Monday, April 28, 2008

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (XBOX 360)



- Picked it up for $40 when it first came out.
- Finished the single player. I still need to try co-op story mode. I would say it took around 8hrs at most and that is with all the artificial lengthening this game has (more on that later).
- Graphics look about the same as the first one which isn't necessarily a bad thing.
- Some maps don't seem to be very well optimized. On some levels the framerate really takes a hit. It felt like single digits to me in some parts as in almost unplayable. Throw in a smoke grenade and you can just forget it. It didn't happen that often. Most of the time the framerate was just fine. But when it starts to chug it's BAD!
- The removed 4 player co-op and replaced it with only 2 player co-op. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID! Sure you can still do 4 player terrorist hunt but it's not exactly the same thing.
- Terrorist hunt is still fun and challenging if you can get a group of guys together to play. AI seems a bit cheap once in a while.
- I really like the new ACE leveling system. It's great that you gain experience points to unlock stuff and gain rank for everything you do no matter what mode you're playing in. So even when you're stuck on some single player level where you have to restart frequently (more on that later) you still earn experience for every kill you made.
- The last 20% or so starts to really suck. Lets just say this game obtains a level of frustration I haven't seen since sniper town in Medal of Honor Allied Assault. In fact the end game sucks too with more trial and error instant death gameplay.
- Modeling penetration is nice but there seems to be some odd bugs too. I've seen shields and guns just stick into objects or stand straight up off the ground too many times.
- Story not as good as the first one.
- This really felt like it was developed by Ubisoft Montreal's "B Team."
- detailed weapon stats:
part 1
part 2
My current standard load out:
G36C with 6X scope (good balance for my mid range play style)
MG36 with recoil control stock (reloads fast!)
Desert Eagle with high capacity Mag
frags, incendiary (sometimes c4)

This game has been a very mixed bag. It makes a few improvements but then breaks several good things from the first game. Overall, I think Vegas 1 was better but this game is still worth a look if you are a fan of the series.

Only recommended to fans of the series, and I wouldn't pay much more than $40 for it.

2 comments:

The Angry Intern said...

I think this is another reason why first person shooters should have stayed on PC's. I have no issues at all with framerates on my PC. Throwing a smoke grenade hardly causes a hiccup. With consoles, there really is no excuse for having games with framerate issues. They know exactly what the hardware is that they are working with, the games should always run butter-smooth.

ARogan said...

I think this is more of a case of the devs blowing their performance budget for specific levels. This just reeks of a rush job. Smoke grenades usually aren't an issue except for a couple of specific levels/rooms. I don't remember Vegas 1 having any of these performance issues.