Review: Rainbow six Vegas
Xander2KX March 6 2007
In 2004, Ubisoft had planned on making a 4th Rainbow six called Lockdown. Constantly pushed back later, Lockdown only hit the stores late in 2005 for the console and early in 2006 for PC to desapoint everybody. Many said this title had actually killed the franchise. Well, there was some true in that. That's why Rainbow six Vegas has been made by a different ubisoft team, my boys, Ubisoft Montreal. Let's see what master piece they have been able to create for the PC version.
Story (Spoilers) [9/10]
Mr. six or Mr.Rainbow six is no longer John Clark but ex-squad leader Ding Chavez. So this time, you play as Logan Keller the new squad leader. The story unlike the name propose it takes place in Mexico city as you and you're team mates try to capture one Irena Morales. You play a few level in Mexico until your mates get captured or so you thought. You soon enough arrive in Vegas at the Calipso Casino; terroristes are all over the place threatning to kill hostages. And so you're ready to kill thousand of bad guys in various location in Las-Vegas until you set it terrorist-free. You will later go in the Dans to finally catch Irena but to realised you have been betrayed by a friend. To be continued... That's how it's ending, meaning there will a story following this. Can't wait. The story might be a little short, but we're talking about a tactical shooter here. So let's say it's pretty good and for the first time it feels much more like a real story that doesn't take place all over the world.
Gameplay [10/10]
All Rainbow six games up to this day are fun to play. They always were very tactical and there's just so much fun. But this time, Montreal boys blowed everything ever made. This time, it can't get more tactical. Unlike the 2 last title, for the pc, you are able to see your caractere in the 3rd person, but don't get me wrong. This is a FPS, but you can stick to wall to see where your ennemies are and then you lean and it's a peace or cake... lol, you wish it was. Even with this, which really makes the game easier, it's still very hard. In Vegas you get many new feature counting the 1st one I just mentioned. You can use ladder, jump over small wall or such, use rappel, infiltrate with the rappel, go upside down with the rappel, blind fire, and you can of course aim while covering. Console or PC version, this game is just great. It's also the same cover and fire gameplay that you find in Gears of War. You can also gives orders to your squad to cover, assault or do whatever you need them to do.
Design [9.9/10]
When I heard for the 1st time about Vegas at E3 2006, I thought Ubisoft were going to make something impossible. How do you make a game in only one city. Everything will look the same no? Well I was wrong to worry. The feel and look given to the game is just great. At first you got that warm, and just very represented feeling to be in Mexico, and once you're in Vegas, you are usually only in Casino's but none looks the same and they all give a different feeling to finally be a game that almost has it all. Only one thing is missing. Where's the intro for the game? In every Rainbow six games this is a must. The year is 2000 something, Vegas is a very dangerous place... =)
Graphics [10/10]
It would be hard to give anything below 10 on 10. This game has the best and the sharpest graphic ever made to this day. We might even have to say the graphics are simply too good to handle. Let's face it, I own a Pentium D 3.0Ghz with 2Gb Ram and a GeForce 8800 GTS, sure I run it maxed out but I'm not stable and often I see my frame rate drop under 30FPS. That said, when you look at the environnement textures, especially when you're in mexico, everything feels so real. And as far as the caracters go, you happen to think you're watching a movie at some point. They couldn't be made better. The other good thing about the graphics in this game is the fact that even if you can't enable anti-aliasing on this game, well it's because you don't even need it. This game is just made sharp as hell.
Sound [9/10]
What to complete a good game with best ever graphics? Good sounds of course and this game has it. The sounds of the guns, the bullets hitting stuff or walls all seems to be really close to reality. The music in the game is kind of entertaining. If you don't see ennemy the music is slow and calm, but when you're in the middle of a fire-fight, the music is there to make you feel the intensity of what's going on. Overall music is very good. To end this well, the texts said by your squad and ennemies might be a little repetitive but all good since there's still a good variety. Plus, the leader doesn't only speak at the beginning or the end of a mission, that way you don't fall at sleep and know there's still more than only you killing terrorist going on.
