Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas

Safe from harm

The similarities with Gears of War's duck and cover gameplay are unavoidable - both make it imperative to make good use of cover at all times, both let you peep out from behind cover to fire, both make it easy to blindfire, both let you revive downed squad mates, and both have (usually) decent AI. Both games even subscribe to similar checkpointing and recharging health mechanics, with room clearing always the main objective. But however many element you match up, Rainbow Six is very much its own game, still subscribing to a slower-paced formula where death is always imminent, care must be taken at every step, and wise marshalling of your squad mates is as important as your ability to aim. Play it like a traditional gung-ho shooter and you'll still have your arse handed to you quicker than you can reload, making it feel more aligned with the Call of Duty 2 (and 3) way of approaching firefights than the empty-an-entire-clip-into-his-face requirement of GoW.

But it's important to note just how dramatically the recharging health system impacts the Rainbow Six gameplay dynamic. All the way through the series, you knew that just one slip-up was curtains, and that your declining health was inevitably carried into later parts of a particular level. With that taken away, you're effectively allowed to take many more risks than you ever could before, and, as such, the game now feels a lot less tense, a lot more forgiving, and definitely a lot less frustrating than it ever was in the past. Previously, you'd often have to literally memorise entire chunks of a level in order to squeak through, but the knowledge that you can take a few hits and fully recover makes the gameplay more of a game of cat-and-mouse. You know that with this new system you can afford to peep out, return fire, take a breather, and go back-and-forth until you've taken out all the hostiles.

Also, the role of your squad mates has been improved no end, despite the slightly mystifying reduction in numbers from four to three. In the past, you almost always knew that you'd have to take the lead, because their aim could be so damned shoddy, or they'd flounder when ambushed. But in Vegas, they're not only a much better shot, but react intelligently to situations, finding cover when it's obvious that your orders to stray into the line of fire were rubbish. As such, your role is much more as commander, providing fire support when you can. Trying to take the lead in Vegas just gets you into trouble, as your squad mates simply react a lot quicker than you do. They can still get into trouble, of course - but the penalties for them getting shot are nowhere near as strict as previously. Of course, in the past, if they were incapacitated, that was it for the rest of the level - but not any more, thanks to the infinite ability to revive them via yourself or another squad member within a limited time period.

Fun over realism

With that in mind, progress through each level is much less of a headache than it ever was. Does that mean Ubisoft has dumbed it down a touch? A little. Is sacrificing realism for fun less satisfying as a result? Possibly. Will you enjoy it more without having to face such stiff penalties for failure? Almost certainly.

That's not to say the game is easy, because even the default Normal difficulty provides plenty of challenge when Ubisoft dictates it. As with every R6 game down the years, there's still plenty of tight, confined indoor room-clearing that requires a thoughtful approach, but perhaps the main difference is the reaction time from your squaddies and from the enemy is more in your favour for once. Long-term fans will be pleased to know that at its core, though, the old-style gameplay is still very much intact - it's just been refined and made slightly more accessible, presumably to tap into the mainstream shooter audience. The whole process of clearing rooms seems to have been pared down for the good, though, with a simple context-sensitive approach where you order your men to 'stack' next to a door by pointing your cursor at it. Once they're in formation, all it takes is to select one of three options with the corresponding dpad direction - open and clear, frag and clear or breach and clear (we'd argue that 'flash and clear' should be in there too - an extra command on the dpad would have made no difference to its simplicity). With just a further prompt required to send them into action, it's a system which is both easy to set up and extremely effective.

Snaaaaake!

Added to that - although not essential if you're playing on normal difficulty - is the ability to use the new 'snake cam' under any door and 'tag' up to two priority targets that you see by aiming at the required terrorist and pressing the right shoulder button. Using this allows you to target a room via a different entrance in the knowledge that your squad mates will take care of specific enemies - a very important factor during hostage rescue scenarios, and a hugely welcome new addition.

Added to all this general slick AI intelligence and control refinements is a more open-ended approach to the level design, where alternative routes allowing you greater scope to flank enemies or take a more daring approach. A typical example is later on in the game where you're able to 'fast rope' down through a glass roof and storm a room - or, you can just take the stairs and battle it out in a more considered, traditional sense. Also added to Vegas is the ability to rappel down the sides of buildings (or lift shafts) - no big deal on its own, except that you can click the stick and turn yourself upside down to spring a surprise attack. Being able to command men to breach through plate glass windows adds an extra touch of drama to an already furious game.

Talking of drama, Vegas does a fine job of tying together all the strands of the storyline in a far better way than previous Rainbow Sixes ever managed. Taking its cue from GRAW, you're given plenty of picture-in-picture video feeds throughout, and at the end of each of the chapters you hook up with laptop-fan Joanna Torres and briefed as you fly to your next port of call. GRAW players will recall how impressive these flythrough sequences were there, and they're an even more glorious demonstration of the tech - partly because the Neon-flecked skyline lends itself so well to this show-off treatment, and partly because the glitzy architecture is so instantly identifiable. Tied together, you're given a much more visually enticing incentive to pay attention, whereas before the presentation was, frankly, awful. Even little touches like being able to fiddle with your equipment loadout for the next mission just feels a lot more natural. It's abundantly clear that Ubisoft has been listening to previous criticisms and tackling them head-on.