Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Format Xbox 360

Developer Ubisoft

Publisher Ubisoft

Genre First Person Shooter, Sim / Strategy

5 Comments

Huh? What? But... why? Those were the reactions to the ending of Rainbow Six Vegas too, which couldn't be more open-ended had it been a DVD and you paused it halfway through and said "that's it! That's the end!" before waving your hands and expecting a reaction.

The good news is, Ubisoft isn't done with Rainbow Six Vegas and rather than seeing the terrorists fly away in a helicopter and into the sunset (spoiler!), you're now being given a chance to track them down and finish the job. This is the ending that Rainbow Six Vegas should. This is the conclusion to the escapades in Sin City. This, ladies and gentlemen, is Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (but not, we're sad to say, Rainbow Seven Vegas).

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Similar to the way Ubisoft quickly capitalised on the success of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter with a similarly themed sequel no sooner than a year down the line, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 isn't going to push the boundaries too far from its predecessor either, as is evident by its just-around-the-corner March 2008 release date.

What we do know is the AI will be bumped up so you're be dealing with guards equipped with thermal vision, night vision and shields. So it's not a one-sided push in favour of the terrorists, you'll have your own chances to fight back, such as opportunities for thermal scanning.

You'll also be fighting with new weapons and armour. A total of 11 new weapons are promised, along with a whole array of new camouflage and gear to play around with. It hasn't been confirmed what these weapons are but we've got our fingers crossed that tear gas has been made useful for multiplayer purposes, as the tear gas/gas mask combination was only useful for annoying team-mates.

Yet the real strength of Rainbow Six Vegas was multiplayer, something that will be enhanced in this sequel. We're being promised 13 new maps along with two new adversarial modes and more 'rewards', which should be along the lines of unlockable weapons and armour. More importantly, the matchmaking system will be fixed up, so it will be easier to use and more intuitive. Ubisoft did a great job of fixing the problems with Vegas when they reared their head online, so the experience should bode well for Vegas 2.

Customisable characters will return, with the added bonus of being able to use them in single player too. Finally, co-op mode will feature a drop in/drop out option, which is awesome news. Each map has multiple entry points dotted around, so it doesn't mean the story will be sacrificed to make way for the drop-in co-op either. Without doubt, this is the best improvement over Rainbow Six Vegas thus far, especially given how popular co-op was the first time round. Throwing tear-gas at your team-mate just as he charges into a room full of terrorists is only second to kicking your team-mate off the top of a building in Crackdown.

Otherwise... it's as you were. More Vegas, more terrorists, more multiplayer and hopefully, an actual ending to round things off. We're hoping the balance issues are sorted online, so players don't just spam grenades. We're also hoping that the tightly designed gameplay of the original remains unaffected by the changes, because Rainbow Six Vegas was one of the few games to excel both in multiplayer and in single player. Most of all, we're just looking forward to stomping around with a pistol and shield, pausing only to throw tear-gas at our own team before running away and getting booted from the lobby. Rainbow Six Vegas is responsible for some of our favourite memories online. Our fingers are crossed that Rainbow Six Vegas 2 can replace them.

Ryan King