Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

Template:Game Info Box

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is a tactical shooter video game and the sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas. It was announced by Ubisoft on November 20, 2007. The game was released for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Windows-based PCs on March 19, 2008 in North America and March 20 in Europe, except in Germany, where the game has been delayed.

A world-exclusive first-look of the game appeared in the January edition of the Official Xbox Magazine. One of the biggest announcements is that Logan Keller, the lead character from the previous game, has been removed in favor of having the player create his own character to play through the campaign. The player will assume the role of Bishop, a member of the Rainbow squad with a great deal more experience who is more deeply involved in the story. The game is billed as "part sequel, part prequel", as the events of the campaign run both before and concurrently to the story of Logan Keller and continue after where the first game concluded.

Gameplay

New features include an enhanced version of the "Persistent Elite Creation" or "PEC" system. Players can now customize their character. Where in the first game, the player could only customize the multiplayer character, in this game there will be only 1 character for single player and multiplayer game modes. This further shows itself in the fact that experience points are now achieved through all the game modes, online as well as offline, whereas in the first game, XP was only obtained by playing the online multiplayer game modes. There will be a new sprint button that will allow players the weave in and out of cover at a quicker pace, the pace and stamina will be contingent upon the players armor level.

It has also been revealed that the campaign will now focus on the seedier side of Las Vegas, with more outdoor combat and daytime missions. Also, certain missions will now see a real-time day/night cycle. Certain kinds of cover can now be penetrated by weapons-fire, and parts of the environment are now destructible. The player can now sprint for a short distance. Rather than two difficulty modes, the game now has three (Casual, Normal and Realistic).

An additional system implemented in the game is the "Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specialization" or ACES, where players will be rewarded with different weapons based on tactics used in the game. The ACES system is divided into three parts: Marksmanship, Assault, and Close-Quarter Battle. Every single kill the player makes is organized into one of these three categories and scored based upon how the kill was performed (a headshot would count towards Marksmanship, or shooting through a wall would count towards assault, or killing an enemy while blinded by a flashbang would count towards CQB). By getting a high enough score in a category, the player unlocks a specific item for that category; for example, the Assault category might reward the player with a new type of grenade, while the Marksmanship category might reward the player with a new type of sniper rifle. Even though the ACES system goes across modes there are certain rewards that can only be unlocked in single or multiplayer (reference: Media Broadcast).

Single-player (Warning: Spoilers)

The game begins five years ago. Bishop is deployed by Rainbow to a science observatory in Píc des Pyreneés, France for an operation in which EU hostages must be rescued. Under his leadership are Logan Keller and Gabriel Nowak; Nowak and Keller have recently joined Rainbow, according to Ding Chavez/Six, who refers to them as recruits.

Monroe, the negotiator, plans to talk to the terrorists in-person, effectively distracting their attention while Rainbow’s Alpha and Bravo teams on the operation get into place. Bishop, who is in control of Bravo, takes Keller and Nowak to their assigned position and waits for Alpha to get in place. However, before Alpha arrives, Nowak fires prematurely. Bishop is then forced to fire onto the terrorists, but Monroe is killed by collateral gunfire from the terrorists who panicked when Nowak first opened fire.

Six then radios in, giving Bishop Alpha’s sit-rep, but Bishop responds by saying that the situation “is over, but Monroe is killed. We need to talk” Nowak attempts to apologize for what he has done, but Bishop retorts back, “Not now!” Trust is therefore lost in Nowak, at least for this level.

Six then tells Bishop that there are terrorists scrambling to escape and that Bishop needs to neutralize them. He also informs Bishop that there is a bomb that needs to be defused. When Bishop arrives, Nowak is assigned to defuse the bomb, and per Nowak’s request, Bishop and Keller distance themselves to give Nowak “space” to work with. The bomb is successfully defused, but terrorists open fire on Nowak. Nowak falls, and starts to scream helplessly into the radio, particularly “I knew this would happen! Don’t leave me here! I knew this would happen, damn it!” Bishop assures him that they are not leaving him behind. Rainbow operatives from Alpha team then arrive and quell the situation, getting Nowak to his feet, just as the level ends.

The game then moves five years forward to July 2, 2010, at 6:27 P.M. local time, in Las Vegas. Bishop is now in a helicopter with Jung Park, electronics specialist, and Michael Walters, demolitions expert. Six contacts Bishop via secure satellite video, effectively giving Bishop a sit-rep of what operation is to come: Miguel and Alvarez Cabueros, two human traffickers (“people smugglers”) have suddenly come in interest of taking up small arms trafficking and even more recently, chemical weapons. Though Rainbow and the National Security Agency (NSA) seem certain that the Cabueros brothers are running the operation for the opposition, they both want Bishop’s (new) team to investigate the matter firsthand. Six informs Bishop that Logan Keller is running a separate operation down in Mexico, implying that Keller’s operation is an event that occurs during the first game, Rainbow Six: Vegas.

Bishop, Park, and Walters finally set foot on ground and make their way into the warehouse that the NSA believes the Cabueros brothers are running their operation from. Following a failed attempt to save Neville, an undercover NSA agent who's cover is blown, Bishop and his team fight through a plethora of terrorists into another warehouse, where they find Hispanic hostages held at gunpoint by more terrorists.

