Rainbow Six Vegas is still once again proving to me that I can enjoy getting shot.
The cover system in this game is making it just about as realistic as possible, and while the pace is a great deal slower than Gears of War, at least you have the realism of shooting Tangos in the foot from 150 yards with a PSG and having that be an effective kill, whereas in Gears, you could unload three direct headshots on a Boomer and they don't even budge.
This is the most wide-open Rainbow ever. While there is still an ample amount of close in combat, you cover a great deal more space. Furthermore, the AI enemies are a great deal more unpredictable than ever before. On the standard level I am having a good amount of challenge actually getting through the streets of Vegas.
The environments are fabulously destructable and the Vegas street shootout, which is the second chapter after a more sparsely populated Mexico chapter, is a complete with cars and trucks that bounce when fragged. If your assault rifle is powerful enough, you can shoot off a door or panel and get to a terrorist that much quicker. But these aren't terrorists, these are armies. I mean there's no way you send a three man squad up against what has to be at least 50 men armed with commando-quality armaments.
The first chapter of R6V takes place not in Vegas but in some city in Mexico which is somewhat reminiscent of the opening of Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. I think maybe Tom Clancy is trying to tell us something, which is that Mexico is a lot more dangerous a neighbor than we might think. The rich desert reds and browns look great on the screen and the authentic cursing of your enemies
I've made it to Sargeant First Class in R6V and have been playing with a bit more intensity these days. I'm coming to appreciate this game in ways that, quite frankly make me think twice about Halo.
Shooter's Evolution
The thing about R6 is that it seems to be in the right niche between Halo and Ghost Recon. I should say that Gears is a totally unique thing. But what I'm noticing right now is how my playing one comes at the expense of another. Now I'm not going to sit up here and tell you that I'm an ace player. When it comes to Halo2 I'm something like a 13 and that's as high as I went consistently. I got to 15 once, but I don't remember the details - it was so long ago. But the folks I play in Rainbow Six were 29s and 30s in Halo2 and I'm on par with them for the most part in R6. I have good days and bad days, they tend to be more consistent. R6 requires more strategy and team tactics, and the pace is slower and more realistic.
I realized that playing Gears and Halo rewards players who rush in, engage the enemy, back out and jump back in. In R6 and GR, rushing in just gets you killed. Halo and Gears work at a more frenzied pace which, when you have respawns and vehicles and chaos, it's a cool thing to be able to take 30 bullets and survive. That doesn't happen in Rainbow Six. You're a great deal more vulnerable and it makes a big difference.
Online Gameplay
Both Retrieval and Attack & Defend are really big games for me online. I'm very pleased that these styles of play are popular because CTF gets really tired after a while, and the whole spawn camping deal in Sharpshooters gets you thinking too narrowly. I think we'll all have to agree that for Big Team Battles, Call of Duty and Halo do it best. I'm very encouraged by the trend towards more online Coop. More more more.
That's all.
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