Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas is the fifth original game in the Rainbow Six series. It was released for Xbox 360 on November 21, 2006, while the Windows version was released on December 12, 2006. The PlayStation Portable version will be released on April 24, 2007 (April 27 in Europe), while the PlayStation 3 version is yet to be released. The storyline introduces a new Rainbow team that has been dispatched to Las Vegas to defeat a terrorist organization that has taken control of the city.
Gameplay
Rainbow Six: Vegas features a new health system where the player regenerates health while not taking fire. However, the regeneration is incredibly slow in comparison to other games, and if the player does not move to cover quickly enough, one or two more bullets will lead to death. The player's vision is also greatly interfered with while damaged. Furthermore, a third person view has been included for moments where players can blind-fire around corners to lay down suppression or covering fire. Other changes include larger enemy presence with much tougher artificial intelligence, a shift in focus where kills will be much harder to obtain, a reincarnated aiming system similar to the aiming system of the old Rainbow Six games and Call of Duty 2 and Resistance: Fall of Man, a context-sensitive D-pad based command system for the player's squad and sections of gameplay where the player will scale buildings and cause environmental damage. This command system was borrowed from another Ubisoft game, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. The player can also give voice commands using the Xbox 360 headset.
The developers have also opted to not include any cutscenes, instead telling the story through video feeds played through the heads-up display, similar to Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Most important was the developers' decision to remove the mission planning feature. Also, Vegas is the first Rainbow Six game where weapons can be obtained from dead enemies.
Rainbow Six: Vegas features real world weapons (over 40 in all) including numerous assault rifles, submachine guns, pistols and grenades as well as other tactical explosives and devices.
Multiplayer
The multiplayer modes have gained a lot of praise for the same tactical action as the single player mode whilst adding some improvements. These include customizable characters (Xbox Live Vision Camera owners can "digimask" their face onto their character), the ability to choose equipment and add items such as laser-sights to weapons and to choose the armour's camouflage scheme. As the player progresses through online play, his/her character gains experience points after every match, and rises in rank. There are sixteen total ranks. When players rise in rank, they will unlock new equipment and weapons, intended to offer more options for customization without putting novice players at a disadvantage. There are currently eight multiplayer game modes; Survival, Team Survival, Sharpshooter, Team Sharpshooter, Retrieval, co-op Terrorist Hunt, as well as two new modes, Attack & Defend and Co-op Campaign. Multiplayer mode supports up to fourteen players, when "Dedicated Server" is selected during the match creation process, the host can sacrifice his ability to play and dedicate his connection fully to the other players to improve overall connection performance and reduce lag issues. With the use of the Dedicated Server option, up to sixteen players can compete in one match, excluding the hosts presence. Hosting a match on a Dedicated Server with all sixteen players also unlocks an achievement called "Master of Ceremonies" for the game. Each mode can also be customized, by changing options such as the amount of respawns each player gets and restricting certain equipment and weapons.
Plot
Template:Spoiler The player begins the game as newly appointed team leader Logan Keller, with two members, Gabriel Nowak and Kan Akahashi, in a border town in Mexico. Logan fast-ropes down alone and regroups with the team later. They eventually make their way to a mine where they try to capture terrorist Irena Morales. Logan is buried in a pile of falling debris, and Kan and Gabriel are captured. Logan is extracted without finding his comrades. He has a conversation with the new leader of Rainbow, and thus designated “Rainbow Six,” Domingo Chavez about the incident.
Upon reaching Las Vegas, Logan is taken outside of the Calypso Casino where he meets with his new team, Michael Walters, an African-British demolitions expert specializing in heavy weapons. The other team member is Jung Park, a Korean recon and electronics expert. The team infiltrates the Calypso casino by blasting a hole in a side wall and entering. Once they clear out the Casino, they must rescue Doctor Philipp Smythe, a NATO weapons researcher. They extract with Doctor Smythe, who tells the FBI agents who are there to meet the team that they need to save another weapons researcher, Dr. Williams.
The team is taken to a Chinese restaurant in order to rescue reporter Trish Gracie. Once they clear out the restaurant and rescue her, she informs them that the terrorists are using a news van as a communications hub. The team makes their way down Fremont Street and eventually reaches the van. Jung hacks into the system while Logan and Michael keep terrorists away while they come in a wave. Afterwards, Michael places a demolition charge on the van and detonates it, destroying the van. The team is then extracted via helicopter and taken to rescue the other NATO researcher.
Next the team is dropped on Vertigo Spire, which is similar to the Stratosphere. The team finds and saves Dr. Williams from the terrorists and he informs them of two bombs, one which destroys the top floors of a building across the way. The other is a micropulse bomb, which the team finds and disarms. The team is then extracted to save Gabriel and Kan.
