The new Rainbow Six installment is very much like it's predecessor; good. Only small changes have taken place in the new game, but they're ones that fans of the previous R6 will notice make a huge effect on the overall appeal of the game.

Sprinting

The first addition to the game is the ability to sprint. How exciting. But seriously, it does help to update the game and it definetly speeds up both the singleplayer and multiplayer very well. However, it is simply a sprint button, nothing else, so it's hardly going to effect my final review of the game - in fact, it only makes me realise what the previous game was missing out on.

Ranks and A.C.E.S

The most noticable edition to the game is, although it was in a lesser form in the first Rainbow Six Vegas, the most extensive player-customization options in shooter history. You're singleplayer character is also your multiplayer character and he, or she, can be outfitted with an incredible amount of different clothing options and diffrerent armour (that actually has an effect on your ability to withstand damage, your stamina and your speed), then these can be covered in any of...well, it must be more than 20 different camo patterns, oh, and not to mention that you can make your own camos later in the game. Your character also ranks up, unlocking new weapons, armour, clothing and camo patterns.

Camo and armour is unlocked by earning XP awarded for kills, this XP also increases your rank in the military (ie. you start at Recruit, rising up the ranks to Private 1st Class, 1st Sergeant etc.).

Unlocking weapons is done through a clever A.C.E.S system (don't ask me what it stands for) that awards you points for Marskman, C.Q.B (Close Quaters) and Assault. Marskman points are awarded for headshots and long range shooting, C.Q.B points are awarded for shots to the back and short-range kills and Assault points are awarded for kills through cover, killing shielded opponents and kills with explosives. Marskman points award you sniper rifles and assault rifles, C.Q.B points award you shotguns and pistols and assault points award you machineguns and sub-machineguns. The only problem with this system is that it's far to easy to get Marskman and C.Q.B points and far too difficult to get Assault points, it's also irritating to recieve Marksman points for, say, shotgunning someone in the head at point black range.

Finnaly, I need to talk about the multiplayer and its many many problems. Now, don't get me wrong, every now and then you can manage to find a good game that's not laggy, has grenades turned off and isn't full of spawn camping so-and-so's. Most of the time though every game I find is any combination of the above. How to solve the horrible online play:

Introduce a Party System

The two most popular consol shooters; Halo 3 and Call of Duty 4 both have something in common - a party system. The lack of it in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is, quite frankly, pathetic. When I was told that a matchmaking system was to be introduced, I assumed that included a party system. Alas it did not. So, the only way to play with your mates is to find them in a game from your friends list, but chances are you won't even be put on their team when you join which is a simply out-of-date way of playing online games. This lack of party system also means anyone can host a game with their own match setting like some dodgy PC shooter from eight years ago, as a result the match settings are always pants and you always end up with some moron on dial-up hosting a 16 player match. "It's sooo laggy!" we, the players, declare. "No it's not! It's fine here!" argues the host. "That's because you're the host you moron! Do you not understand how the internet works!" we shout back. This lag can either be so horrific it's impossible to even walk across an empty room or it can be background, which is actually more annoying. This "background" lag ruins the game. I've had instances when an empty window spits bullets at me and I die. Later I worked out that, when I watched the window down my scope, the host leaps into sight, he dissapears, then a muzzle flash appears in the window a second later and I die. This lag ruins the game.

Tone Down the Grenades

Grenades do NOT work on Rainbow Six. In the last Vegas, pretty much ever server had grenades turned off. Now, with all the noob hosts, pretty much every kill comes from grenades. People don't even use their weapons. In more than one instance, I've seen people who could've easily shot me and instead they simply throw a grenade. There are ways to stop this happening: turn off grenades; only allow one type of grenade per person instead of people having frags and incendaries at the same time; only allow one grenade; make the grenades take longer to set off; add a grenade warning indicator (like CoD4).

Tone Down the Shotguns

I used to quite like the way the shotugns were realistic in Rainbow Six as they're fairly long ranges and incredibly powerful. Now though, they're just irritating and the best guns in the game on all but two maps. I've had moments when I've put a whole clip in a guy with an assault rifle and he's just turned round from 30 foot away and got me in one blast from a shotgun. Ridiculous. Although unrealistic, the shotguns should be far more like the CoD4 shotguns, which are pretty much innefective at all but 12 foot away.

RANT OVER

Expect a review soon.

UPDATE: I've just started playing "Team Leader" gamemode (like Halo's VIP except each team leader can end the game by reaching an extraction point on the other side of the map) and it's actually really really good, and for some reason I'm yet to encounter a laggy game of it. So, perhaps this one game mode will save this multiplayer yet.