Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas Ubisoft price comparison

In 1998, the release of “Rainbow Six” saw the beginning of one of the most successful tactical shooter series, based on the eponymous novel by Tom Clancy. Where previously the emphasis had been on tactical planning, now the weight has shifted to action. This, however, does not make Rainbow Six: Vegas (the fifth part of the series released for PC) a simple shoot ‘em up.

Chavez Ding, the famous protagonist from Rainbow Six: Vegas’ predecessors, hasn’t completely given up his job at Rainbow, but he has taken over from his boss, John Clark, in a rather more quiet desk job. His old position has gone to the young Logan Keller. His mission is to hunt down an internationally wanted terrorist by the name of Irena Morales in Mexico. The plan goes horribly wrong, however. Instead of Rainbow detaining the terrorist, Irena manages to capture two of our Team Alpha comrades, Gabriel Nowak and Kan Akahashi. But instead of being able to look for his abducted comrades, his new superior, Chavez Ding, sends Logan Keller to Las Vegas. Here, terrorists have gained control of various (fictional) casinos, and the situation is getting serious.

Rainbow Six Vegas has a new approach to its predecessors. Where you previously spent half the game planning the operation, in Vegas you already have the first confrontations with the terrorists (or “Tangos”, as Team Rainbow calls them) behind you. The attitude of the game is clearly weighted towards dramatic staging and action-heavy game play. The mixture of action game play and tactical operations has been perfectly realised by UBI-Soft.

While we hit the action button to order our two comrades to take cover behind a vehicle, we fire blindly from our cover to give our team covering fire and steer the enemy fire towards us. Once finally successful, we can only watch as the stationary MG blows the vehicle where our teammates are taking cover into smithereens, from about 20 meters range. One of our people is already on the ground, heavily wounded. We have no choice, but to take out the Tango on the stationary MG with a well-aimed shot to allow our other team mate the chance to heal his colleague. Unfortunately, we didn’t see the terrorists who took advantage of the stationary MG fire to creep up from behind. Wush – mission failed, reload checkpoint and in the meantime admire the brilliant AI...

This time, we have come up with different tactics. On the handy overview map we have discovered a small alley, which looks like it isn’t being watched by the terrorists. So, once again, we send our colleagues behind the vehicle, but this time to give us covering fire, while we make use of the enemy’s tactics. Once in the alley, we give our team the order to advance. At the same time, we throw a grenade through the narrow alley. The few remaining terrorists are finished off with a few well-aimed shots from our machine pistol. Done. We have smoked out the nest. But this was just the beginning of the mission.

Although Rainbow Six is a relatively linear game, it always gives us the choice of different tactics and paths. We can either try to infiltrate the terrorists or choose the direct way of confrontation. We let our team abseil from the roof, while we fight to clear a path to the inside of the building, to clean the room of terrorists. This doesn’t have a great influence on the development of the game, as even the best infiltration always ends in a shooting orgy. A shame, a lot more could have been done here for the game. By the way: unlike SWAT, terrorists cannot be taken prisoner.

However, Rainbow Six Vegas sets the scene perfectly. The gripping story we are first transported from Mexico to Vegas, to then prevent a detonation at the Hoover Dam. Unfortunately, UBI Soft did not receive the licenses to be able to set the scenes in the famous casinos in Las Vegas for this game. As a result, we shoot our way through fictional casinos. However, the developers have not left out the famous casinos, such as the MGM Grand, during our helicopter flights, which set the scene reasonably well for the start of our mission.

Another positive we noticed are the small gadgets and manoeuvres available to us. For example, you can shoot your pistol with one hand whilst abseiling, even upside down, or you can see several enemies through grenade smoke thanks to a thermal imaging device.

Luckily, after battling through the solo campaign for 8 hours, you aren’t just left with the (weak) multi-player mode. The one player mode still has the option to go on “terrorist hunt”. In this mode, we have to single handedly clear a map of 50 terrorists. With “realistic” difficulty level, this can be pretty hard work. Unfortunately, you can take advantage of several bugs in the game to lure whole hordes of enemies out of their hiding places, without having to move an inch.

The AI in Rainbow Six Vegas is convincing (at least in solo mode). The enemies try to surprise us from the rear, shout for help and notice (if we attack from two sides or in flank) which side is being troubled more.

The AI in Rainbow Six Vegas is convincing (at least in solo mode). The enemies try to surprise us from the rear, shout for help and notice (if we attack from two sides or in flank) which side is being troubled more.

Unfortunately, we sometimes had to watch/hear a room being stormed with several grenades, then in a second of silence we hear the Tangos through the swing doors in the room opposite, “Sssht – I think I heard something…” “Don’t be stupid, you’re imagining things...”. The terrorists respond just as little to a dead comrade. This makes it possible to kill Tango one with a head shot without his colleague 2 meters away noticing a thing. Only when we’re out of cover we hear a terse “Damn - he still owed me money…” Such exceptions are compensated by appropriate dialogue or aren’t really noticed due to the otherwise demanding AI. Had these mistakes been completely eradicated, this game would be just about perfect.

Unfortunately, the AI doesn’t work as well in “terrorist hunt” mode as in the solo campaign. Here, the missing AI is simply compensated by masses of enemies.

Here, UBI-Soft has unfortunately let the standard drop a little. Any servers which can be found either have too high a ping to play smoothly and satisfactorily, or are full. However, the multi-player is impressive if you do manage to get on a server. The game offers a number of multi-player modes, all of which, however, can be found on other games. As a result, you have to be content with the servers and game modes available for the online game.

The multi-player part is at its most enjoyable in the “co-op” mode, where you can shoot your way through the story campaign with up to 3 friends, or on terrorist hunt. Unlike the XBOX360 version, the collected points aren’t converted to a higher military rank, but you have the highest rank from the outset. A shame, as it is this option in particular which pushed the motivation factor in the XBOX360 version.

You don’t have to waste too many words on the graphics. All we’re saying is: Unreal 3 Engine. Nothing can go wrong. The absolutely fantastic light, shadow and mirror effects from EPIC Games make Rainbow Six: Vegas into the most beautiful current tactical shooter. Whole car models are taken apart into little pieces, when pipes are hit they shoot fountains of gas, and poker chips, neon advertisements as well as all sorts of other objects are just waiting to be destroyed.

In terms of sound, UBI Soft has nothing to hide. Fantastic orchestral film music fittingly underscores intense firefights. The occasional heavy metal sounds emitting from the speakers aren’t as fitting, however. In our opinion, this doesn’t quite fit into the Vegas concept. All the more impressive are the sounds of volleys of gunfire, which reverberate and rumble, turning the living room into a battlefield.