April 21, 2008 - Most PC gamers have likely recovered from the shock of Rainbow Six: Vegas' drastic departure from the more hardcore tactical planning of the series' past. In case you missed out, the R6 titles bearing the Vegas moniker are more about action, far more forgiving of mistakes, and mix in only very light tactical elements. Though it's certainly quite a bit different from what the PC-faithful may remember playing years ago, it still proved to be an entertaining formula when Vegas was released in late 2006. With Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Ubisoft delivers what's nearly a carbon copy of what we saw in its predecessor. Though little attention has been paid to alleviating issues with the single-player content, the online modes can be a lot of fun.
To help survey the zones of battles you've got access to an overhead map capable of displaying enemy positions and the ability to periodically perform thermal sweeps of the area. Along with all your other fancy tools like thermal and night-vision goggles, a snake camera to peek under doors, and a variety of grenades types, not to mention the bevy of firearms at your disposal, you prove to be quite the prepared counter-terrorist agent. The problem with the single-player is there just isn't all that much reason to use any of them, since it's ultimately such a superficial tactical experience.
Take, for example, your ability to command your squad to post up next to a door. You can use the snake cam to paint targets in the adjoining room for priority kills, instruct the squad to silently walk in and start blasting, and have them blow the door (which is now limited use) or lob in a grenade. Though each method of assault has definite side effects (blowing open the door stuns the enemies, for instance), there's not all that much need to use careful consideration in selecting methods, as your squad is quite powerful. If you give them a few seconds to engage the enemy, you just have to pop in the ever-present second entrance to the room and pick off any stragglers. Should your team get knocked down, you can just order them to revive each other with magical hypos or do it yourself. You will have to be somewhat cautious, however, as downed squadmates can eventually bleed out once knocked down, forcing you to reload from a checkpoint.
Bumping up the difficulty will of course add to the challenge, and for me made the game more entertaining as it elevates the tactical elements above arbitrary levels, except for in one particular stage. Later on in the single-player campaign there's an extensive sequence where Ubisoft completely removes the squad from your control, like was done for a bit in the first Vegas. Not only is this frustrating as you're denied the ability to effectively flank and can be killed after only a few shots, but it moves against the foundation of the franchise. That being said, it's Ubisoft's game and they're free to twist it however they feel fit. If they're trying to turn Rainbow Six into something like Halo or F.E.A.R. with a cover system, that's their prerogative. It's just disappointing to see such a development, something presumably borne of market forces and a willingness to appeal to a wider range of gamers, mostly because that particular section plays so poorly.
There's a fragmented story as well, filled with characters that randomly chirp up on your com system to give you excuses to advance to checkpoints, disarm bombs, and rescue hostages. It's not particularly well written, filled with personages barely given enough strength of character to be considered stereotypical, sloppily presented, and unworthy of your attention.
Then there's the enemy AI, which ranges from seemingly smart to idiotic. At times you'll battle foes who regularly pop in and out of cover, toss grenades, or walk around behind your position. Other times you'll find enemies stop and shoot while out in the open or run the wrong way down hallways. It's one thing to blast an opponent in the back while he's distracted by your squad or to engage in heated cover-to-cover battles in hallways or gaudy, noisy casino halls, but it's not exactly satisfying to fight against terrorists so unaware of the situation that they have no problem standing perfectly still as they absorb bullets into their exposed extremities.
Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3 GHz or Athlon Equivalent
Memory: 1 GB (2 GB for Vista)
Hard Drive: 7 GB Free
Video Memory: 128 MB (See Supported Graphic Cards)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive (4X)
Active Internet Connection @ 128KBPs Upstream for Online Play
Recommended System Requirements
OS: Windows XP/Vista
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 3.2 GHz or Athlon Equivalent
Memory: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 7 GB Free
Video Memory: 256 MB (See Supported Graphic Cards)
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive (4X)
Active Internet Connection @ 128KBPs Upstream for Online Play
Graphics Cards Supported:
ATI Radeon X1000 series - Radeon X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
ATI Radeon HD 2000 Series - HD 2600, HD 2900, GT/XT
ATI RadeonT HD 3000 Series - HD 3850, HD 3870, HD 3870 X2
NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series - GeForce 6800 Ultra, 6800 GT, 6800, and GeForce 6600 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 7 Series - GeForce 7950 Series, 7900 Series, 7800 Series, 7600 Series,
NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series - GeForce 8800 Ultra , GeForce 8800 GTX , GeForce 8800 GTS, GeForce 8800 GT , GeForce 8800 GS , GeForce 8600 GTS , GeForce 8600GT, GeForce 8500 GT
NVIDIA GeForce 9 Series - GeForce 9600 GT
* ATI HD 2400 models / Nvidia GEforce 7300 models are supported, but take note the performance of those cards might not give a good gaming experience.
* Graphics Cards Not Supported: All AGP Cards
Trailer:
Download Links:
http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=ed82594e2c50a38b4012e8015643d9c81b5b14cbee173c86
Pass: softvnn.com
