We’ve always been fans of the Tom Clancy games, but not all. Theres been several that we wanted to like, but there were issues with the game. The Rainbow Six: Vegas games are ones that we need to discuss.

I remember when the game was first announced at E3. I wasn’t hyped like others were. As a fan I was just thrown off by it. Why is a Rainbow Six game set in Vegas? That is really random to have terrorist attacking all these casinos. I think that Vegas was a rejected prototype or another game set in Vegas that development wasn’t going well, so they decided to rework all the assets they built into a new Rainbow.

Gameplay wise it has a good base. There was a fair bit of carry over from Rainbow Six 3, which is great.  The gun models, sounds and attachments are the same. One weird nitpick is the sound they use for the WP grenades in Vegas is the tear gas sound in Rainbow Six 3. Another good thing is they stayed away from anything that was in Rainbow Six: Lockdown outside P.E.C. The carry over fits with the idea of Vegas wasn’t supposed to be a Rainbow Six game.

The issues come up with new things they added. They changed the night vision from the previous games and it makes random parts of the level bright where theres no light and can be hard to see. Thermal vision is a lot easier to use. But the nightvision on the l camera used to check under doors is fine. Adding a cover system in a Rainbow Six  game should’ve been controversial, but somehow it wasn’t. I don’t necessarily have an issue with it, if done right. The Vegas cover system  can be finicky. You have to hold the button down to stay in cover and it goes into 3rd person. It was just a random design choice. Leaning in the earlier games was better. Repelling was also added to it and it also can be finicky, plus its really slow to jump through the windows.

The 3rd person cover made it really cheap in the multiplayer because you can line up crosshairs before coming out of cover to shoot. I hate cover shooters that don’t make it clear where its safe at in cover, and you can get easily shot while in it. 

One thing that really holds the game back is level design. The levels are pretty diverse with different themed casinos and other places around town. The problem is the design is always entering a room with enemies from two separate doors. One is always around the corner from the other. It becomes very formulaic and lazy. Sometimes there maybe a window or skylight to go through, but for the most part its two doors.

The campaign levels are too long compared to other Rainbows, and can start to look really samey as it goes on. Each level is a chapter of the campaign and has multiple acts. Your going to notice the same rooms and long corridors with islands for cover.

Hit boxes and gun spread are also an issue. The hit-boxes can be really bad when enemies are at certain angles, sniping or using mounted machine guns. You will be shooting them in the head and nothing will happen and end up dying. The spread at medium range for most guns has  increased from the earlier games.

The stories in Rainbow were never anything special but Vegas 2 is worse somehow. They try to have these weapons free dialogue sections and they’re nothing special. I do like between levels you get on a helicopter as a loading screen.

The Rainbow Six Vegas games are a set of games that were trendy and tried adding to the formula of series and it was just ok. It wasn’t bad, just not as good as before. It’s a game we like for the stuff it took from the old games, but dislike for the new stuff it added. This was noticeable with a lot of series between 6th and 7th gen. I will say the challenge and good gunplay does keeping pulling me back into the campaign.