Rainbow Six Vegas

With all the hubbub surrounding the launch of Nintendo's Wii console, we'd almost forgotten about that other powerhouse gaming machine, Xbox 360. And while it has been fun romping through Hyrule, saving princesses and whatnot, I've found myself continually going back to Ubisoft's latest in the Rainbow Six series, Rainbow Six Vegas.

For those paying attention, this is the direct follow-up to Rainbow Six Lockdown, though you could consider this more of an overshadowing addition to the series; one built to block out Lockdown from existence for good.

Where Lockdown did everything in its power to render the R6 series dead and buried, Vegas does all it can to reinvent it. Not to a point the series is as unrecognisable as it was with Lockdown, more to go back to the foundations laid by the first three titles, and then add an element of accessibility. A slew of new options and gameplay ideas across the board, further this "reinvention" and even long-time Rainbow Six fans should be pleasantly surprised at the new package Ubisoft have for you.

What is initially odd about the game though is the intro as we're suddenly in very familiar territory, flying over Mexico in a chopper being given orders and background information on a terrorist faction. Hrm, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter anyone?

At any rate, the game begins with you as Logan Keller, a new R6 operative being dropped into Mexico's San Joshua del Mosquiera. On the way down from the chopper though, terrorist ground forces fire at your bird and it's forced to flee, leaving you alone in the sepia-hazed urban sprawl on route to meet the rest of your team.

From here the game takes on a seminal tutorial idea; you're waltzed through the streets with helpful tips popping up to teach you to play the game. Even veterans of the R6 series will need to take this on board as much has changed in the world of Rainbow Six this time around.

You get the sense Ubi wanted to make this a far more accessible experience to invite the more mainstream shooter fans across, but they've also managed to do this without threatening any of the depth the series is renowned for. For the most part, Rainbow Six Vegas is played as a first-person shooter; however, for the tactical elements of the game, your view will seamlessly shift from first to third-person. Moving behind cover and repelling are the first two examples of this in action and both present it as one of the most competent ideas this style of game has ever seen. Moving into a cover position will bring the camera back so we can see Keller in all his Unreal powered glory, it also gives you a view advantage in that the immediate field is far more visible, allowing you to appropriately decide your next course of action. There are multiple ways to approach each situation, and your arsenal of goodies and weapons are both easily accessible and unique. You can also blind fire, ala Gears of War, which given the third-person viewpoint, makes it much easier to suppress your opponents and make the right decision in neutralising them.

Most of your third-person tactical action movements are context sensitive in keeping with the theme of accessibility. This allows the buttons on the controller to be mapped properly, allowing for quick usage of the right item, weapon or movement. You have full access to grenades, smoke grenades, a snake cam for peeking into rooms as well as thermal and night-vision goggles. The thermal view is one of the better new additions to the game allowing you to find enemies well hidden within the urban decay of a city like San Joshua del Mosquiera. The game's setting does shift a bit, but most of the time you'll be living it up in the city of lights, Las Vegas.

Unlike yesterday's review of Call of Duty 3 where our main issue was AI, here your buddies are very smart and more than capable of looking after themselves. You issue simple commands to them and you also have the Gears of War ability to heal them in the field which keeps things moving at a more forgiving rate. The enemy AI is also pretty good, though I did find them a little bit too easy to spot, especially given that most of them are ridiculously vocal.

The main villain in the game has a real distaste for Las Vegas and its myriad of casinos, and with no real reason, either. In fact, one of the bigger let-downs for this solid gaming experience comes in its lacklustre narrative and plot. The setting is great (though more variety would have been nice), but it just isn't as compelling as it should be. Moreover, not as much attention has been paid to the overall presentation and production of the game's story - it's excellent having such a solid gameplay experience, but if you're going to tack Clancy's name on it, you should probably give it some oomph.

Utilising the Unreal engine means this is by far one of the prettiest games on Xbox 360. Everything seems to be blanketed in sepia and red tones, just a little too much, but not so much so it's detrimental to the game, but among all three big shooters released recently (Gears, Call of Duty), it feels like developers are just deciding on a specific colour as a point of unique visual flair: Gears had its over abundance of grey, CoD green and now R6V red. It's odd, but passable nonetheless.

As it stands, Rainbow Six Vegas is the best the series has offered, due much in part to its renewed focus on more forgiving gameplay and accessibility without dumbing down the tactical depth. Decisions such as context sensitive actions and the multiple path approach to neutralising enemies and situations give the game variation and streamlined play for quicker thinking. Though, with that being said, like most R6 games, Vegas is played at a steady pace and you're never overly rushed through the experience. Opposite to Call of Duty, Vegas' strength lies in its single-player campaign, though the multiplayer stuff is still pretty cool (see box out). Rainbow Six Vegas is everything you want from a shooter sans a great story and equally compelling narrative, but overlooking these will make you see a smart shooter that combines the best of the Rainbow Six series with a more accessible pick-up-and-play approach.