Fantastic, addictive game-play. Strong single-player mode and very entertaining multi-player. Great visual presentation.
Outfitting your characters and each of your team members and additional teams, and plotting routes within the map for multiple teams became more of a chore and became boring rather quickly.
After a while, I stopped playing Rainbow Six games. However, a friend recently bought the game ad recommended it to me, identifying all the major differences and how much of an improved game it was. Hesitant at first, I then went out to buy the game. Once installed I began to play the main single player campaign.
From the get go of this game, I could already see the HUGE differences and improvements between the ever evolving Rainbow Six series and could tell this would be a unique game.
Game-play: The game-play mechanics in Tom Clancy's 'Rainbow Six: Vegas' (RS:V as we will refer to it) are amazing and extremely smooth. Camera angles are intuitive an never get in the way, and perfectly enable you to play the game with very little, or no problems.
Taking a page from the Gears of War book, RS:V allows you to use cover realistically, and in fact, using cover is not only a must have in the game, but is extremely enjoyable - making you feel that you are very much apart of a very dangerous fire-fight in a real world environment.
The AI in RS:V also hold much of an improvement over its predecessors and is actually better than many of todays FPS's, especially with the difficulty settings upped to 'Realistic'. Enemy AI use cover fire just as well as you do, and have some very well developed team maneuverer's. In addition, the two team members with you (also computer controlled) behave very well amongst the game environment and they too use cover fire just as well.
The story line in the SP campaign however is a little weak but still good, with some points in it lacking cohesion. Nonetheless, the SP story line is still very interesting and worth paying attention to.
Graphics: The graphics used in RS:V very good, with a great attention to detail paid. Whats even better about the graphics is that they do not require a powerhouse of a PC to be enjoyed. I myself am running the game on an Nvidia 7600GT and have all the specs on high.
The in-game graphics are very sharp with nice textures used. The real world environment of Las Vegas is definitely brought to life, and mixing this with the intense SP, or even MP action, leaves you feeling very charged and excited.
Sound:
The sounds in RS:V are very well produced and put to use, and there is little to say about it. However, the sound of some of the guns does feel a little week, although this is rarely a problem or an issue. The music on the other hand is placed very well and sounds great, fitting right into the game, especially when it kicks in during the many shoot-outs which you will encounter. Conclusion:
All in all Tom Clancy's 'Rainbow Six: Vegas' is an astounding game with smooth game-play and great visuals. In addition, the very interesting and wide array of multi-player modes keeps the game playable once the main story line has been completed. The use of cover fire adds great realism to the game and the clever AI makes this even better.
The only real downside to this game is the multi-player bug that sometimes causes the game/server to crash. Other than this, there are very little problems with the game.
This game certainly does justice to the Rainbow Six franchise and is a great addition to any collection; starting from the Rainbow Six enthusiast right down the the beginner and is also a must have for any fan of FPS's.