'Rainbow Six enters a NEXT-GEN Vegas ?'
 Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Category: Action / Tactics
Official Site
Platform: X-Box 360
Might look like: /
Date posted: 11 January 2007
Written By: Ian
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A Rogue Game?
Many gamers fondly remember Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six 3 as being excellent games, with thrilling tactical multiplayer.
They also remember Lockdown as something which should have never seen the light of day.
But which category does the first NEXT-GEN "Rainbow Six: Vegas" game fit in to?
Well, it has the best graphics of any game in the series, thanks to the use of the Unreal 3 engine, and two impressive demos were released onto the Xbox Marketplace so the signs were extremely promising, but does the gameplay live up to the expectations of the series, or should this title be locked away?
Do Graphics make a game?
No. If "Gears of War" had played bad, would it have done so well? No. But does Vegas rely on pretty visuals over gameplay?
Unfortunately, we have to answer yes.
'Vegas' looks awesome, it is probably, after Viva Piņata and Gears, the system's best looking game.
The textures look fantastic, and your team-mates are incredibly detailed, looking perhaps even better than your team in Gears. The animations are all top-notch, and the environments are a real step-up from Ghost Recon.
The sound is also fantastic, especially if you have a 5.1 system linked up to your 360, with bullets zipping everywhere and bassy explosions rumbling your floors.
  
Single Player Sorrows
The single player can be good at times, with echoes of "Rainbow Six 3" and "Black Arrow", but you spend a lot of it either wanting to throw your controller away or cursing the dev team for producing the game this way.
The story is fairly outrageous, and we won't spoil it for you, but nevertheless, the separate incidents of previous Rainbow games actually worked better and let you see different areas of the world at the same time.
The (literally) army of terrorists you face is very unrealistic. How this number were assembled without anyone noticing is beyond belief.
There are no stats as such, but we believe our personal killcount was about 800 over the course of the campaign, and 2000-3000 total when you include team-mates, whose AI is normally reasonable and will clear out a lot of rooms by themselves.
The style of the single player is frighteningly repetitive.
Each checkpoint lasts for about 5-10 minutes, and will ALWAYS be a few quiet rooms, then a massive firefight where you take out at least 20-30 terrorists. Sometimes it might be the firefight first, but this pattern never changes, and thus the game gets dull fast, despite the new environments.
This totally outrageous system means you kill about ten times more enemies than in previous versions, and as a result, there is now a 'Call-of-Duty style health system' which lets your health recover fully if you stay in cover for a few seconds. This removes the tactical planning from the game, which frankly rips half the heart out of it.
The difficulty levels are poorly balanced. Normal is pretty easy and you can blast through the campaign in only about 4 hours this way because you can run-and-gun your way through it, firing from the hip.
Realistic is insanely hard, harder than COD3 on veteran and Gears on insane.
Each checkpoint becomes a chore after you die for the hundredth time when some terrorist spawns behind you, and makes the game really frustrating.
Multiplayer Misery
Rainbow Six: Vegas can be fun in multiplayer, but more often than not, it won't be. There are, even after a patch, numerous issues.
Co-op games are nearly unplayable. Often you find yourselves falling through the level into oblivion, whilst the game also regularly locks up. Competitive play is nearly as bad. Hosts have a tendency to kick anyone who falls outside a certain rank.
  
There are also a lot of boosters out their, who just kick you if you enter their room by chance. This would not be too annoying, but when connecting, the game loads the map. If you get kicked, the game has to unload. This process takes about a minute to do both, so it can easily be five minutes before you get to play.
When you do play, many modes can be fun, but the number of disconnections the game suffers means most games get grossly unfair with unbalanced teams of 2v8 not being uncommon.
Even if you get past this plethora of issues, you will probably find that the game isn't that tactical. You might not mind this, but if you bought the game thinking it would be a new 'Black Arrow', then you will be very disappointed.
Most people run and gun; as a result you can have a far more satisfying experience with a host of other games.
Conclusion
Rainbow Six: Vegas is not as bad as 'Lockdown', but it is hardly a return to form. The single player is pretty terrible, following the same generic pattern throughout... a quiet few rooms, massive shootout, checkpoint, ad nauseum. It is frustrating and unrealistic in many aspects.
The multiplayer is no better.
Even after the patch, it is plagued by glitches, boosters and hosts who kick you unrepentantly. What is worse is the fact that the experience is incredibly un-tactical.
"Gears of War", a way more arcadey game, provides a far more tactical experience.
Ghost Recon, for all its flaws, remains a far better bet for anyone wanting a tactical shooter.
Here at PlayDevil we are not sure we're reviewing the same game that others did, but Vegas for us has been a frustrating experience, even after the patch that has been released.
It looks and sounds great, and offers moments of real promise, but the annoyances and glitches stop it scoring higher.
-Ian
Ratings
Manual:
80 % |
Graphics:
90% |
Music & Sfx:
85% |
GamePlay:
59% |
|
This game scores
on our 5-point Rating System
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