Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
Developer(s)	Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s)	Ubisoft
Series	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
Engine	Unreal Engine 3
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release	PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 NA: March 18, 2008 EU: March 20, 2008 Microsoft Windows: April 15, 2008
Genre(s)	Tactical shooter First person shooter
Mode(s)	Single player, multiplayer

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is a first person shooter video game and the sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas. It was announced by Ubisoft on November 20, 2007. The game was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 18, 2008 in North America and March 20 in Europe, except in Germany, where the game has been delayed.. The Microsoft Windows version, however, has been delayed until April 15th, 2008.

A world-exclusive first-look of the game appeared in the January edition of the Official Xbox Magazine. One of the biggest announcements is that Logan Keller, the lead character from the previous game, has been removed in favor of having the player create his own character to play through the campaign. The player instead assumes the role of "Bishop", a member of the Rainbow squad with a great deal more experience and who is more deeply involved in the story. The game, billed as "part sequel, part prequel", has events that run both before and concurrently to the story of Logan Keller and continue after where the first game concluded.

The story for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 takes place before, during and after the events of the first game. In addition to the ability to customize a character in multiplayer, the player can now customize Bishop, Vegas 2's new protagonist. In single-player, the developers claim to have vastly improved teammate AI, so that now teammates cover each other as they advance. There are also several new commands, a grenade at a specific point.

Gameplay

New features include an enhanced version of the "Persistent Elite Creation" system. Players can now customize their character. Where in the first game, the player could only customize the multiplayer character, in this game there is only 1 character for single player and multiplayer game modes. This further shows itself in the fact that experience points are now achieved through all the game modes, online as well as offline, whereas in the first game, XP was only obtained by playing the online multiplayer game modes. There is a new sprint button that allows players the weave in and out of cover at a quicker pace, the pace and stamina is be contingent upon the players armor level.

It has also been revealed that the campaign will now focus on the seedier side of Las Vegas, with more outdoor combat and daytime missions. Also, certain missions will now see a real-time day/night cycle. Certain kinds of cover can now be penetrated by weapons-fire, and parts of the environment are now destructible. The player can now sprint for a short distance. Rather than two difficulty modes, the game now has three.

ACES

An additional system implemented in the game is the "Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization" or ACES, where players will be rewarded with different weapons based on tactics used in the game. The ACES system is divided into three parts: Marksmanship, Assault, and Close-Quarter Battle. Certain kills the player makes are organized into one of these three categories and scored based upon how the kill was performed (a headshot would count towards Marksmanship, shooting through a wall would count towards Assault, and killing an enemy while blinded by a flashbang would count towards CQB). By getting a high enough score in a category, the player unlocks a specific item for that category; for example, the Assault category might reward the player with a new type of grenade, while the Marksmanship category might reward the player with a new type of sniper rifle. Even though the ACES system goes across modes there are certain rewards that can only be unlocked in single or multiplayer (reference: Media Broadcast).

Synposis

Setting

The setting for the game initially begins in Pic des Pyreenes, France, though the story eventually moves five years forward to Las Vegas on July 2nd, 2010, merely two days before Logan Keller's arrival to Las Vegas in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Terrorists have seized control of Las Vegas to instill widespread panic in both the public as well as law enforcement agencies, such as the NSA, NATO, Rainbow, as well as local SWAT. As the plot unfolds, however, the setting moves away from Las Vegas to other places, such as a small town of Nevada, as well as the fictional Nevada Dam, closely resembling the Hoover Dam.

Characters

• Bishop

Bishop is the main protagonist that the player controls throughout the events of Rainbow Six: Vegas 2. His/her appearance and gender vary, depending on the intended look by the player. He/she is a high-ranking veteran of the Rainbow organization, and is an instructor at the organization's training academy when the game first begins.

• Knight

If co-op mode is enabled, Knight accompanies Bishop on missions, whose appearance also varies depending on how the player desires him/her to look.

• Gabriel Nowak

The game's main antagonist, a traitorous former Rainbow operative revealed as a mole in Rainbow Six: Vegas. Though cunning and ambitious, Nowak's gung-ho recklessness earns him the disrespect of fellow teammates, ultimately leading to Bishop passing him up for promotion in favor of Logan, and therefore leads to Nowak betraying the Rainbow organization with the assistance of big-time terrorist ringleaders.

