Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

The other day I was sitting in office discussing how crappy the PC port of Splinter Cell Double Agent was, when suddenly, out of nowhere it dawned on me that Tom Clancy must be one rich SoB. I know, it sounds very random, but think about it, this man has his name associated with a lot of successful franchises, be it Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon or Rainbow Six.

Released for the PC way back in 1998, the Rainbow Six series laid down the foundation for the tactical shooter genre as we know it today. Unfortunately, after last year’s dismal Rainbow Six Lockdown, many people were put off with the series and took to stuff like Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter to satisfy their tactical trigger finger. That very same segment will probably approach the latest iteration of Rainbow Six extremely carefully, but guess what, it’s time to shed those inhibitions and dive right in ‘cos Vegas is one hell of a ride...

As far as the game’s story goes, it isn’t going to win any awards since it’s the same old good guys VS terrorist fare with a couple of plot twists thrown in along the way, but what this game lacks in a story, it makes up for in leaps and bounds with its high octane gameplay. Taking a page from Epic’s tactical shooter, Gears of War (review link), Ubisoft has incorporated the very same 'take cover, pop out, shoot and then take some cover again' mechanic and surprisingly it works flawlessly in such a game. Don’t worry though; the game still takes place from the first person perspective (so it’s still pretty tense) but shifts seamlessly to third person as and when your character takes cover.