Rainbow Six: Vegas By: Keezy
You may have experienced, either first hand or in the teary-eyed faces of gamers who have experienced it, the sorrow and letdown that Rainbow Six: Lockdown. To be honest, I was too horrified to give it a whirl. Too many gamers had killed a part of themselves playing that game, and I couldn’t stand to see the R6 franchise falter. OK, so maybe it wasn’t that bad, but the general consensus was that Lockdown should have been named Rainbow Six: Letdown.
Today I bring you glorious news: Rainbow Six: Vegas is the Phoenix (actually, Las Vegas), and Lockdown is the ashes from which it rises. It took the good from Lockdown and combined it with what used to be good about the series, and even added a few new surprises.
General Gameplay
First and foremost, the gameplay is the same amazing gameplay that Rainbow Six 3 brought. It is still very much the tactical shooter that took away so many hours of your life, and network bandwidth on Xbox Live. What is even better is that there are some new improvements to make your experience even better.
The first mechanic is also the most famous: the cover system. Cover has been the latest trend in FPS. A little-known game called Gears of War also uses cover, but in a much different way. It should be noted that the cover system in RS:V is much more fluid, and really improves on gameplay. Upon approaching of a wall, simply hold the left trigger and you will cling to the wall. The camera switches to a third-person perspective, and you are able to peek around/above cover and take enemies out. Let go, and you pull back from the wall, and return to the first-person view. The transition feels natural within minutes of playing for the first time. A majority of your kills will come this way, and it will leave you feeling more than satisfied.
Another treat is the Personal Elite Creation System. You create your character, and persistently earn points to advance up in rank and further create your character with new weapons and clothing. The good news is, this isn’t just a clever name… it is a good way to motivate the player to keep playing and unlock extra things. The new weapons aren’t much better, so balance remains. The only negative is that some of the levels will take forever to achieve, which has led to most people leveling up by doing repetitive missions, and even have people hosting matches and leaving the console while they rank up.
Taking place in a city allows for another new feature: rappelling. This may feel a bit gimmicky, but it is still very satisfying. Nothing beats hanging upside down and taking out a terrorist through a window.
Tech Specs
Graphically, RS:V is a mixed bag. Some scenes are simply amazing, while other seem blurry and drag. This is no Gears of War, but it certainly has its moments. Chalk the majority of these issues to the artistic direction of the game. Getting flash banged really makes you second guess jumping into the next room. Many of the levels have windows that overlook the city, which really gives a great sense of location and depth to where you are.
As always, the sound effects really blow you away. Doors splinter as bullets ping all around you, in glorious 5.1. There are plenty of times where you are surrounded by a myriad of objects, and the distinct sounds of each echo around you. The voice acting is well implemented, and some of the things the terrorists say are just hilarious.
Game Rage
RS:V is
not for the novice, though it does seem to walk the line between a challenge and frustration. There wasn’t any part that couldn’t be completed with minimal rage. Playing on Realistic (the highest setting) makes you play carefully, but doesn’t make you chuck the controller at the wall. Save points are well implemented, and really help reduce the rage.
Butt Groove
With the amazing multiplayer mode, local/split screen terrorist hunt, don’t plan on putting this game down for a while.
Bedtime Rating
This is very much an M-rated game. The terrorist scream funny albeit crude remarks when you engage them. There is the typical shooter violence, but nothing excessively gory. Before you take down your first tango, make sure to put down the younger audience.
Multiplayer
This is where you’ll be spending your nights. With co-op story and terrorist hunt, you and 3 of your friends will never grow bored. It seems that no match is the same. Finally, there is adversarial mode, where you can play a plethora of game types. They are as follows: Attack and Defend, where one team defends an objective while the other team assaults; Retrieval, where biohazard canisters are to be picked up and returned to a drop point. There are also the classic sharpshooter and survival modes, each with a team variant. As you probably know, sharpshooter is standard deathmatch, while survival has you fighting with no respawns.
Achievements
The achievements are pretty balanced between the single and multiplayer modes. There are achievements for beating SP levels as well as completing certain game types online. You’ll have to play this game in all aspects if you want to get all of the points. This is simply a great implementation of Achievement Points.
Category Rankings General Gameplay 
Tech Specs Game Rage Butt Groove Bedtime Rating Multiplayer Achievements Overall Couch Count: 4.5 out of 5 
Linear Mode