• Logan Keller

The main protagonist in Rainbow Six: Vegas, Keller is seen as one of Bishop's recruits in the opening level of the game. Keller demonstrates a formidable sense of close-quarters combat (CQB), with realistic analyses of certain hostage situations and how to eliminate the opposition in an effective and concise manner. His talents ultimately lead to Bishop promoting him as a Rainbow Six team leader.

• Jung Park

The electronics expert of Rainbow Six: Vegas, Park returns as one of the men Bishop leads. Though the trailer for Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 depicted Park as a sniper, Park is seen in-game using only assault rifles and sub-machine guns.

• Michael Walters

The demolitions expert of Rainbow Six: Vegas, Walters returns as the demolitions expert. He is also one of the men Bishop leads in combat. He generally uses heavy-calibre weapons although when asked to do so, will use silenced sub-machine guns when the situation arises.

• Ding Chavez

Chavez, formerly Rainbow's main team leader, and current "Six" (the head of the organization) as of Rainbow Six: Lockdown. In the first level, he is seen in-person, whereas throughout the rest of the game the player can only see him on the cross-com video.

• "Monroe"

Monroe (first name not given) is the negotiator in the first level of the game. He is killed when Gabriel Nowak, one of the men under Bishop's leadership, breaks formation and opens fire on a terrorist, causing the terrorist to shoot Monroe in panic.

Plot

The game begins five years ago. Bishop is deployed to a science observatory in France for an operation in which EU hostages are at stake. Under his leadership are Logan Keller and Gabriel Nowak; Nowak and Keller have recently joined Rainbow, according to Ding Chavez/Six, who refers to them as recruits.

Monroe, the negotiator, plans to talk to the terrorists in-person, effectively distracting their attention while Rainbow’s Alpha and Bravo teams on the operation get into place. Bishop, who is in control of Bravo, takes Keller and Nowak to their assigned position and waits for Alpha to get in place. However, before Alpha arrives, Nowak fires prematurely. Bishop is then forced to fire onto the terrorists, but Monroe is killed by collateral gunfire from the terrorists who panicked when Nowak first opened fire.

Six then radios in, giving Bishop Alpha’s sit-rep, but Bishop responds by saying that the situation “is over, but Monroe is killed. We need to talk” Nowak attempts to apologize for what he has done, but Logan Keller retorts back, “Get your shit together, man!” Trust is therefore lost in Nowak, at least for this level.

Six then tells Bishop that there are terrorists scrambling to escape and that Bishop needs to hunt them down. He also informs Bishop that there is a bomb that needs to be defused. When Bishop arrives, Nowak is assigned to defuse the bomb, and per Nowak’s request, Bishop and Keller distance themselves to give Nowak “space” to work with. The bomb is successfully defused, but terrorists open fire on Nowak. Nowak falls, and starts to scream helplessly into the radio, particularly “I knew this would happen! Don’t leave me here! I knew this would happen, damn it!” Bishop assures him that they are not leaving him behind. Rainbow operatives from Alpha team then arrive and quell the situation, getting Nowak to his feet, just as the level ends.

The game then moves five years forward to July 2nd, at 6:27 P.M. local time, in Las Vegas. Bishop is now in a helicopter with Jung Park, electronics specialist, and Michael Walters, demolitions expert. Six contacts Bishop via secure satellite video, effectively giving Bishop a sit-rep of what operation is to come: Miguel and Alvarez Cabueros, two human traffickers (“people smugglers”) have suddenly come in interest of taking up small arms trafficking and even more recently, chemical weapons. Though Rainbow and the National Security Agency (NSA) seem certain that the Cabueros brothers are running the operation for the opposition, they both want Bishop’s (new) team to investigate the matter firsthand. Six informs Bishop that Logan Keller is running a separate operation down in Mexico, implying that Keller’s operation is an event that occurs during the first game, Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Bishop, Park, and Walters finally set foot on ground and make their way into the warehouse that the NSA believes the Cabueros brothers are running their operation from. Following a failed attempt to save Neville, an undercover NSA agent who's cover is blown, Bishop and his team fight through a plethora of terrorists into another warehouse, where they find Hispanic hostages held at gunpoint by more terrorists.

After a quick rescue, Bishop is ordered by a Rainbow coordinator (Shannon) to board a Blackhawk MH-60K helicopter, which goes to a recreational facility where the Culpuero's chemical weapons have showed up at. Upon reaching the facility and securing the area, Walters searches the stash where the chemical bombs are presumed to be located. Not finding them, Bishop decides as team leader that the team has the responsibility to save the people of a Las Vegas sports stadium from a bioterrorist attack.

