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78 of 81 found the following review helpful:
 Addicting, Complete, And Playable Nov 24, 2006
By Chon-ny
"Your Sensei's Sensei"
Combine the popular "Dynasty Mode" and customization options of sports games with the great take-cover functions of Gears of War, and the weaponry and tactical realism of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter, and you have Rainbow Six: Vegas, probably the most complete shooter to date.
Let me jump to the custom character section right off: this is SICK. Using your Xbox Vision Camera, you can create an uncanny shaved head version of yourself to use in the game, and online. You can then customize your weapons, rated on accuracy, range, and damage, as well as your shoulder, chest, arm and leg armor, which force you to choose between mobility and protection. You can shoose to have a super-zooming rifle scope on your pistol or rifle, or a laser sight, or more. All prettied and ready to go?
Playing any number of games, either in single player or online or multi-player will earn you experience points and medals. The more points you receive, the higher your rank (you start off as a Private Second Class), allowing you access to even more customizable items.
To the gameplay: intuitive and useful, RS: Vegas doesn't throw in any useless controls. You can single click to put a silencer on your weapon, switch to night or thermal vision, or invert yourself upside down on a rapelling rope. You can look inside rooms with a snake cam before you enter, fire blindly around a corner, or detonate explosives from a distance.
The AI is superb; you can run the same mission three times in a row and never have the "enemies" in the same areas, or in the same amounts. If you faced four guys in the opening building the first time around, you might face two guys, with the other two sneaking around to flank you on your second try.
Adopting the Gears of War health system, where you take non-permanent damage that instead impairs your condition and requires taking cover to heal, works wonders for this game...you can't just bum rush enemies guns ablaze, because they're bound to cap you with a headshot.
It's a great game for the more patient sort, and might take some adjusting by those recently spoiled on Halo 2 or Gears of War, in terms of aggressive play. My only complaint (as one spoiled by the latter) is the lack of a run button to cover open ground, but hey, it forces me to take better cover.
Highly recommended, especially for the online co-op option.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
One Of The Best On 360 Dec 01, 2006
By Chris
"takethekman"
This game not only draws you in with it's incredible graphics and gameplay, but the story is actually something involving. This game is very intense, but controls beautifully under pressure; Some Ghost Recon-type elements have been added to your movement, such as being able to seek cover and fire from around corners. Commanding your team has never been easier, and they actually help you more this time around; The enemies are smart and numerous, making some levels last as long as almost 2 hours to get through; But most of all it's REALLY FUN!! It is nice to see this console finally produce a game that hits all the right marks. I was overly impressed with this game...Plus I love all the shiny colors!! Ubisoft got this one right all the way around! And in case I haven't stressed this enough--the graphics are amazing, even on a non-HDTV.
19 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Fantastic Game!! Jan 23, 2007
By B. Dunn
"doom fan"
It's hard to really describe how much fun I've had with this game. The graphics are supberb, the sounds also amazing. Grenades sound real and powerful, as does shotguns, etc. Especially with a solid surround sound system.
I've almost completed the campaign and have done most of the T-Hunt Missions. Both are very fun to play, and I LOVE the fact that you can do both co-op with a friend ON THE SAME SCREEN. Many other games force you to play co-op type missions online or don't offer them at all. But, RB6 also offers the co-op features online, as well as a wide array of VS modes to keep things interesting.
The only small complaint I have with the multiplayer is that only two players can play on one console, you have to set up a system link to be able to get 4 buddies in on the game.
Nonetheless still tremendously fun, and I like the "call of duty" style health system that is implemented (can take several hits but will need to duck for cover and then you'll regain health and be able to go back to business), whereas I remember the old school RB6 games it seemed like it was always one or two hits and that's all.
But they do have a "realistic" difficulty setting you can choose which I havent played with too much but I'm sure thats likely a more frustrating option.
