited to obvious things like wood and glass, it would have been nice to have a few walls that crumbled or other materials. Possibly the biggest addition is A.C.E.S, the ranking system. Don't be fooled, not every little thing contributes, only certain little things. Killing someone at medium range does basically nothing to improve your skills. There are 3 classes, Assault, Close Quarter Combat and Marksman. They're all different, marksman focusing on long range and kills on mobile targets, QCB on short range surprise attacks and assault on explosives. I found Assault really hard to get up however, because of the lack of bad cover and difficulty of grenades. Going up levels either unlocks EXP or new guns relevant to the class. It's a nice addition, and gives you a reason to play as certain people you'd normally avoid.
To sum up, it's good. It's pretty much Rainbow Six Vegas 1, and more. It's not revolutionary, the campaign is short like every other game these days. If you loved the first, buy it. If you love blazing, fast paced and witty action maybe consider it. If you have a short attention span then don't bother, combat is slow online and off.