Platform: Xbox 360
Media: Video Game
Rating: 16+
Price: Varied
Vegas 2:
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is a first person shooter game...you need to lead a team of three merceneries through the city of Vegas to take out terrorist's and save hostages. I am still hooked on this one...I love the concept, levels, terrorist missions, characters, enemies, challenges, rankings, experience points, achievements and everything else in it. I love the layout of every level and terrist hunt mission, I would still choose Rainbow Six Vegas 2 over any other first person shooter.
I gives me the joy and excited trying to earn the experience points and trying to obtain the A.C.E.S. in order to move up a ranking and unlock weapons, clothes, items etc...When it reaches a certain point on the A.C.E.S. the icon of that A.C.E.S. comes up on the screen indicating that you've reached the next point level and you immediately gain 5,000 points. Every now and then i'm going back on Vegas 2 just to move up the next couple of rankings and unlock the other achievements I haven't had the chance to unlock before.
I love the idea of ordering the other two teammates to go here or go there or go in for the kill, they immediately go to cover when instructed to go near an object, wall or vehicle. I tend to let them go in front so I can protect and shoot out long distance enemies from behind a wall, box, vehicle etc...I like the idea of when a fallen teammate is injured and lying on the ground you can either heal them yourself by going up to them or by ordering the other teammate to heal them, only if there both not injured at the same time or otherwise you'll need to heal them both quickly and watch out for incoming enemies.
The Story:
First off...you have four options to choose from:
- Single Player Mode: You simply go it alone
- Join a Coop Match: Play on over xbox live with other online people
- Host a Coop Match: Set up a game and compete with other people online
- Split Screen: A second player can help you through the story (Offline of course)
In the Story you have 7 different scenes and 25 levels to go through in order to complete this part of the game and can choose three difficulty options to do it:
- Casual: The easiest
- Normal: Medium difficulty
- Realistic: Hardest
Every level you complete on each difficulty setting you will see a box is ticked next to the scene on scene selection and achievements can be unlocked by doing so. I love each one of the scenes, they're all challenging and realistic, especially challenging on the hardest setting of course. My two favourite scenes out of the lot are Convention and Theater, I love the Southhall level on Convention and the Casino one on the Theater. The Story does remind me a little bit of The Sum of all Fears which I have on the PC, I completed that one rather quickly and it didn't take me long to complete Vegas 2 on casual and normal difficulty, the realistic difficulty is rather challenging and I still have to complete it. You can earn experience points throughout the missions for every kill you make, which helps to move up the rankings alot quicker.
Terrorist Hunt:
This mode has the same four options has the story mode, but this time there are 12 scenes to complete on the three difficulty settings, these missions will certainly help to gain more experience points and go up the rankings alot quicker. I love the fact you can choose between three enemy denisty types (Low, Medium and High) if you choose high enemy density you get alot more terrorist to kill, in both story and terrorist hunt the number of enemies you have to kill is displayed on the top left hand corner of the screen during gameplay. Also in terrorist hunt you can choose yes or no for lone wolf, choosing no means your two colleges help you out and choosing yes you go it alone. I've ticked every box on every scene/mission in this mode. The theater on terrorist hunt can be the hardest on all difficulty settings, you need to have some kind of tactic or know where and when the enemies come, otherwise they'll keep getting you quick or from behind.
Versus:
This mode is quite simply play against other people on xbox live or play against someone through system link.
The Character:
-Outfitting-
Before starting the story and terrorist hunt I went onto my character option where I can customize my soldier, you get to select the types of equipment and weapons you want your character to hold (Guns, Shields, bombs etc...) you can select them for the story/terrorist hunt modes and can select different ones for the versus mode...if you choose to that is. The type of armor you can choose and also the type of clothing to wear (example: head gear, face masks, type of top and type of trousers) or you can reset appearance and select different clothes and items. First off, alot of the clothes, items and weapons are locked so you will need to gain those experience points and move up the rankings in order to select them. so you're a little exposed and limited on weapons and armor etc...don't worry, your characters not naked.
-Rewards-
The rewards is the most challenging and most exciting part of the game...it shows you the rewards screen, completed achievements to gain medals screen and experience points screen showing 3 tactical attacking A.C.E.S. These 3 tactical attacking A.C.E.S. will help you get to the next ranking, they will tell you what attacking kills gain the most points.
-Ranks-
So far I've reached the 23rd rank and have unloocked all items on this part...The next rank I'm aiming for is elite 3, I'm not quite sure how many rankings there are because they keep going to the next and to the next and the next, so I will just keep gaining those points to reach the next one.
-A.C.E.S.-
The 3 attacking A.C.E.S. for the experience points are:
-Marksman
-CQB
-Assault
To earn these points you need to kill enemies in certain ways, I use a crafty tactic to reach every CQB level and I would like to share this crafty tactic so it can help others. This is just one of many ways to gain more points and move up the ranks quicker:
Mode: Terrorist Hunt, Single Player
Mission: Vegas Junkyard
Difficulty: Normal
Enemy Density: Low
Lone Wolf: Yes
Go it alone...
pick off the enemies in the compound until it reaches down to 13 enemies left (stay shielded in the warehouse behind the wall and kill using blind fire, for a start thats +3 points for every kill) go down the ladder right of the warehouse you start off in, through the tunnel and right to end...the remaining enemies will come down that ladder one by one, kill them all close up has they're climbing down (Kill at short range) you obtain 3 points for each kill.
Achievements:
You earn medals, badges and ribbons by completing certain required tasks...for example, Complete the story on the hardest difficulty level.
Leaderboards and Service Tag option:
Have to connect live to this. I haven't tried this yet
Extras:
-Options
-Credits
-Exclusive Content: Connect live to this
-Comcast Gift: Reedem free gift by entering code given to you at www.rainbowsixgame.com
Overall thoughts:
Every part Rainbow Six Vegas 2 I'm still enjoying right now, the Sum of all Fears was based on Tom Clancy and I really loved that one on the PC so it just reminded me of when I was playing that one back then. I do love going through the story over and over again, its a great mercenery first person shooter controlled game where you can just freely travel through the Vegas city scenes and pick off the enemies with the help of your two teammates. Some of the scenes and mission were a little difficult at first, even on the easiest difficulty, but has you continue to play through and get use to the controls and surroundings it will start to become a doddle. I certainly find it easy to control now, but then i've always love these type of games and like I said, even though call of duty is a top game I would still prefer to go back on this anytime, complete the A.C.E.S. gain the experience points and move up the rankings.
Another Kill!!! 
