Clearing out buildings, overlooking the lit up city in Nevada, and a compelling story line are three great features in the franchise. But could it be repetitive the second time around? See what Live-360 gives Ubisoft’s second title in the Vegas series after the break.

Story
I can’t really say much about the story as its basically the same exact thing as Vegas 1. It’s still filled with breaching doors, sending your teammates to a door on one side of the room as you attack through the opposite achieving a flank, which is very amusing if you do it successfully.

Theres one thing thats missing in not just the single player but environments overall. Wheres the casinos? Many could argue that casinos where just a phase put into Vegas 1 but I really think there should have been more than one map featuring a casino. I know theres more to Las Vegas than casinos but I’m just not feeling the new environments.

The best new feature in the game is the A.C.E.S. (Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization) challenges, which is basically a dubbed down version of Call of Duty 4’s challenge system. These allow your character to rank up in three different areas of combat based on how you plan out your enemies death. I really liked this feature but I’ve only been playing this game for about 10-15 hours and I’m almost a level 20 marksman which is the cap. They really need to lengthen the space between each level or throw in a prestige mode like Infinity Ward did.

Multiplayer
Equipped with 12 maps based on the story of both games in the franchise theres again not a whole lot I can say about this topic as its hardly different from the first. It plays exactly like the first with the exception of a sprint button and the A.C.E.S. challenges which are also available here. A thing I think they should have added is a melee attack as close quarter combat feels awkward. Two person story co-op is an option now with one person (the host) controlling their player and the two AI and the other just an added character with no AI.

Getting into a ranked match is a hassle as you can’t join session in progress and you have to try and join several games before you can get in a lobby. Then after you finish that game you get booted out of the lobby and have to start all over again. Its very inconvenient unlike CoD4’s online play where you can join session in progress and stay with the same people after each game.

Presentation
One thing the game is great at is looking good. However it looks exactly the same as the first which disappointed many. The sounds aren’t that different from 1 which really makes me think at this point the game could have been an expensive DLC rather than a $60 game.

If you are about to clear a room, take a minute and listen to the terrorist’s conversations before you blow them away, you might be in for a laugh. They will talk about random topics and I caught myself laughing at times. I’m glad to see more games putting in good humor.

Extras

Terrorist Hunt made it’s way back, playing a little differently this time around. Instead of you running around searching for terrorists like you did in Vegas 1, they will pretty much come to you after they hear a few unsilenced rounds. I’m not really sure if I like or dislike how this plays as both are good fun.

Character customization is also back and deeper than the first with more armor and camouflages to choose from to make your character the way you want. Putting your face in the game is here and is still a bitch to do and haven’t yet done it successfully in this game.

Overall

It basically copied everything from the first game and only added some smaller features like A.C.E.S. and two person co-op. I wasn’t too impressed with the environments this time around as it drifted away from the original casino style shooter.

The multiplayer played the same and lacked a melee button and ranked matches are too much of a hassle to get into. The graphics and sound are not noticeably different from the first but they threw in some humor between the terrorists. Putting your face in the game would be a cooler feature if the person doing it didn’t have to do it at least three times to master the side shot.

The game still plays great and has lots of modes online to explore. Theres tons of new armor and weapons to choose from to perfect your characters look and classes. Terrorist hunt is still fun though different from the previous installment.

Live-360 gives Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

7 out of 10

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 23rd, 2008 at 3:37 am and is filed under Reviews, Xbox 360 Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.