Multiplayer [7/10]
It's hard to understand why Rainbow six which started on PC is now much more popular on consoles. But here, there's simply two very different world. Vegas for consoles is very popular and people enjoy it at lot with all those gametypes: deathmatch, team deathmatch, defend and attack, sharpshooter, team sharpshooter, coop story, coop terrorist hunt. You got the samething for PC. And it's all very good I guess. The problems is there's almost nobody playing Vegas on PC online and personnaly I haven't even been able to compete in a Defend and Attack mode. You got to ask yourself why and you realise quickly enough that many finishing touch makes the differences. For 1, the communication between players is not enough intuitive. You have to press T or Y as usual but then a chat window open. They should had never done that. Simply type and show text. The text is also staying there which is really boring everybody. Why can't it just fade away. For 2, you have to log-in with ubi.com. This is very bad. There's a lot of chances that you can't get the name you want and if you already have an account, you can't even change your name. We should be able to get any name we want and for example of the what ubi.com keep us from doing is to join friend's server by xfire or such programs. Finally, this game is so hard to run, and so much not optimised plus the fact that you can't have a dedicate server unless you take your pc for it, it lags really bad in the matches and once you're dead, looking at people moving around and lagging that much aint really making you any happy. In the end, cooperative might be very fun and you might never get enought of it but it's the little things that makes this game a failure on multiplayer.
Difficulty [10/10]
Rainbow six games are known to be quite hard. You need to go slower and be more tactical and make sure you use your teammates. Not to forget, you can't run and shot like before. This time, you really need to cover and take your time to aim and cover again. Else you'll die quicker than you might think. The single player mode offert you 2 mode, normal and realistic. Normal is not too hard, but realistic is where it's all about. You will definitly try over and over again some level before you luckily succeed. Let's say even if your squad if very good, once you play story mode online you might find it a lot easier with 4 elite players.
Finishing touch [6/10]
So far I've said the game looks great and it's true. As far as graphic and gameplay goes everything is just perfect. 3/5 so far gained. But what comes in mind is the fact that this game is a direct port from console and it's not optimised what so ever for computers. Even with the best computers you won't be stable on the frame rate, playing between 40 to 120 for me, and sometime you are at 80 and just going throught a door will make you drop to 20 fps. How frustrating is that. And again, the multiplayers gets the same problems and the communication aint easy enough.
Value [7/10]
When you buy a game, sometimes it's to play single player, sometimes it's only for mutliplayer and sometimes it's for both. Here we got a game good for 20 to 30 hours for a medium skilled player in the realisticmode for the story mode. Now for consoles gamer, you got the same story, therefore the same amount of time is needed but you can enjoy for a couple of hundreds of hours the multiplayer and more. That's just not the case for PC. Once you are done with the story mode, you got almost no one and no fun to play multiplayer. So 20 to 30 hours is not enough for a game these day.
Next-Gen Title [9/10]
When you talk about next-gen title, you talk about amazing graphics, Vegas got it; a lot of features and way to play, Vegas got it again. But it's not all because when you talk next-gen, the first thing coming in anyone's mind is a big wide tv or monitor. Is Vegas supporting wide-screen resolution, NO! When is ubi going to learn? However, the fact that this game looks so damn good and gives so much fun make the win. 1 last thing I'm very impress with is how they have been able to code your keys to make so much different action. Except for the forward, backward, left and right keys, most keys are used for 2 to 3 or 4 actions depending on what you do. That my friend, for those who never had to code anything, I got to say it's amazingly well done even if it looks like nothing.
Conclusion
For a series that many said to be dead, we can say it just got back to life a great way. Vegas is a very intense and fun tactical shooter that reinvented the RS franchise and is looking promising for the next titles. No matter if you want to get it for pc, consoles, for single player, mutliplayer or for both, this game is a must and definitly the overall best of the series.
Final score [86.5/100]
