Ever since our 2006 Game of the Year awards, we've known that Rainbow Six Vegas is something special. So when we and our brothers at Team Xbox and IGN were invited to a special event held by Ubisoft to check out the adversarial multiplayer side of the new Rainbow Six Vegas 2... well, let's just say that there was no force on the Earth capable of uninviting us. As one of the first games we chose for our excellent bi-monthly 'Spy-Hunter competitions, it's safe to say that we've poured quite a few hours into the original Vegas, so to get a first glimpse at what will undoubtedly be the focus of at least one 'Spy-Hunter competition this March was indeed a treat. And believe us, although it appears that not much has changed since the original, the subtle improvements are most definitely there... even if you don't notice them right away.
The Nitty Gritty
Let's face it, the main things you're looking for in this first hands-on preview are going to concern new multiplayer content, including: maps, weapons and modes. We'll get that out of the way right now, so that you don't have to scan through this article looking for important bits.
Rainbow Six Vegas 2 adds two new modes in the form of Demolition and Team Leader. Demolition is an Attack and Defend mode that is remarkably similar to classic PC chestnut Counter-Strike -- one team has to plant a bomb in one of two locations (called Alpha and Bravo... surprise!) and defend it against the other team which is laser focused on stopping them either by annihilating them over and over or by disarming the bomb if it ends up getting planted. Team Leader hearkens to Halo 3's VIP mode, except with a lot of extra rules that we weren't quite able to completely suss out. Each team gets a leader who is afforded the special ability of being able to see the other team's leader. The object is to kill the opposing team's leader before they get to an extraction point, or get your leader to your own extraction point.
Where the rules get a little weird is in who can respawn when and how often. If a team leader downs anyone, they are out of the game and cannot respawn, otherwise, team members are free to respawn as long as their leader has not been killed. Conceivably, this means that the game should end when one team leader is gunned down in a hail of bullets or meanders into a primed C4 charge, but it didn't seem as though killing the leader lead to instant victory in the games we played. From what we can tell from the few games we were able to get in, the win condition lies in either eliminating the entire other team or getting your VIP... er, team leader to your extraction point.
There will be 13 maps, some of which are going to be retools of maps formerly found in Raven Shield. The Ubisoft devs on hand were quick to add that each map in Rainbow Six Vegas 2 has been meticulously examined with a keen eye towards choke points. Based on feedback from the Rainbow Six Vegas community, the developers have focused on maintaining the tension of battles by making sure that there are well-defined bottlenecks and choke points so that there's always a lot of killing and dying going on. This approach to map design means that there's very rarely a dull moment when playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2 multiplayer.
As far as new weapons are concerned, you'll be able to earn some 11 additional weapons not present in the original Rainbow Six Vegas. Among these are the SR-25 sound-suppressed sniper rifle and the M468, an updated version of the M4 Carbine that fires heavier 6.8mm rounds.
Other improvements revolve around superior matchmaking that takes into account TruSkill rating (on Xbox 360), P.E.C. rank, your location and ping (among other even more mystifyingly technological criteria). A streamlined user interface has been designed to ensure that you get into games as quickly as possible without having to fuss with options that you don't want to. In fact, much has been done to speed up the multiplayer experience in general and loading times (even the loading of custom facial maps) have been reduced exponentially... it used to take up to twenty minutes to download the custom faces of a full multiplayer game, but that time has been cut down to a bare few seconds.
