Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas for PC Review

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The Rainbow Six series has certainly changed over the years. The first three games are tactical shooters that have players equipping operatives and planning out routes for them to follow. The learning curve for these titles is steep but once you get the hang of things, there’s just nothing else like it and I’m of the mind that Rainbow Six 3 is one of the greatest tactical shooters ever made. Things started to change with the release of Rainbow Six: Lockdown, the first game in the series without the planning phase. I can only guess the developers were trying to streamline things and reach a bigger audience but Lockdown’s bigger emphasis on run and gun gameplay wasn’t popular with everyone. Nevertheless, the series has continued to stray from its roots and 2006 saw the release of Rainbow Six: Vegas, a cover shooter. Interestingly enough, it released the same year and month as the first Gears of War, a cover shooter that many credit as popularizing the cover mechanics that became prevalent during the seventh-generation era.

Developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas was released for Xbox 360 and PC in 2006 and PS3 and PSP in 2007. For this review, I played the PC version. The game does support widescreen resolutions but the default HUD is in the 4:3 aspect ratio and centered in the middle of the screen. However, the game does come with a widescreen HUD but you have to move some files around to get it working and according to the game’s PCGamingWiki page, the widescreen HUD is a leftover file from the Xbox 360 version and results in some bugs so I stuck with the default HUD instead. I did install the WFVM Mod which supports Vegas and its sequel. It fixes issues with viewmodels and adjusts the field of view for widescreen presentations.

The player is put in the shoes of Rainbow operative Logan Keller. Him and his team are deployed to Mexico to capture a terrorist leader but things go wrong and his fellow operatives are captured. Logan is then deployed to Las Vegas to link up with new team members and deal with a terrorist situation there. That’s the basic gist of the plot. There are some twists and turns and it does end on a cliffhanger. It’s not the greatest story ever told and does lean into a Hollywood-style approach to the action but I enjoyed it and I think one of the biggest draws here is the setting. Las Vegas. Sin City. Where people gamble their lives and children’s college funds away. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, or so they say. It’s not so much the plot that I find super interesting but the locations. I admit, I find the idea of an action game with Vegas as a backdrop appealing. Shooting terrorists while surrounded by glitz and glamor, bright lights, and the chance to win big – there’s just something cool about it.

Rainbow Six: Vegas is a cover shooter and pretty solid one at that. Logan does move slow but the mechanics work well. You can walk and run, snap to cover, blind fire, activate thermal and night vision when needed, and your health does regenerate. Missions typically start with a briefing in a helicopter where you can change your equipment. You can also do this at refitting stations found in the environments. You can equip a primary and secondary weapon and sidearm. Vegas offers a decent arsenal of firepower including pistols, shotguns, machine guns and submachine guns, rifles, grenades, and even a shield. And weapons can be customized with attachments like different optics and laser sights. You can change the fire mode of weapons and even attach silencers if you want to take a quieter approach.

Logan is accompanied by two AI-controlled team members throughout most of the story. You can’t outfit them but you can command them. You can order them to move to certain locations, hold and follow you, clear rooms, and dictate their rules of engagement. If they go down, you can revive them or can order them to revive each other if necessary. I found they perform adequately most of the time but they don’t always do the best job at self preservation. For example, when following me, they would stick to me even if the cover I was using wasn’t big enough for all three of us so they would just kind of hang around and shoot, even if that means they’re exposed. When ordering them somewhere, they will typically take cover behind whatever is closest to them even if that means they’re exposed to enemies in another direction. The only real control you have over them is their rules of engagement and where they go so some encounters may be trial and error in terms of using them effectively. Other than that, they will shoot at and kill bad guys and I enjoyed using them as a distraction so to speak or to suppress enemies so I could flank them. That I always found satisfying.

I actually really enjoy the combat and gunplay in this game. I think the guns could sound more powerful but other than that, weapon feedback is solid, muzzle flashes are big and bright, and battles will often result in shouting, slot machines blowing up, glass breaking, blood splattering, bodies ragdolling, and smoke and debris filling the air. Enemies will run around and take cover, blind fire, and can flank you if you’re not paying attention. They are also grenade happy, frequently lobbing smoke grenades and flashbangs, and they can drop you quickly if you’re not careful. Taking cover is crucial. All it takes is one bad guy around a corner that you don’t know is there to kill you instantly so staying low and being cautious is always a good idea. Many encounters take place in open spaces with multiple objects to use as cover and enemies can be found at different elevations like upper floors for example so it’s always wise to be aware of you’re surroundings. One strategy I found effective, especially towards the end of the game, was to send my teammates into rooms first so enemies would start shooting so I could see exactly what we’re up against. You can use a snake cam under doors to see into rooms, and tag enemies for your teammates to prioritize, but you can’t always see all the threats.

