threevue

Surprisingly, I finished Rainbow Six Vegas 2 last night. I say surprisingly because until I got there, I had no idea that I was nearing the end until I checked the cheevers list and noticed there was only one more of the “Complete Whatever Mission” variety as of yet unachieved. I even checked the IGN walkthrough to confirm that I wasn’t about to finish prematurely. I heard that this game was actually much longer and harder than one might expect, which tuned out to be quite the opposite of my experience. Maybe this had to do with the fact that I played it on casual difficulty, and was therefore able to plow through the terrorist opposition with the ease of a well-lubed wrecking ball.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for shorter games. I think most people will agree with me when I say the length doesn’t matter as much as the width. By that I mean that a richer, fuller eight hour experience is more satisfying than a shallow, drawn out 20+ hour one. Similar to COD4, this game made the good choice to finish up before it got dry, repetitive, and meaningless.

Gameplay-wise, RSV2 was very solid and smooth. One of the major things that the Vegas series brought to the game world was the cover system. I don’t remember having any specific problems with how it worked in the first game, and in part 2 it still worked very well. The button combinations required for the cover-ADS-fire mechanic was intuitive, and dispatching a nearby bewildered enemy by means of blindfiring around a corner will always be one of my favorite ways to put a man on his back.

One thing that I was really happy with was the efficiency of your two partners, especially during the loud, sweaty orgies of multiple men shooting at each other with little to no protection. The AI, of your teammates at least, was really good. It may sound boring, but I spent half the game stacking my two soldiers at an area’s rear entrance, and ordering them to enter at the same time. It was difficult to get used to at first, but once I was able to relax and let them do what they do best, I couldn’t get enough. Between the two, they definitely finished off more guys in the game than I did. There was a solo section of the game though, where I was forced to take matters into my own hands, but it was more stealth-based than all-out action, so I was mostly able to get in and get out before the enemy was even aware that I had penetrated their tightly sealed strongholds.

I played through the entire campaign and a few terrorist hunt missions, but I didn’t hop online. The first RSV multiplayer was pretty fun, but difficult, and I can’t imagine this one being much different. I was surprised earlier today when I saw on Major Nelson’s blog that RSV2 was only the 8th most active Xbox Live title last week, behind games like Guitar Hero 3, the Battlefield: Bad Compamy demo, and get this, Gears of War. Whatever, world.

I’m going to hold off on giving the game a score in hopes than one day we can do a threevue review on it, but I will say that it’s really hard to find something negative to say about it. Although it’s not as pretty as some other recent military shooters, it’s definitely cute enough for a summer fling, and all its different modes give it a high replay value that will make every new escapade feel like it was your first time.

I’m not saying Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a must play, but if you are a fan of tactical shooters, this one will definitely blow satisfaction all over your face. At the same time, though, I don’t feel that it’s a big enough upgrade to warrant the spending of 35 more dollars than the going rate of a used copy of part one.