Review by Craig on Sunday 01st of July 2007Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas
What's with all the sequels?You may have noticed that a lot of recent games are sequels and not fresh releases (such as with Tiberium Wars, BF2142 and with GTAIV on the horizon etc.). Well it seems that more and more companies are relying on their past titles to spawn sequels and less on original titles. Even the Call of Duty or COD series is now finally moving away from the Second World War scene and are producing a modern day warfare game.
Well rest assured there are still many fresh games on the horizon, with Crysis, Overlord, and Lost Planet: Extreme Conditions all soon to be, or already, bringing new ideas and storylines into the vast array of games. The question on my mind in particular is will these games spawn their own sequels or be left as single titles, and that of course depends on whether they are very popular or not.
But it is the same for sequels with the recent release of Colin McCrae: Dirt and the thousands of Sims titles available, not to forget the Tom Clancy line of course...
Haven't we been here before?For most of you who live in the 21st century, there's no doubt you've heard of the Tom Clancy line of games. These have been released over several different platforms spanning several different storylines, all centred around military action of some form with an elite soldier or soldiers.
Being a big reader of Tom Clancy's novels set in the 'Ryaniverse' we will be looking at the latest instalment of the Rainbow Six Storyline.
I remember playing the original Rainbow Six many years ago and thinking how brilliant yet difficult this game was. Thinking back to how it was only 1998 and you suddenly realise that it's nearly a decade, and we are still seeing Rainbow Six games popup. This was then followed by Rogue Spear, another classic game that was probably twice as difficult, but again, a thoroughly enjoyable game.
After playing these I then went to read the book by Tom Clancy on which the game is loosely based, and subsequently read several others, all of which are excellent pieces of work. If you are a reader as well as a gamer this novel is definitely worth a read.
Strangely after this I didn't really play Raven Shield until much later afterwards but actually concentrated on the first of the Ghost Recon series. Since then I have played Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter and eagerly await the release of number 2 which will be reviewed shortly after release.
Having played a good amount of the games, I decided Las Vegas should be given a whirl (especially when I saw juicy screenshots) and so installed the game.
Graphics
System Requirements3.0 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD equivalent
1GB RAM
128mb Graphics card with Pixel Shader 3
7GB Hard Drive Space
First impressions are - Amazing.Would I care to elaborate? Hell yes! You find yourself in what looks to be a worn down desert town area filled with dusty old buildings, light smoke makes this afternoon seem lazy as the sun sets. The light hits the landscape just right, creating the time of day the designers were hoping to produce (made possible by High Dynamic Range or HDR). These particular effects and attention to getting them right leads the game to (visually) provide amazing scenery. Flying over Las Vegas gives us some breathtaking night time views of the Las Vegas strip and the huge casino/hotels that reside there. Even whilst in the chopper the HDR produces stunning visuals, from the laptop being used to the lights on the panel by the side of your team mates. The brightness of the light is particularly dazzling, as it would be when gazing at such sights in the middle of the night. The casino slot machines, the casino signs and car lights, everything glows, producing an almost surreal environment.
The character models are also highly detailed, particularly with the faces, which have small amounts of facial hair or imperfections that would be found on most human beings but have been missing on all too many games. The enemies (or terrorists) are also of a very similar quality.
When hit by a bullet your vision blurs impairing your ability to fire back, but is also an indication as to your current health. The more you are hit, the darker your vision. This is obviously a handy feature as you do not have a health gauge clogging up your HUD. When flashed you gain partial sight back after a couple of seconds, but like in real life, a ghosted image remains for a few seconds more before returning to normal.
The guns are modelled and skinned to look very realistic, with guns having a matte look, being painted black or grey (most of them anyway) this is what you'd expect. The weapons recoil depending on their power and the appropriate bullet holes are sprayed on the wall wherever you miss.
Second Impressions - Hmmm...Now I know a lot of games produce the same results and I know its how the games run smoothly on today's systems but it bugs me. When you're sat on top of a skyscraper the scene below looks very low detail. That isn't putting your scope on and looking at all the detail to find low detail or joins that don't line up, its zooming in to make it look even worse than it already is. This mainly bugs me because when your scope in anywhere on Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter the building/scene your zoomed into immediately loads a high detail texture file so by the time you have actually zoomed in the object looks like the building 2 metres away from you, but on Vegas the building just looks poorly made. I personally thought that some of the HDR effects used were to disguise this fact. Ghost Recon was made as much for the Xbox 360 as for the PC and this reflects in the quality of graphics. Rainbow Six however was produced more for a console gaming environment and thus cuts back to increase general speed and reduce loading times.
From a gaming stand point these details are easily bearable because the gamer, for the most part, will be looking more at the main scenery and objects/people they are shooting at. But unfortunately its one of those points that just drags the game standard down and means it could never quite achieve above 90% for marks in this section.
AudioListening to all the sounds of the game, it doesn't vary much from what you'd expect in any decent game, high quality sound effects backed up by some (at times) dramatic music to elevate the senses. The use of music is limited though, which leaves you to prick up your hearing and listen out for any chatter or footsteps. I prefer this as the game lets you play more tactically than games that throw music over the background. Overall, sound is standard to the high quality of games of this level of development.
