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Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Review by Steve Heimel

Rainbow Six Vegas 2.... what to say.  It is of course a first person shooter with a lot of gamemodes.  It has a story mode, a terrorist hunt mode, and of course multiplayer.  It keeps the action going by having all these gamemodes, however there is one drawback, it is essentially the same game.  Not that that's bad I mean Rainbow Six Vegas 1 was fun and so is its sequel, but you just don't get the amazing new experience you expect from this game.  Anyway let's get down to specifics.
 
The story is that you are part of a special forces squad that carries out missions against terrorism.  The games main story is tracking down the reason of an elite terroist group attacks that seem to have no reason or purpose.  So, like in the original you are flown in by helicopter to places in Las Vegas to eliminate terrorists and get closer to the leader of them.  Of course in the end you end up finding out who it is and then proceed to track that person down in the last mission.  That is the basic story, there is probably more to it but it's hard to follow because whenever they talk about the story ( the characters )  because they're always muffled by the helicopter that you are in. ( And I never finished the first one )  Still its a fun story to play and they make sure to change up the maps and battles throughout the game .                                                                                                          

The Terrorist Hunt is still as tense and frustrating as it used to be.  However that's usually only if you play with only two people or yourself.  When you play with the full four that is now possible it seems a little bit to easy, even on realistic.  It is still hard on some maps however even with the full four and after all you are not invincible just because of numbers.  There are around 12 missions that take place on all the multiplayer and story levels.  The terrorists are easy to kill once you find a good spot to camp, though a few will usually stay back and try to pick you off as you come by.  Overall, it is still a fun challenge to overtake in the game no matter the difficulty. ( Casual is a cake walk for most returning players though )

Finally, there is the regular multiplayer.  There are a lot of different game types that offer a somewhat different experience.  You can just kill, plant bombs, or rescue hostages.  Anyway I found that it doens't usually matter the gametype people just want to kill each other and completely ignore the objective.  Another problem is boost matches, these are matches where one team does nothing while the others get to go over and kill them for XP.  I try to avoid these but there are so many of them, I mean jeez no one wants to play games for fun anymore do they.  I mean I wanted to reach Elite status too but I really couldn,t bring myself to cheat my whole way up.  Anyway when you do find a match that is real they're pretty fun and there is little lag so I give it a thumbs up.Now that we've all learned about the game let's get down to gameplay.  The cover system works pretty well, although they need to work on the shooting through cover thing.  If I can shoot through wood don't you think I should be able to shoot through drywall? Oh well.  Anyway the weapons each have there advantages, shotguns are one hit kills, assault rifles are accurate, and even the pistols are pretty badass. ( The Raging Bull especially )  The new sprint feature is pretty nice too, although it still is almost impossible to run in open area without getting killed even if you go fast.  Last of all is the AI.  Very good AI, they do what they're told and help you a lot if you let them.  They are downed seldom and are good for distractions and aid.  One bug I found however is that sometimes when they're downed they don't heal when you try to and you have to start over.  It has only happened twice but it's still worth mentioning.  Overall, I think the gameplay was great and no big changes are needed.

The Bads.  One of the worst things in the game is the unbalance between players.  If you are a nobb and you join a game online almost every other player has one of the best weapons in the game.  It doesn't always make the difference but that 500 Tactical will always be annoying.  Another thing is that sometimes when you play single-player the terrorists just know your there.  Even when you're hiding they'll suddenly be alert to you and start going towards you.  One last thing is that they are super soldiers.  Once when I was sneaking up on one and he was staring at a wall, he just suddenly turns and headshots me.  What is that!  Anyway there aren't very many bads and it was a good game.

The graphics are fairly descent.  It isn't much different from the first but they're still good.  Some of the textures are a little plain like walls and some floors.  Also, there isn't much detail on things like laptop screens and slot machines, but maybe I'm just to used to stuff like that.  Overall, the graphics aren't worth bragging about, but they're good enough for the game.

The sound in this game I felt was very good.  The guns sound great and the explosions sound clear and neat too.  The voices are done well and sound like they are actually over a radio.  The helicopter parts are realistic by making the voices muffled, but I don't think that's a good thing.  In conclusion the sound was done well and needs little improvement.

Overall I'd say the game is worth buying and if you're not a fan of fps you can still rent it.  Some say that because it is almost Rainbow Six 1 its not that great but Rainbow 1 was fun and so is this.  So, whatever you choose I still say this game is pretty good and I found it fun and exciting. Comments.