Making a sequel - be it for a movie, book or video game, it is a tricky balance to strike. The maker has to ensure that it retains the fan base created by the precursor, attracts news fans, and – at the same time it is a worthy addition to the series.

In video games, some developers meet these demands, and even surpass then such as Valve’s Half-Life 2. Other like Need for Speed: ProStreet, come up woefully short. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2- Ubsoft’s new iteration to its 2007 mega-hit tactical first person shooter – falls into the latter category. Its takes just five minutes if gameplay to realize that you are not server anything new from the last version.

What’s new in the game?
First, instead of the character of the Logan Keller, you play as Bishop, team leader of the covert US counter terrorist unit known as Rainbow. You and your team –mate are put into a series of missions that can rarely be told apart from each other, let alone from the Vegas. That pattern is the same: Go into a shiny Las Vegas building, kill terrorists, climb up the stairs or rappel down. Kill some more terrorists, and repeat this monotonous set of action till you complete the mission.
And Vegas 2 asks of you to continue with these tedious tasks for a total game time of 8 hours. Apparently, Ubsoft has no mercy.
The other new addition from the first Vegas is the ACES system, or “Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization”. In regular parlance, this is basically a skill upgrade system that rewards you with points for your style of combat.
If you tend to play the role of a sniper, you will earn more “Marks-man” points. Tactical, mid-range shooting will give you ‘Assault’ credits, while your ‘Close Quarter Battle’ rating will go up if you get in your enemy’s face and proceed to smash it in. Depending on your style of combat, you will unlock special guns and tons of accessories as you ht certain levels of points.

Same old:
Apart from the change of character and the ACES system, not much in the game is different from its predecessor.
What is bugged me is the most is that a Tom Clancy game could have such repetitive and boring writing. If you have played Vegas 1, then the storyline here will give a feeling of déjà vu, in fact, I would wager that you guess where the plot is headed by the end of the first level itself.
It really is a whole new level of repetition in sequels when the storyline is almost the same as the first version of the game. It’s befuddling how an author of an author if Tom Clancy’s level could write this echo of his own script.
In the end, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 comes off as nothing but money spinner for Ubisoft. Now, it would have made sense if Vegas 2 was priced lower, or was bundled with other game, like Half Life 2: Episode Two in The Orange Box. But as a stand-alone, full-price game, this is among the worst deals in recent releases.
The first was a better game, and if you do want to experience Ubisoft’s Vegas universe, you might as well pick that up, and give Vegas 2 a miss.

System requirement you can play this game:
Hard Drive: 7 GB, Ram 1 GB, 128 MB Shader Model 3 compliant video card.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!