I can't wait till the next Ghost Recon game comes out I believe in march, I'm hoping it is every bit as great as this game turned out to be!
10 of 10 found the following review helpful:
Great multiplayer Feb 07, 2007
By Ryan Jacob
"Ryan"
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series of games have seen a whole lot of change over the years. The series started out as a slow, tactical, shooter with a heavy emphasis on planning. When the series made its jump to the Xbox with Rainbow Six 3, the game dropped the planning stage to attempt to appeal to a broader audience, while still retaining a tactical shooter feel. The game was extremely successful, becoming one of the most played games on Xbox Live. But after a well received expansion, the developers took a sharp turn and moved the franchise into arcade shooter territory. The majority of the fans were disappointed, and the game was a critical failure. But don't worry Rainbow fans, Ubisoft has indeed learned from their mistakes. Vegas is the most intense and tactical Rainbow Six game, making it easily the best in the series.
Rainbow Six: Vegas takes place in Las Vegas as you probably have guessed. Most of the story unfolds while you are playing the game, either in helicopter briefings while you are flying to your next target or while you are on foot from an audio and video feed in the top left of your screen. This is a pretty nice change from the text briefings before missions that Rainbow Six players are used to. Without giving too much of the plot away, terrorists have attacked various casinos in the city, taking some hostages and planting bombs. You play as Logan Keller, a team leader for a group of highly skilled soldiers, and it is your job to go from casino to casino and take care of business. If this all sounds familiar, that's because it is. We have all heard this same basic story dozens of times in other games and Hollywood action movies. But while the storyline isn't exactly original, it is good enough to keep you at least mildly interested. What really matters is the gameplay, and that is where the game truly shines.
If you have ever played Gears of War, your might be surprised how similar the two games play. They were in development around the same time, so it's hard to say if any copying was going on, but both games have a heavy emphasis on cover, requiring you to use anything you can hind behind to stay alive. However, the cover system in Vegas works quite a bit better then it does in Gears. You have a lot more control when it comes to moving around cover and shooting out. Also, the cover seems more important in Vegas then it did in Gears, mostly because you can take much fewer shots in Vegas before going down.
Another element both games have in common is a squad of teammates that you fight along with. Controlling the team works similar to other games in the series. You can still tell your squad where to move, whether to hold fire or shoot on sight, to stack up behind doors before throwing in a grenade and storming in as well as all of the other commands you could give in the previous games. However, there are a few additions. For example, you now have a snake cam that allows you to peak under doors. Using this device, you can then give your team priority targets in the next room, to make sure they take down the most important enemies first when they enter. Your teammates also have some pretty good AI. They know how to take cover and engage enemies, meaning you really don't have to worry about them that much. They also do a great job taking down terrorists, making them very useful.
Besides commanding your squad, the game has other features that allow for some complex tactics. Many of the rooms have multiple entry points. Using the snake cam you can scout out the room before determining how you want to enter it. You can even use two entrances at once, by having your team stack up outside one door while you go to another. Then you can order your squad to barge in guns blazing at the same time you enter from another door. You also have the option to do some repelling during some points of the game, which adds another entrance, the windows, to a room.
Your large selection of weapons also allows you to take in some tactical considerations. Vegas features a ton of assault rifles, machine guns, shotguns, and pretty much any type of gun you can think of. Each of the weapons offers some level of customization. Pistols can have things like extended magazines or laser sights, while rifles can be fitted with different types of scopes depending on what is needed. Once you have selected your guns, you can choose from items like explosive grenades, C4, breaching charges, flash grenades, and more.
With the cover system, team controls, multiple entry points, and a large selection of weapons, Rainbow Six: Vegas offers a lot of choice when it comes to tactics.
