Poppin' Smoke

I've played my way though the single player campaign of Rainbow Six Vegas. When this game came out almost 3 years ago I did have a passing interest in it, but at the time the Ghost Recon series cranked out a couple good games so my tactical shooter fill was, well, full. I'll make no bones about this game. It is better then Advanced Warfighter. Maybe even better then GRAW 2... maybe. It's in there somewhere. Ok, so I did make bones about it.

I'm a long time fan of 'Clancy' themed games as I oft mentioned around here. The feelings I got playing the first Ghost Recon on the Xbox (not the PC, mind you) have stuck with me. They must be pretty powerful experiences because now when I get that familiar feeling I smile. I think it is somewhere in the even balance between planning and executing. I go into a 'Clancy Zen' kind of mode when that happens. I will even whisper to myself when I'm team leader "I've been here before guys, stack up, lets go" if in the moment.

Splinter Cell has also created a lot of those CZ moments for me and there-in me thinks I figured out why I enjoyed playing Rainbow Six Vegas so much. Half way through the game there was a moment where a gun battle died down but a couple bad guys were sitll in the room. They were talking with each other... "did you hear that?" "It's nothing Richard, you're hearing things." Right then I tossed a incendiary grenade at them and only heard screams. Ok, that's kinda creepy. Anyway, it's got more then a handful Sam Fisher type scenarios to navigate through. Your execution throughout the game feels similar to Chaos Theory. Very similar. Snake Cams, silencers, night vision, thermal vision, smoke, etc... The only difference is that you always end up using brute force to get out of a situation. No taking out one guy at a time, or even never taking out anyone. In RS you ultimately end up taking out everyone. Strangely, always ending up in a gun battle pulls the sense of power away from the gamer, instead of giving it to you like when controlling old Sam Fisher.

In the end, after finishing the game, I realize that I've just plainly completed another first person shooter. I'm left with the feeling that those old feelings I got from playing Ghost Recon are fewer and fewer between. That said though, Rainbow Six Vegas is the spiritual successor to both games like GR Summit Strike and Chaos Theory. In essence, it is a mash-up of those two games.

And that's a very good thing.

(Sam Fisher, at play)