For the most part, Rainbow Six: Vegas is a pretty standard cover shooter with a simple command system. It may lack the strategic and tactical depth of the first three Rainbow Six titles but is much more accessible. There’s no planning routes, setting up go-codes, or meticulous outfitting of teammates. It places a big focus on action and almost everything it does, it does well. I think the AI could be tweaked a bit but there’s a lot of things I like about the game. For one thing, I like the terrorists. Just they’re designs, outfits, and what they say. They look like typical mercenary thugs and some of their interactions and the stuff they shout are humorous. I also think it’s cool seeing them enter areas by rappelling down ropes. Second, I like the action. As I said before, the game takes a Hollywood-style approach to the action and I like that. Firefights are fun and can be intense and I like the weapon customization. It’s simple but nice to have. Third, the locations. I think Vegas is a great setting for a game like this. Shooting your way through casinos and luxurious hotels is good stuff. And it’s more than just that. The environments are well designed for the style of gameplay on offer. They are linear but there’s often multiple ways through areas and multiple doorways to rooms resulting in multiple options in terms of how you want to clear them and approach situations.

Most of the story is set in Las Vegas, Nevada but you’ll also get to take down terrorists in Mexico. You’ll navigate around streets, alleys, rooftops, casinos, a casino vault, restaurants, hotels, a theater, maintenance tunnels, and a dam. It’s the casinos and hotels that are my favorite areas and I like that the environments are designed in a way that makes Vegas look like it’s actually been taken over by terrorists. You’ll frequently come across dead bodies, abandoned and destroyed cars litter the streets, and bad guys are everywhere. The story has you going from one area to another, shooting all the baddies in between. You’ll have to rescue people, disarm bombs, hack things, and defend areas. You don’t really have to do anything special to complete these objectives other than get to the target areas and interact with NPCs or command one of your teammates to do something.

In addition to the story is a multiplayer component which I didn’t get the chance to try and the Terrorist Hunt mode returns. The objective in Terrorist Hunt is to eliminate all the terrorists in the map. There are multiple maps to select from and before jumping in, you can change your character, their equipment, the difficulty, and set the enemy density. In single player, you’re forced to do it solo. No AI-controlled teammates. I love this mode but I find the lack of teammates makes it a very tense experience. The maps are all designed in a way that nowhere is really safe. You’re always outnumbered, you don’t know exactly where the terrorists are, and they can come from anywhere so it’s not uncommon for them to flank you and appear behind you and without the safety net of teammates, it has always made me very anxious. Not many games do that but Terrorist Hunt in Rainbow Six: Vegas does. Death always seems to come like a jump scare. At least for me. I turn a corner and bam, I’m dead because I didn’t realize a bad guy was there. It gets me almost every time. Ultimately, it’s a fun mode and adds a lot of replay value to the game.

Visually, Rainbow Six: Vegas does show its age in some respects but the presentation still holds up relatively well. Some textures appear muddy and/or blurry but I like the weapon and enemy models, visual and gore effects, and environmental details. I do wish the game showcased more color and I did follow the instructions on the game’s PCGamingWiki page to remove the bloom/haze effect before playing because bloom was just awful in the era this game came out. On the audio side, I think the soundtrack is great. It features some really intense tunes that perfectly fit the action and give it a kind of cinematic vibe. As indicated before, I think weapons fire could sound better or more powerful but otherwise, the overall sound work gets the job done. I did encounter a bug where some dialogue would be extremely loud and sound tinny and the game crashed on me once. Other than that, it ran fine.

This was not my first time playing through Rainbow Six: Vegas. I played the 360 version a lot back in the day. I liked this game back then and still enjoy it now. Even as a fan of the first three Rainbow Six titles, I still think this is a solid game. I completely understand why fans of the early titles would be disappointed with this or any game in the series after 3, really. The developers could have probably slapped a different title on this and kept it away from Rainbow Six because it really is far and away from the roots of the series but I can only guess they wanted the IP to reach a bigger audience. Nevertheless, I am a fan. I love this game. In fact, this and its sequel are two of my favorite cover shooters from the seventh generation era. I also admit that the Vegas setting is the big appeal here. It’s one of the reasons I enjoy it as much as I do. It’s a standard cover shooter with a cool setting. The tactics and strategy are not as in-depth as those in the early titles but what’s here is accessible and the action is fun. When this came out, I wasn’t old enough to gamble but I always wanted to go to Vegas, even as kid. Not so much to piss my money away but just to check it out. I eventually went there on vacation shortly after I turned twenty one and I’m happy to say I broke even. Can’t say the same for my friend, though. In the end, I like the town and I want to see it reflected in more games. Reno and Atlantic City, too. Let me shoot up and destroy more casinos. That’s exactly what Rainbow Six: Vegas lets you do and it’s a lot of fun.

I absolutely recommend Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas. If you’re expecting the tactics and strategy on offer in the first three Rainbow Six titles, you will be disappointed. But if you’re looking for a solid cover shooter, Vegas is a good choice. The mechanics work well, the action is fun, and it takes you to cool locations. You get to blast your way around luxurious casinos and that’s awesome. Definitely check it out.