Bishop, however, gets to the presumed bomb site, a sports stadium, too late. Walters blames himself for not saving the people trapped in the stadium, but Bishop accepts full responsibility, for "[he] made the call. We have a mission to save people."

Shannon Judd, the on-site intelligence officer (similar to Joanna Torres' role in Rainbow Six: Vegas) then notifies Bishop that he and his team need to catch the older Cabueros brother, who's location is identified from a confession from the younger Cabueros brother, supposedly captured by a separate Rainbow team. In a chase for the older Cabueros brother, Bishop eliminates all of the terrorists protecting him, leaving the Cabueros brother vulnerable to on-the-spot interrogation, specifically as to what happened to the second bioterrorist bomb. The brother at first denies any knowledge of the bomb, but after Michael aims his gun at the brother, Cabuero confesses the location (albeit vague description), but immediately draws a Desert Eagle to shoot Bishop, who is forced to shoot back.

An important hostage is then saved by Walters at the fictional Las Vegas International Convention Center. Here, Bishop learns from Shannon that the other bomb is located on a train headed towards a high-density populated area of Las Vegas. Bishop heads over to the train, though Walters is unable to defuse the bomb. Shannon cleverly suggests to Walters that the bomb can be detonated, just not in a civilian area, ultimately fulfilling both NSA Deputy Director Lawrence's order to "get rid of the bomb" as well as Six (Ding Chavez)'s order, "Rainbow's ultimate objective is to save lives."

Bishop then heads over to an upscale Las Vegas penthouse, where the last bomb is located, though two disastrous things happen: First, just before landing, a terrorist sniper shoots Shannon Judd, wounding her. Second, after landing, Bishop doesn't reach the bomb in time, leaving Echo team to die from a close-contact explosion by the bomb.

In an ensuing casino battle with more terrorists, Bishop rescues many civilian hostages, leading to a revelation that there is yet another bomb held in a Chinese theater, protected by highly armed terrorists. Walters successfully defuses the bomb.

Co-op

In co-op, players are now be able to experience the full single-player campaign -- the previous game skipped several cut-scenes and all of the in-game media (such as the picture-in-picture talking head briefings given out during each mission and Logan's responses to the NPCs ). As a result, the co-op experience has been reduced to a maximum of two players, down from four in the first Rainbow Six Vegas. The second player will take the role of Bishop's teammate, Knight and will be able to join in and out of games whenever they want. Unlike the co-op mode in the original Rainbow Six: Vegas, the AI teammates will remain in the game during co-op and can be given orders and go-codes by the primary player.

Co-op mode, however, carries over some problems from co-op mode in its predecessor, Rainbow Six: Vegas. Music is removed entirely, and certain cutscenes, though present now (as opposed to being absent in the predecessor) run at the wrong time, often creating a misdialogue between the player and whoever s/he (Bishop) is communicating to. Certain elements of HDRI imaging, a feature unique to many next-generation games (such as Crysis) are also disabled, including dynamic shadows. Ubisoft has not addressed this issue, though some have pointed this out on the official Ubisoft forums.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer in Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas has been expanded to include more than 10 new close-quarters maps, two new adversarial modes, a newer and different rewards system, and according to Ubisoft, improved online matchmaking. The XP system is similar to the old Vegas, for every kill achieved the player gains XP. However, unlike its predecessor, the XP system is tied in with the campaign mode as well. Players also receive bonuses from the A.C.E.S combat system based on achieving goals and the methods used to kill opponents, much like the single-player and co-op modes.

Reception

Reception

Aggregate score

Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	85% (based on 8 reviews)

Review scores

Publication	Score
Eurogamer	7/10
Game Informer	9.25/10
GameSpot	8.5/10
GameSpy	4.5/5
IGN	8.4/10
TeamXbox	8.4/10

The game received generally positive reviews from critics. The Xbox 360 version had an average score of of 84% based on 18 reviews on the review aggregator Game Rankings,, and on Metacritic had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 24 reviews. The PS3 version had an average score of 83% based on 11 reviews on Game Rankings, and an average score of 83 out of 100 based on 13 reviews on Metacritic.

In the March issue of Game Informer Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was given a review of 9.25.

IGN gave the Xbox 360 version an 8.4 and the PS3 version an 8.2, where the main criticism was that the game was too similar to the first, and citing slight framerate issues on the PS3 version.

External links

• Official Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Website