Title: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
Genre: FPS
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: 30th November 2006
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Rainbow Team has been called, once again, to stem a terrorist menace. This time the hostage is an entire city: Las Vegas. Irruptions into casinos, hostages to free and zones to secure are only some ways in which the Unreal Engine 3 shows of what it's able in the hands of capable developers.
Hence, just choose your equipment and follow us in this new mission.
Bienvenu Mesdames et Messieurs
San Joshua del Mosquiera, a little town near Mexico borders, is the place where the game starts, in a very similar way Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter did, and we interpret the role of Logan Keller, leader of one of the Rainbow Six teams, the best counter-terrorist international force of the planet, at his very first real mission. After a short briefing in a helicopter, we'll have our objective: Irena Morales, a "wanted" terrorist who has attacked Bogotá embassy.
After the briefing we will let ourselves down with a rope on the dusty and sunny roads of this little town and we'll, at last, begin the tutorial: the landing zone is full of enemies and our team mates won't be able to go off the helicopter. Thus, we'll have to proceed alone and arrive to the rendezvous point where we'll meet our brothers in arms and we'll learn how to command them also with the help of our "contact officer" who, from the helicopter, will always keep us informed of the main news.
However, just in the middle of our first mission, we'll receive an emergency call: Las Vegas is in the hand of terrorists. As always, the helicopter will take us to the "Sin City" and there we'll meet our party: Jung Park, Korean, computer expert and sniper, and Michael Walter, English, demolition and heavy weapons expert.
Here we are, ready to infiltrate the Calypso Casino, to free dozens of hostages and to find out that there is a link between what's happening in Las Vegas and Mexico. This is only the beginning of a very interesting and wisely constructed plot.
Fait votre jeux
Speaking about the last "Tom Clancy's" Ubisoft product, it is impossible to not praise the work done and the atmosphere created.
Since the very first minutes of the game, Rainbow Six: Vegas excellent game-play - and also thanks to the great visual and sound effects - is able to make us feel deeply into the title. Controls are easy and quick: there are not unused buttons and their association with the relative commands is simply perfect.
Fans of the previous chapters will find that the quality and the variety of the objectives is large with also some interesting "new entries"; on the other hand, newbies of the series will be completely fascinated.
The major novelty is the use of the right trigger: keeping it pushed when near to a set big enough element our character will hide behind it and the visual will change from first person to the third one; after that we'll have to choose if to fire blindly or lean out of the covering to shot at enemies with more precision. Furthermore, no energy bar will show us our health level but, when hurt, our sight will become dimmer and dimmer: only some rest behind a good cover will help us in this cases.
Moreover, it will be important to study every situation and plan wisely your actions: go downstairs and break into through the door? Smash the skylight, let yourselves down and overtake the enemy? What about a mix of the previous methods? Simple! Thanks to the orders we can give to our team mates, it will be possible to easily apply complex strategies dividing the team and attacking from different positions.
Hence, there will be always multiple ways to "save the situation" and everything will also depend on the type of equipment we have chosen at the start of the mission. After having spied on terrorists movements with a miniature camera, we could decide to order our men to attack or to launch a flash-bang grenade to stun all the people present in the room and kill all the enemies before they could be have any time to "re-have".
All the commands are extremely easy to use and the fact you'll have the possibility to shout the orders wearing the Xbox 360 headset it's simply... amusing, also because the game is well capable of recognising orders in all the languages the game has been translated into.
Rien ne va plus
Rainbow Six: Vegas is a complete game. The single and multi-player modalities offer numerous different possibilities.
Choosing the single-player option, besides the excellent campaign, there is also a "hunt the terrorist" mode in which we alone will have to defeat a great number of enemies using on the multi-player maps.
However, the multi-player modes are the real essence of Ubisoft title. The game offers the possibility to play both the campaign and the "hunt the terrorist" in a cooperative way with up to 3 friends. Furthermore there are several others modes to enjoy: Attack and Defence, Sniper, Survival, Team Survival and a couple of other challenges.
Moreover, even if graphically the multi-player game is not as polished as the single-player, the fundamental thing is that it is almost without lag.
What makes Rainbow Six: Vegas multi-player really innovative is the possibility to use the Xbox Live Vision Camera to place our own face on the charter one and, thus, see our digital alter ego live and grow (earning experience, new weapons and accessories will be unlocked) directly into the game.
Les jeux sont fait
From the technical point of view, Rainbow Six: Vegas does not leave space to doubts. Graphically the title, thanks to the Unreal Engine 3, presents beautiful inside and outside sets with excellent material renders. Furthermore, the chromatic palette gives to the title the correct atmosphere: "in Mexico" we will sweat looking at the red on-screen tones, while Las Vegas is simply astonishing with all its lights and casinos.
Lights and particle effects are well realised and donate the game that "touch" which makes it a little masterpiece. Moreover, polygonal models and bullets-cracked glasses are the icing on the cake of this game.
Can we say the title is perfect? Clearly no. For example, there are some re-spawn problems with dead bodies and weapons that disappear after few minutes (seconds?): however, none of those issues are so important to sap the game-play experience.
Eventually, we have to praise the work developers did on the game sound: in particular, background ones are excellent as well as explosions and shots that can differ depending on the surface the bullet hits. The soundtrack and the dubbing are, once again, above the average.
Final Comment
Rainbow Six: Vegas is a game worth the excellent Ubisoft next-generation catalogue and it is one of the best games currently available. Its great game-play, extremely polished graphics, the correct mix of action and tactics and the complete multiplayer modes make the title a "must buy".
The only problem such a great game has to live with is the fact that it has been released the same period Gears of War was.
Evaluation
Presentation: 8.5
Well realised menus that are extremely clear and complete when we come to the multiplayer modes. Great cut-scenes.
Game-play: 9.5
In-game commands are simple and complete as every button has its own "dignity". Strategy, tactics and action make this game the best FPS currently available.
Graphics: 9
Unreal Engine 3. Nothing less.
Sound: 9
The sound is able to let the gamer feel the right atmosphere. The dubbing is excellent.
Longevity: 9.8
The single-player mode needs to be played at least at the "realistic" difficulty. However, "hunt the terrorist" and the multi-player positively contribute to the longevity cause.
Multiplayer Factor: 9
Cooperative campaign, several huge and beautiful maps and Live Vision support are only some of the multiplayer pros. However, even if the game does not particularly suffer from lag issues, there are annoying frame-rate drops when viewing a match in spectator mode.
Overall Evaluation: 9.5
The title is a "must buy" for everyone who's interested in the first person shooter genre.