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Since its introduction in 1998, the Rainbow Six series has gone through its fair share of changes and different locales. Two years ago however, Ubisoft Montreal brought us to the streets, and casinos, of Sin City itself: Las Vegas. There, we were introduced to an insidious story of deceit, which was matched only by compelling gameplay. Left with a cliffhanger in the first game, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 not only finishes the story, but sticks to the successful precedent to deliver another satisfying trip to the Strip.
If you had a chance to play through Rainbow Six Vegas, you learned the story of a Mexican terrorist group threatening one of America’s most paradoxically adored and controversial cities. Sent in to quell the bio-threat was Rainbow, but the story didn’t end when the credits rolled.
Vegas 2 doesn’t start off right where the first ended, but eventually gets to that point by going through different stages of the terrorist attack. First, the game begins with a prologue, setting up the whole situation in Vegas, then plays simultaneously during the events in Mexico, and finally wraps up with a finale to whole incident. Incidently, the story is no more compelling than the first, with your classic case of under-appreciated teammate turned traitor bent on making a point. Although the story works well on its own and supplies an intriguing context for still-exceptional gameplay, you’ll get more from the story if you played the first Vegas title.
With that said, what Vegas 2 does, is set up the story for the first game and follows Bishop, a Rainbow veteran, and his team through a separate Vegas mission. The story picks up five years after a hostage situation gone wrong—and while Logan’s unit is in Mexico—with Bishop called in to track down chemical weapons threatening the citizenry of Sin City.
Unfortunately, while the game is made up of new characters, locations and missions, it feels more like an expansion rather than a whole new experience. However, there are really two sides to the dilemma.
The old saying rings true here, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The first Vegas title was a huge success that balanced strategic play and action well, with an accomplished multiplayer in addition. Vegas 2 takes the same principle gameplay and tacks on a few tweaks that really round out the whole feeling.
Right from the start, customizability presents itself as the key feature to the game. Before your first mission, you’re instructed to create you own character which can be modified throughout the game by unlocking additional content through the game’s new universal, progressive experience system. Unlike the last game which separated story experience from multiplayer, this time around, experience points are gained no matter what mode you’re in.
To compliment experience gained, a new Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization (A.C.E.S) system has been employed which awards players with both additional experience points and new equipment. By completing tasks associated with three different types of A.C.E.S (Marksmanship, Close-Quarters Battle and Assault) new weapons, armor and camouflage can be equipped both in-game and in-lobby, just as the first game. Although it’s nothing revolutionary, it’s a nice tweak to complement the universal leveling mechanic.
However, before any upgrades or other changes can be made through the A.C.E.S system, you have the option to plaster you own mug on your character by using the Playstation Eye. Although it takes a bit of time to render the image—not to mention it can be a bit frustrating to take the picture just right—the picture mapped onto your character loads a fairly well representation of your face that can be taken into any game mode; you do however, lose the ability to equip certain items for your noggin’.
This type of customizability isn’t something that you’ll find in other games and is a simple, subtle addition which makes for a rather eerily-immersive experience; watching yourself die can be a bit unnerving, while functioning as a total badass is sublime.
Other new additions can be found in the tweaked multiplayer experience. Unlike the first game’s four-player story mode, Vegas 2 allows only two to play simultaneously. This change only gives the host the sole ability to order commands to two additional A.I.s. Understandably, giving both players control of teammates could have ended in abuse, but the setup can cause headaches if and when the first player dies, leaving the second without any recourse to instruct teammates on where to go and what to do; it’s a minor change to a setup which didn’t really need one to begin with.
There are also a few new additions to adversarial play which expand on the normal-but-satisfying online gameplay. Again, just as with the game overall, adversarial play in Vegas 2 feels like the same experience as the first game’s, but expanded. New maps keeps things different, and transferred XP allows for more access to upgrades; just don’t expect any mind-blowing changes, as the formula stays the same.
Although there’s not much difference from the first game, Vegas 2 still has its fair share of bugs and deficiencies which should have been hammered from the first go. Random gunfire and dialogue glitches pop up every once in awhile which can mask story dialogue, and becomes irritating as your teammate repeats the same sentence over and over again. To go along with repeating gunfire effects, are mounted guns which mysteriously continue to fire even after their user has been dispatched. Other hiccups include your normal bugs which should have been caught and fixed like framerate issues and infinitely respawning enemies.
Also, for all of its tactical prowess, Vegas 2 leaves a bit to be desired in the A.I. department. While your teammates function well when given orders, they sometimes feel too good as they clear and entire room as you sit back and watch from the Snake Cam. However, things can pan out just the opposite as they sit in the middle of gunfight and get mowed down by the ensuing barrage of bullets; also, the enemy A.I. is just as unpredictable.
As was mentioned earlier, there are two sides to the Vegas 2 experience. While on the one hand much of the content seems recycled from the first game, just with different missions and few new gameplay tweaks, on the other, such changes make for a game still worthy to be called a sequel because it capitalizes on the success of its predecessor and completes the story with improved mechanics. Although the game doesn’t look or sound much better or different than the first, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a stellar follow-up which offers just enough to keep fans happy, and more than enough to attract a new following.
Gameplay: 8.5
Graphics: 8.0
Audio: 8.0
Lasting Appeal: 9.0
Overall: 8.5
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