Taking a small
three-man squad into a variety of true to life locales, Rainbow Six is a
plodding, slow paced first-person shooter. While hardly as complex as it used to be,
tactics are still a critical factor in survival. You can command your squad to perform a
number of actions, and they'll intelligently respond. If you lead them into an era that
draws fire, they fall away from your direct order to find the nearest cover. The interface makes this as intuitive as possible. The A button handles numerous functions, and at times it can become an issues. Opening a door, commanding a team to prepare to open one, or putting a snake camera under to gauge the scenario inside can lead to some unexpected deaths. When it works, you can command your team to specifically take out a target or focus on another when they enter. It's brilliantly conceived and tactical enough that some of the lesser realism aspects can be forgiven.
Vegas starts off slowly, and completely out of the environment you'll be led too. Once inside United States territory, you can immediately tell where you are. This is a stunningly beautiful game, complete with moments that lead to sheer awe or emotion. The story ends up leading to a dead end that will feel familiar to first-person shooter fans, but the event leading up to it are unforgettable.
Online play opens up an entirely new portion of the game if the eight hours of solo play wasn't enough. By far the best feature is the face mapping option. Using the Xbox Live Vision camera, you'll take a picture and the game does a surprising job of wrapping it onto the player model. Once into an online match, your face adorns the character.
Modes are numerous, including co-op and standard deathmatch. There's a unique approach used here to encourage repeat plays. As you rack up kills and win, you'll gain rank. As you progress, you can unlock new guns, armor, and accessories. The obvious downside to this is that opponents wearing highly protective pieces crush new players. Still, the addictiveness of watching your level increase creates the hook needed to encourage trying again.
Only a few of those features make it into the single player campaign. You customize weapons extensively, yet the armor system is nowhere to be found. There is also no control over the offensive gun choices squad members make.
Level design is a key to both single and multi-player. Some of the game's brightest story moments occur on the Vertigo Spire, a towering landmark that requires the player to continually work downward towards their goal. In multi-player, defending a bomb as the terrorists provides immense opportunity for strategy, as the opposing squad fights their way in to disarm it.
Long running fans of the series have likely moved on. While Rainbow Six is still challenging (almost impossible on the realistic difficulty setting in parts), the strategy and realism have taken a hit. The benefit for the game design however is obvious, making it accessible, engrossing and gripping. Vegas is one of the better efforts this year.
