A Review of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas for Xbox

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Vegas for the XBOX 360 takes you into the heart of sin city where you must use a combination of stealth and firepower to overcome an extremely well equipped band of terrorists who have been setting off bombs in the casinos. Accompanied by two teammates who will follow your every command, you will fight in the streets, the hotels, and even high above the city in the scaffolding of a newly built casino. The game is challenging to play and gorgeous to look at and will be a welcome addition to any XBOX 360 owner's game library.

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Vegas is classified as a "Tactical Shooter'. Rather than your typical run and gun scenarios that you find in games like Call of Duty or Halo, the player has to rely on his brain a bit more than his reflexes. In most instances, merely walking up to a door and then opening it, hoping to quickly out gun whatever lay behind it is a suicide move. Instead the player must use their "Snake Cam" to peek under the door and determine as much as possible the situation that they are about to enter, then decide on the best course of action for entering and clearing the room. The player can order his team members to use a Breaching Charge to blow open the door, or he can tag a few of the enemies and then order his team to bust in and take down the bad guys in the order he specified. There are a variety of approaches, and not all of them will work each time. Sometimes the bad guys are too far apart to take out with a grenade, and sometimes they may be holding hostages so tossing a grenade into the room before running in guns ablaze would be a quick way to get the mission failure screen.

The enemies in Rainbox Six are no slouches. They will use their own tactics in their effort to prevent you from stopping their evil plans. They will toss grenades at you, use smoke to cover their moves, take cover behind obstacles, and attempt to flank your team and catch you in a crossfire. As the game progresses, the enemies get better equipped and better trained. The common thugs you are fighting in the tutorial mission are quickly replaced by enemies who have special ops training and are more than capable of overwhelming the player who is not quick on the draw and quick to duck into cover.

While the challenge before you is great, you have a wide variety of tools at your disposal in Rainbox Six : Vegas. Most notably is your team who will accompany you on each mission. They are great shots and know how to hide, so you will want to make as much use of them as you can. You also have an assortment of weapons and gadgets to choose from ranging anywhere from a pistol to a packet of C4 which you can detonate from afar, a great way to set up a trap for an oncoming wave of enemies. Most weapons can be equipped with silencers when you are trying to stay under the radar, and you can also fit a long range scope if you want to try and get a few kills in at 100 yards.

While the game shines in the gameplay department, it is also a nice visual treat. The glitter of Las Vegas is well represented, whether you are sneaking around inside of a casino full of slot machines or inching your way down Freemont Street with marquees and video screens lining every free surface. The views in the game are gorgeous, most of them modeled off of real locations in Las Vegas.

Even the sounds in Rainbow Six : Vegas are well done, and not just the usual swelling music when you are approaching a tough battle. More than once I was crouched down behind a slot machine hoping not to get noticed when the machine suddenly started beeping and spitting out coins, scaring the heck out of me. You'll also be treated to a few pieces of lounge music in the bars and casino floor, which add an eerie feel to the game as you see places that are normally so full of life take on the aspect of a deadly maze that you have to wend your way through, trying to stay alive.

All in all Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six : Vegas is a great buy for XBOX 360 owners hungering for a new game that shows off the power of the console. The game offers a rich single player line, a thriving community of online players, and tons of new XBOX 360 achievements to unlock so you can boost your gamer score. The only bad thing I can say about the game is that it ends on a cliff hanger note, but at least that means there will be a sequel coming soon.