After a quick rescue, Bishop is ordered by a Rainbow coordinator (Sharon) to board a Blackhawk MH-60K helicopter, which goes to a recreational facility where the Culpuero's chemical weapons have showed up at. Upon reaching the facility and securing the area, Walters searches the stash where the chemical bombs are presumed to be located. Not finding them, Bishop decides as team leader that the team has the responsibility to save the people of a Las Vegas sports stadium from a bioterrorist attack.

Bishop, however, gets to the presumed bomb site, a sports stadium, too late. Walters blames himself for not saving the people trapped in the stadium, but Bishop accepts full responsibility, for "[he] made the call. We have a mission to save people."

Sharon Fudd, the on-site intelligence officer (similar to Joanna Torres' role in Rainbow Six: Vegas) then notifies Bishop that he and his team need to catch the younger Cabueros brother, Miguel, whose disguised himself as a hazmat official and escaped the Arena . In a chase for Miguel, Bishop eliminates all of the terrorists protecting him, leaving Miguel vulnerable to on-the-spot interrogation, specifically as to what happened to the second bioterrorist bomb. The brother at first denies any knowledge of the bomb, but after Michael aims his gun at him and Bishop threatens to tell Alvarez that Miguel Ratted on him, Miguel confesses the location (albeit vague description), but immediately draws a Desert Eagle to shoot Bishop, who is forced to shoot back.

An important hostage is then saved by Walters at the fictional Las Vegas International Convention Center. Here, Bishop learns from Sharon that the other bomb is located on a train headed towards a high-density populated area of Las Vegas. Bishop heads over to the train, though Walters is unable to defuse the bomb. Sharon cleverly suggests to Walters that the bomb can be detonated, just not in a civilian area, ultimately fulfilling both NSA Deputy Director Lawrence's order to "get rid of the bomb" as well as Six (Ding Chavez)'s order, "Rainbow's ultimate objective is to save lives."

Bishop then heads over to an upscale Las Vegas penthouse, where the last bomb is located, though two disastrous things happen: First, just before landing, a terrorist sniper shoots Sharon Judd, wounding her. Second, after landing, Bishop doesn't reach the bomb in time, leaving Echo team to die from a close-contact explosion by the bomb. Both were due to the NSA agent's inadequate intelligence of the situation.

In an ensuing casino battle with terrorists, Bishop rescues many civilian hostages, leading to a revelation that there is yet another bomb held in a Chinese theater, protected by highly armed terrorists. Walters successfully defuses the bomb. Rushing to the roof for extraction the team is yet again assaulted, in the aftermath of the firefight, Bishop is then contacted stating Logan's team has been captured in Mexico and Park and Walters are to be his replacements (start of Rainbow Six: Vegas), and for Bishop to return to base.

On the roof the NSA agent joins Bishop in the helicopter at extraction saying that Alvarez has been spotted in an airstrip in the desert, and that because Alvarez is responsible for the bombing of several Las Vegas hotspots (e.g. casino, hotel, convention center, stadium, train station), Alvarez is too dangerous to let escape. Not letting Alvarez have the chance to escape, Bishop rushes over to confront Alvarez personally.

The helicopters arrive at an oil-refinery close to the airstrips position. But due to heavy resistance at the airstrip, Bishop is forced to make his way down from the oil-refinery. He is dropped in on a roof of a gas station while the NSA agent is dropped in a different location to provide Bishop with intelligence on the surrounding situation. Bishop is then forced to fight alone making his way through the refinery and into an abandoned train-yard. When Bishop finally reaches the refinery's airstrip, the NSA agent is revealed to be Gabriel Nowak, who shoots and kills Alvarez. He then insults Bishop before terrorists attempt to kill him. With the help of a Rainbow helicopter pilot, Bishop escapes.

Six orders Bishop to stand down, however, Bishop, Jung, and Walters follow Nowak to a Costa Rican villa. After more fighting, Logan and other Rainbow operatives (Charlie Team) arrive to assist Bishop's team. Gabriel insults Bishop throughout the level, before revealing that he was going to sell information about all Rainbow operatives to terrorists. Bishop then goes to face Gabriel alone; however, an attack helicopter and more of Gabriel's terrorists attack. Bishop manages to trick the helicopter into radioing for assistance, which lets Joanna Torres, Keller's intelligence officer, target the helicopter and shoot it down. Finally, Gabriel and Bishop meet face to face, with Gabriel gloating that he outsmarted all of Rainbow, and arguing that he should not have been punished for what happened in the Pyreneés. Gabriel draws his gun but Bishop shoots first, while the other Rainbow operatives arrive. Six berates Bishop for disobeying a direct order, but offers him the position as deputy director of Rainbow.

(Taken from Wiki)

Co-op

In co-op, players will now be able to experience the full single-player campaign -- the previous game skipped several cut-scenes and all of the in-game media (such as the picture-in-picture talking head briefings given out during each mission and Logan's responses to the NPCs ). As a result, the co-op experience has been reduced to a maximum of two players, down from four in the first Raibow Six:Vegas. Unlike the co-op mode in the original Rainbow Six: Vegas, the AI teammates will remain in the game during co-op and can be given orders and go-codes by the primary player.

Multiplayer

The highly acclaimed multiplayer that made Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas a must-have game has been expanded to include more than 10 new close-quarters maps perfect for dramatic face-offs, two new adversarial modes, a deeper rewards system, and improved online matchmaking.

External links

• Official Rainbow Six Website from Ubisoft