The team reaches Dante’s Casino, still under construction, and clears the roof. During this roof clearing, the bell in the tower falls causing damage and a fire in the lower floors. Eventually the team reaches Gabriel and frees him. They next reach Kan who is fatally shot before they get to him. He reveals that there is a plot where the attack in Las Vegas is a distraction. The team next moves to the theater to gain information on the terrorists plans from the server there. The team then heads to the roof and extracts.
The team then approaches a dam on the Colorado River which is nearly identical to the Hoover Dam. The team descends onto a bridge in front of the dam where a wounded engineer informs Logan of the terrorists bombs on the bridge. The team makes their way to the second story of the bridge where Michael defuses the bomb with three seconds remaining. They then fast-rope via safety cables to the bottom of the dam. They enter the dam and save a hostage who informs them that the dam will buckle under the pressure of the lake and how to relieve the pressure. They do this by using an emergency release valve and then go further into the dam and find that it is a weapons research lab, where doctors Smythe and Williams inform the team the terrorists have a micropulse missile on top of the dam. Next they find and kill Irena Morales. Finally, they extract to the top of the dam and plant a charge to the missile which detonates it in mid-air, without triggering the micropulse payload. They then receive a transmission from Gabe who tells them that he is the leak on the inside of Rainbow and that this is not over. The team rushes to the other side of the dam to see Joanna Torres and Brody Lukin kicked out of the helicopter, Brody unconscious. The team must protect Joanna and Brody from terrorists momentarily; Gabe and the terrorist get away. There are two possible endings:
- The player does not manage to fire at the helicopter. The game ends with Logan commenting that they need to find who was behind Gabe's and Irena's operation. The credits then roll.
- The player manages to take a few shots at the escape helicopter, which then crashes making the player believe Gabe to be dead. The game ends with Logan's above comments and a "To Be Continued" screen before going to the credits, which start with a brief overlay of news reports about Las Vegas being saved and also that only the body of the helicopter pilot was found.
These cliffhanger endings of the game suggest a sequel to Rainbow Six: Vegas, although there has not been any official confirmation. Template:Endspoiler
Reception
The Xbox 360 edition of Rainbow Six: Vegas was released to very positive reviews from major gaming news outlets, such as GameSpy (5/5) [1], GameSpot (9.1/10) [2], IGN.com (9.3/10) [3], and TeamXbox.com (9.5/10) [4]. IGN called Vegas the "best first-person shooter on the Xbox 360," while GameSpot described the game as an "excellent, immersive tactical shooter." G4's X-Play also liked the game, putting it on their 2006 Holiday Buyer's Guide, and also giving it a perfect 5 out of 5.
Rainbow Six: Vegas has won numerous awards, including "Best First-Person Shooter" [5], "Best Xbox 360 First-Person Shooter" [6], "Best Online Game" [7], and "Best Xbox Live Game" [8] in IGN's Best of 2006, as well as an "Editor's Choice Award" from GameSpot. Gaming Target also selected the title as one of "52 Games We'll Still Be Playing From 2006". [9]
The PC version has also received positive reviews as well. However, some in the PC community have expressed disappointment that the game requires a video card that supports Shader Model 3.0. Many gamers with low-end graphics cards simply can not play the game. A poll is being taken on the Ubisoft forum to patch, and thusly remove, the Shader Model 3.0 requirement. [10] However, it is unlikely this will ever happen, due to the fact that Ubisoft has stated before that the reason they made Vegas SM3 only was due to the fact that delivering an experience comparable to the one on Xbox 360 would be impossible without an SM3 card. Moreover, a growing concern over lack of further support in form of patches from Ubisoft has resulted in daily discussions on boycotting and legal action.
Collector's Edition
A limited collector's edition of Rainbow Six: Vegas was released featuring alternate cover art and a bonus disc. The bonus disc contained the making of Rainbow Six: Vegas, a documentary on the making of Rainbow Six: Vegas, and a Rainbow Six Retrospective, which features information on all Rainbow Six games in the series.
References
- ^ http://xbox360.gamespy.com/xbox-360/rainbow-six-vegas/747474p1.html
- ^ http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/rainbowsixvegas/review.html
- ^ http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/745/745678p1.html
- ^ http://reviews.teamxbox.com/xbox-360/1255/Tom-Clancys-Rainbow-Six-Vegas/p1/
- ^ http://bestof.ign.com/2006/overall/7.html
- ^ http://bestof.ign.com/2006/xbox360/7.html
- ^ http://bestof.ign.com/2006/overall/28.html
- ^ http://bestof.ign.com/2006/xbox360/29.html
- ^ http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=6375
- ^ http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3801065024/m/8591038515?r=9481068515
External links
- Official Rainbow Six: Vegas PC forum
- The Official Rainbow Six: Vegas Site
- Rainbow Six Vegas (Xbox 360) Reviews at Metacritic
- Official Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas mobile game site
Tom Clancy's video games | |
|---|---|
| Rainbow Six | |
| Ghost Recon | |
| Splinter Cell | |
| Ryanverse | |
| H.A.W.X | |
| The Division |
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| Other games | |
| Related | |
