Rainbow Six: Vegas (PS3)
A tactical shooter with excellent graphics and superb online
gameplay,
this game was expected to have been a classic, but is it?
Gameplay: 82%
The gameplay
is the best part about the game. The storyline is that you lead an elite
team of three counter terrorist assault troops. Terrorists have attacked the
hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, and it is your job to defeat them in various
missions such as rescuing hostages and defusing bombs. As a tactical shooter
rather than a hung-ho one, you have to use the cover of things like casino
slot machines and other parts of buildings in order to move around without
being seen, or killed!
The main problem is that your two helpers are far better than yourself, even when you’ve played it a lot, and this makes the game pretty ridiculous at times. Their reactions are much quicker than yours, and they don’t seem to die very often, while the second an enemy spots you you’re dead.
This means you end up just ordering them around and making them do all the hard work. On each level they would kill at least 80% of the enemy on their own, while you take cover and oversee things, and while that’s not supposed to be the way to play it, you end up tackling each mission along those lines.
The sequence of event in all the missions also end up being far too repetitive: run, open door, shoot, diffuse, or: run, open door, shoot, and rescue. It soon becomes very basic and repetitive gameplay and not as much fun as it should be.
Graphics: 70%
Did they
really think that this game was finished when they released it? Given that
this is a PS3 game where the level of quality is supposed to be high, it
disappoints at times. Some of the maps are good, but too many lack the
sharpness you would expect from a game like this and it gave me eye strain
far too often.
Sound:
70%
Sound isn’t
the most important part of a game, as good gameplay, value, and graphics are
all more essential in my view. In this game the sound effects don’t add or
reduce enjoyment, but it does get annoying at times with gunfire repeating
itself all the time.
Online:
Yes, but it’s
poor. There doesn’t seem to be any dedicated European servers, and so you’re
playing with a lot of people in the USA. This means you get too much lag and
glitches, which gets you killed too often. The lag also means the quality of
communications with your team mates is poor, either using an eyetoy or a
dedicated microphone.
Value: 75%
I’m afraid my
overall view of the game has limited its lifespan. While others will no
doubt enjoy it, I didn't.
Conclusion:
This game was
supposed to be a classic, but the makers have messed it up miserably in my
opinion by releasing it before it was 100% ready. With the better graphics,
fantastic gameplay, great online, good sound, and huge value that
Resistance offers, Rainbow Six: Vegas is
unfortunately a big letdown.
Overall Score: 77%