Rainbow Six: Vegas (360) - Classic Game Review

(This is the first article in a new series focusing on some older games; rather than write a review based on something that came out years ago, I will instead be taking a look at some classic games and seeing whether they are still worth acquiring today.)

   

The biggest surprise when you load up 360 classic Rainbow Six: Vegas is that, graphically, it has stood the test of time remarkably well; sure it’s under two years old, but in these days of High Dynamic Range Holographic Super Bloom Definition Atomic Per Second Lighting (or something suitably technical sounding along those lines), a couple of years can be a very long time indeed.  So, while some of the textures are a bit low-res and crappy looking (particularly during the once-amazing Vegas city flyovers), and the character models are slightly blockier than we’re used to now, on the whole it doesn’t look too bad at all.

Due to the paucity of tactical shooters released over the last few years (Vegas, it’s sequel, and the Ghost Recons are the only ones I can think of on 360), the gameplay stands up in much the same was as the graphics; the tactically challenging, flashbang-flinging, squad-commanding fun is still, well, surprisingly fun to play, and the smoothness of the cover mechanic and the (usually) intelligent AI puts recent titles like Army of Two to shame.

On the other hand, the storyline is absolute drivel involving Mexican terrorists and a plot to blow some stuff up (gasp!), and the characters are so two-dimensional that you will hardly care when something bad happens to them, or when the inevitable plot-twist you saw coming from a mile away finally occurs.

The other big criticism of this game is the co-op mode; inexplicably, playing co-op in Rainbow Six: Vegas completely removes all the story elements from the game, making it a rather lacklustre and samey experience.  Sure the gameplay is still fun, but the complete lack of context for all the action, and the anticlimactic endings to levels ensures that the game never reaches the fun level in co-op that it should have.

Versus multiplayer is a whole other kettle of fish; imagine Counterstrike-esque team based play, but with a much greater emphasis on tactics and teamwork, and you’d have a fairly good idea of how Vegas plays online.  Many people went and bought this game on release solely for the multiplayer, and indeed it was probably the best multiplayer FPS on the 360 for quite a while.  The game still plays well, but finding a game online these days is becoming a bit more challenging, what with Vegas 2 being out (as well as the Halo 3s of the world) and taking the player-base.

In all, Rainbow Six: Vegas is probably a worthwhile purchase, at least if you enjoy a good single-player tactical shooter, or a fun-but-annoying co-op experience.  Multiplayer, once the main selling point of the title, is not so much a defining factor these days, so if you’re primarily an online gamer you might want to reconsider buying this; mind you, at about 25 bucks AUD for the game, there’s little reason not to purchase this just to add it to your collection.

A fun way to pass some time, and better than many new releases.

            

How I would have rated it on release: 8.5/10 (A strong take on the tactical FPS genre, and a strong return to form for the Rainbow Six franchise)

How I would rate it now: 7/10 (Still a great game, but looking a little dated compared to more recent releases; multiplayer games are now a bit thin on the ground, which is a shame as it was the best feature)

      

- Tim Sweeney