But the single player campaign is only half of what the game has to offer. Rainbow Six: Vegas has a fully featured and expansive multiplayer option, which easily makes it the best on-line shooter on the Xbox 360. The core of the multiplayer experience is what the developers call the P.E.C., or "Persistent Elite Creation". When you first start out, you create your own character and have a limited access to different types of gear like body armor and weapons. After every match, your character gains experience, allowing you to go up in rank and gain access to more items. It's a neat feature that rewards you for playing, yet doesn't make the game feel unfair for new players that don't have access to all of the items. Different armor makes you choose between mobility and protection, while other weapons may be more powerful but are harder to control.
There is a good selection of game modes to choose from that range from objective driven modes like attack and defend, to more standard offerings like solo and team deathmatch. The levels are varied and well designed for the most part. Though some, such as the Calypso Casino level, were clearly designed with attack and defend in mind and can be slightly unbalanced in other game modes like team deathmatch due to one team having a better spawn point. But if you are not into competitive gaming against other players, Vegas offers cooperative gameplay over live for the entire single player campaign with up to three other players. Or you can play "terrorist hunt" which is a mode that puts you and your friends in a level with a bunch of randomly placed terrorists that you need to take out.
Overall, Rainbow Six Vegas is a great game with a lot of value. The single player is challenging and offers a lot of depth, and the multiplayer packs in a lot of features. You could easily find yourself playing this game until the next Rainbow Six game comes out. It is not often that developers try to reinvent such a successful series, but Ubisoft gave it another shot and ended up creating the best Rainbow Six game so far.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
 Fun but flawed-- in serious need of testing Dec 12, 2006
By Beechaka
I hate to be the first to write a non-glowing review of R6Vegas, but I have not had the most stellar experience with it. I have had it for a few weeks now and have tried to give it every chance.. but it still disappoints.
The game has its high points; it is a continuation of a terrific game, Rainbow6 3 for the xbox. R63 was one of the top xbox games in my opinion, on campaign and on multiplayer. The online co-op in particular was excellent; the weapon selection was extensive and well-rounded, and the reaction times of the controller were instantaneous. It was a well-thought out game and very stable. I have not played any of the games between R63BA and R6Vegas, so I cannot comment on other R6 games since then, but my memories of R63 and R63BA for xbox were all very positive.
R6Vegas, on the other hand, is plagued with problems right out of the box. It regularly locks up on me in the middle of single-player or multiplayer modes -- maybe once or twice a day. Voice communication on xbox live frequently cuts out for one or more players. The weapon choices are much more limited than in R63 (where is the fun grenade launcher?). There is no way to skip the annoying introductory cutscenes (especially when restarting from the first level). Many times, on multiplayer co-op, the game drops the entire team underneath the ground where we fall until the game is rebooted. The checkpoints are often maddeningly far apart. I wish that the controller could be customized to allow hotkeying of weapons. In the heat of battle, when you run out of ammo, it takes far too long to bring up the menu system and switch to an alternate weapon. On all of these items, the original R63 for the xbox was far superior.
I get suspicious when I see the "powered by the Unreal engine" logo on startup of the game. It appears that, instead of making or reusing an original game engine of their own, Ubisoft took an existing game engine and rushed it out the door to cash in on a profitable franchise in time for the holiday season. I wonder if the myriad of bugs are due to this. Even boasting this game engine, the game graphics are largely boring and uninteresting. There are no crisp graphics like other recent 360 titles.
All that being said -- it is still an enjoyable game. Single-player mode has an engaging story line and the setting is very interesting. Multiplayer and co-op modes are fun and challenging. The formula that made R63 and R63BA so enjoyable has, to a limited extent, also been successful with R6Vegas.
I hope that there will be a patch that will address all of the bugs and errors that really should have been flushed out BEFORE the game was launched. I ran into all of the bugs I mention above within the first day of playing. It is obvious that the QA process was skipped in order to get the game on the shelves. Had I known the problems that this game has, I certainly would have opted for Gears of War rather than this one. For such a high price tag for these games, I think that we deserve a better product. I hate feeling cheated by a game purchase, and that is exactly how I felt with R6Vegas.
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