Even among the crowded field of 360 shooters -- of excellent 360 shooters, even -- Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas is going to stand out. With the servers just going live, we haven't gotten to dig into the online game, but after completing the single-player campaign, we can promise you that it's time for a trip to Sin City.
Vegas actually starts in Mexico, with you and your team hot on the heels of an international terrorist. Mexico serves as a training level, introducing the game's new dazzling cover system, its three-person team size, and helping fans who are arriving from Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter to feel at home. Without dishing spoilers, you and your team then proceed to Vegas to save it from a terrorist assault. After Mexico, the brilliance of the new cover mechanic only gets better.
Not to downplay the individual members of Rainbow, but the cover system is the star of the show. Hold down the L-trigger and your character will hunch down behind the closest wall, window, or ruined car. Fire blindly or toss a grenade by just pressing the R-trigger to fire or B to throw, but press the left stick up and you'll pop up; press it to the side and you'll pop around. From there, you can take the measured and careful shots you'll need to control firefights. Release the L-trigger, and you're still crouched but are free-moving again.
The key to the success of the cover system is that it isn't a toggled state, so you won't find yourself accidentally grabbing for a wall when what you wanted to do was sprint across a field of fire to safety. Separate "lean" buttons have been eliminated, which is why those GRAW fans need a training level to acclimate, but they've been done away with because they've been made obsolete. If you're behind cover, it's simplicity itself to lean out and take a shot, exposing yourself to return fire. If you're not under cover, you need to get there. There are minor blemishes on the system, but they won't feel minor when an unexpected failure of the cover system forces you to reload at a checkpoint.
You will be reloading at checkpoints, over and over again. Checkpoints are an irritating relic in most games, but being able to save anywhere would leave you pausing to save every time you dropped an enemy combatant here. The number of points could be a little more generous, but overall they are a good fit for Vegas' style. Fighting from checkpoint to checkpoint is much more satisfying than "kill, save, kill, save, kill, save" would have been.
The AI teammates function just as well as you can command them, which is pretty well for a Clancy game. Aggressive and recon style routines set them to "kill-crazy rampage" or calm stealth with a tap of the left bumper. Early enemies tend to be a bit too simpleminded and bloodthirsty for their own good, but without too much delay they're grabbing cover and aggressively flanking you and your team. Get injured and your vision becomes progressively more distorted until you're dead; healing begins as soon as you're not getting injured. It's the least realistic aspect of the game, but by the end of the story you're facing enemies who wear heavy armor, fling grenades like wedding rice, and can shoot accurately enough to be real threats. By then, you won't mind the ease of healing. You'll need it.
The story itself is ancillary to the newest member of the Rainbow Six cast: Vegas. Sin City is gorgeous in single-player, although not as stunningly beautiful as Gears of War. The pre-mission helicopter flybys will let you easily spot landmarks you'll recognize, and the interior maps will make it impossible to look at the inside of a casino in the same way again. You'll spend a lot of time squatting behind one-armed bandits, praying that you have just a few more safe seconds to reload. But you'll also get to witness the immense "behind the scenes" parts of Vegas: kitchens, service corridors, prop rooms, construction sites, empty theaters and the like are all potential sites for glorious, beautiful gun violence. Unfortunately, a few of the missions that take place outside of Vegas feel weaker in comparison to those inside the city.
We're going to earn a few more ranks in multiplayer before we put our full review up, but as of now, this is one of the best games we've played on the 360.