GameplayLet me just comment that, this is really where R6 Las Vegas really shines. The game has several distinct pros and cons over the previous titles that are for better and for worse but as always, this depends on what type of game you're looking for.
In comparison - As part of the Rainbow Six series, the game is a letdown in this respect because there are several elements removed that make it much more of a sustained FPS arcade style shooter.
The loss of the tactical planning map always found in Rainbow Six means you lose the ability to plan your actions and co-ordinate your teams for combined assaults, or diversionary tactics that made the originals different to play from your standard shooter game.
Health in game is now a case of taking bullets and waiting for your health to go back to the top, indicated by your screen going blurry and dark, and when this returns to normal you are ready to go back into combat. The original Rainbow Six games had health gauges that did not increase whilst in game, and if a player was incapacitated they would not be available for a couple of missions. For me this goes to show the changing status of the game from a tactical shooter to an arcade shooter.
The missions are no longer separated into different tactical situations but it is all integrated into 1 long mission taking place over 1 period of time, compared to one mission at a time, in different countries and times. There is also the increased body count per mission which is another trait leading the game towards an arcade shooter.
The only thing I can say is this game is radically different to any of the previous games in the series, and not necessarily for the better.
Performance as an arcade shooterR6 Vegas is a classic arcade shooter and when I play it I think of it as such because that is how the game has been designed. In terms of gameplay you couldn't ask for much more because it tactically takes thing to a much higher level. Players can back up against a wall to peak round the corner and see what is waiting for them. This also allows for the use of grenades and the ability to pop out and take down a target or two whilst still being unnoticed (when using silenced weapons) but as in the real world some will still notice that the comrade stood 10 metres behind them is now a corpse. Another feature added is the ability to blind fire round a corner. Though this is highly inaccurate it can still get you some kills or just helps to lay cover fire down for team mates. Buildings can also be rappelled down or your team can fast rope into a room to storm the terrorists within. The rappelling feature is particularly useful as you can turn upside down and use your pistol to shoot at enemies through the windows. I have found that combined with a silencer, this is brilliant and I have never actually used the breach feature whilst rappelling as I have shot all the terrorists in the room before entering.
Doors can be breached, flashed, or fragged and then cleared by your team mates who you can order to stack up on one door whilst you breach another in a carefully planned 2 sided attack plan. You can use a snake cam to mark terrorists as your team mate's primary targets once they have entered the room. It's this kind of on the fly commanding that breaks the game away from your average FPS and lets you take your time and decide what your next move is going to be as you clear out room after room.
When you take damage you have to hide and wait for your health to regenerate, eliminating the old medikit that I personally think should be replaced by something a bit more, realistic. When team mates are wounded they require either you give them an injection or your team mate does. If left for too long however they will die and this is an instant mission failure, along with the player being killed (obviously). One problem with this feature is that you cannot be wounded and healed by your team mates, once you're down your dead.
One feature that defines this game as an arcade shooter is the use of checkpoints. I have always hated checkpoint in any game as I prefer to save when I like (i.e. before a difficult jump etc.) and not when the game thinks I should.
Overall as an arcade shooter it could be classed as something of a genre changer, with all the features used to make the game a thoroughly enjoyable play, more tactical than your average FPS but not quite as complicated as the previous titles in the series.
AIMost of the time, the terrorists and your team mates appear to act like real people. A few times my team mates ventured too far and got themselves in situations where they need rescuing as much as the hostage you might be trying to save. But this was due to them being flashed. Terrorists take as much advantage of hiding behind objects and blind firing as much as you, and are a very accurate shot which makes them a deadly force to be reckoned with. They effectively use grenades and attempt to advance on your position to overpower you.
StorylineHunting down terrorists is Rainbow's main job (Rainbow being the name of the organisation) and these guys are often left to do the hard jobs that often cannot be handled by another organisation. A collection of some of the world's best armed forces, Rainbow is a deadly Counter Terrorist Unit. But even now there are those who know of their highly secret existence and those who know their capabilities.
The story of R6 Vegas is that of a terrorist attack on Sin City itself by Irena Morales, which leads you through casinos, restaurants and the strip itself, trying to stop the attack and save 2 of your comrades at the same time (captured earlier by Irena), aided by Joanna Torres who provides in mission intel.
The story is not told via any cut scenes but all by in mission intel reports from Joanna, very similar to how story is delivered in Ghost Recon Advanced War Fighter.
There is a game mode called 'terrorist hunt' and this is basically levels filled with terrorists that have to be cleared out, although most of the time the terrorists do come looking for you, so it's necessary to watch your back as they have a terrible habit of sneaking up on you.
Pros/Cons
Pros* Implementations of several new tactical features allows for deeper game play
* Amazing graphics which provide brilliant views of Sin City
* Easy to follow storyline with highly skilled terrorists to give the game decent play time
Cons* Not the same style of game play as the previous Rainbow Six
* Lacks mission pre-planning
* Some graphical cutbacks
Overall
The game is definitely worth playing but only as a tactical FPS and not as a continuation of the Rainbow Six line of games. Lockdown tried to make changes like this and faced critical review but with Vegas they seem to have righted the wrongs of Lockdown, made a fantastic game with jaw dropping visuals and new features that make the game highly playable. R6 Vegas is a big hit and should be played by any fan of FPS games.