Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas

Las Vegas is such a cool setting for an FPS, so I can recommend it on that alone, but the best part about this game has to be the Co-Op A.I buddy's, commanding them, etc. One shot up close can kill you instantly. It's tough for an FPS campaign. Annoyingly, you cannot run in this game, which is ridiculous and does hamper the experience but on sale, I can definitely recommend it, BUT, if you can only chose between 1 and 2, go buy Vegas 2 instead. Because at least you can run.

Short, sweet, and definitely Rainbow. Commanding your units is pretty smooth, gunplay feels good, lots of weapon and attachment options, and while the overall story isn't as complicated a Splinter Cell game it was still pretty driving.

The first level is an absolute slog, I will not sugarcoat it, it really sucks. They take away your squad and leave you with nothing but a pistol, stick you in extremely tight quarters, and all the enemies have for you to pick up are shotguns. Especially terrible on realistic difficulty, made even worse by the hidden inaccuracy penalty while scoped and basically funneling you into loud engagements. I almost dropped the game (or at least the difficulty) over this. But once you get past this they give you a fresh squad and all is right in the world. Really don't understand these squad based games that think its fun to take away the core mechanic of the game. I digress, game picks up a lot once you're actually in Vegas and you understand how to properly use your squadmates.

Small complaints include some soft-lock oversights, especially regarding AI pathing (they get stuck sometimes and can't get out). AI generally being either John Wick or a Stormtrooper (friendly and otherwise). Lack of replayability unless you have a friend, this is kind of a one-and-one, go play Vegas 2 it's better anyways. Some specific interactions are kind of clunky, like you can't order your squadmate if one is down. If you die you can't be revived (why is every one of these one step behind Republic Commando, seriously). There's some serious issues with save points, sometimes saves occur right before a weapon crate, sometimes after, causing you to have to redo any kit switches or re-armaments every time you die. I chose to never change my weapons out as a result of this. Also your AI teammates cannot be re-kitted. The NV and HV seem to be very room dependent, as in whether the shaders are mild determines whether they function beyond a 5 meter radius. Some places they work splendidly and others they don't. I played through on Realistic and while I (the player) could generally guarantee whether or not taking a fight would kill me, my AI teammates seemed to be a bit of a crapshoot in that area. Sometimes they would breach a door and things would go fine, and sometimes breaching the same door would result in something totally different. Sometimes the combat puzzles even felt relatively unsolvable due to this, like I was just waiting for the right roll of circumstances to clear a room. Also save points seem to be very inconveniently spaced, requiring redos of certain very-long sections, which adds tension, but not in a good way. I did find that there were some things that were not explained or not used frequently to good effect.

The RoE and how your team responds to putting on silencers effectively creates four modes of engagement, which I'll briefly summarize. LoudLoud (no silencers, Assault) means highest damage, but most enemies in an area are immediately alerted of engagement. LoudQuiet (no silencers, Infiltrate) is same as last, but teammates won't shoot first, least used mode. QuietLoud (silencers, Assault) teammates will KoS, but because video game silencers, they won't really be heard by most enemies, very effective for spread out groups in the same encounter. QuietQuiet (silencers, Infiltrate) means teammates will not engage unless discovered, and will not be heard, lesser used mode since quiet wetwork will usually have your AI squadmates getting spotted and blowing your cover. Better to leave them somewhere and take out the singles yourself, then pull them in to breach later. Also I didn't know I could vault over half cover until the last two levels, the game never told me about it. But it's so infrequently available since most cover pieces are debris or too wide that it doesn't matter. Just weird that they even bothered to include it, the squad AI usually avoids doing it too since it means sacrificing aim, even if it means taking a longer route.

Anyways, can absolutely recommend if you're a fan of the genre and it's on sale, provided you also pick up Vegas 2. Story ends a bit abruptly and evidently isn't complete without the sequel.

ㅤ

Simply awful if you're a fan of Rainbow Six 3. There's no need to try playing slowly and meticulously, the enemies are endlessly rushing out of every broom closet and they know where your dudes are. This is a CoD game with the tactical paint and sadly CoD does that type of game better than this. Not to mention the story is moronic but without the humor. When it comes to the graphics, CoD4 looks much better than this. Play if you absolutely want to, or if you have some nostalgia for this.

When Tom Clancy's name in games meant something great !

After playing this game for a bit, I conclude that it's generally quite dated.
If you enjoy older style shooter games of this genre, then I suggest playing it when it's on offer as it's not bad.
However the controls are difficult to customise well, the difficulty is quite high for casual players like myself.
The graphics are to be expected of for the time, the performance is incredible - my mid-tier rig can get 300fps.

Can't comment on the online.

This and Vegas 2 are my childhood games. GTA? nah. COD? nope? BF3? somewhat tbh. THIS is my childhood. for max nostalgia effect, buy an Xbox 360 controller.

I had a lot of fun playing this game. The story is not very interesting and I could not follow it completely but it is not very complicated. The best part of this is the gameplay and the setting. For a 18 year old game, the graphics are top notch and I would definitely recommend it for a quick fun adventure as a tactical shooter.

3/5

Its still pretty fun works on Win 11. Recommend playing on a tower PC.

I feel like this game gets progressively worse the more you play it. I can recommend it only to patient folks.
I love the shooting, the graphics have held up quite well and the music is solid but it all starts coming apart in the later half.

Between enemies one-shotting the player at regular intervals and checkpoints getting progressively worse as you play (with the latter issue including checkpoints being placed before reload/rearm stations which means you have to do that every spawn) the game becomes, in truth a chore.

I tried realisitc mode and I honestly don't believe it adds enough, given again, on the other "Regular" difficulty, you will still end being killed before you can shoot back, getting insta-killed with a headshot or insta-killed with grenades (which most of the time you won't be able to tell where thrown). Realistic mode, and in truth, the entire game ends up devolving into a "mastery experience" where you need to learn the enemy's exact positions and just do it over and over until it works.

When it works, it's amazing, a great experience, but it doesn't work enough times to stain an otherwise outstanding title.
Oh and the ending sucks, like it's some garbage sequel bait without much closure. It's not even a good "to be continued", you don't have time to digest the events before it ends.

The story itself lost me in the latter half due to said gameplay issues but what stuck was a feeling of "oh so we're done with that now" that lasted level to level and until the end. A feeling caused by jumping from task to task with less build-up than I would say would be adequate to set-up the experience sadly.

As a final note, having played the sequel, I will say that it doesn't even need this game for expanded context, not at all in fact. Still, I will give it a generous 8/10 for the good gameplay and the fact it aged well.

It's one of the most casual tactical shooters and is fun because of that, not too hard. Online is down however, and I wish it was around.

"Take Cover" is mapped to the right mouse button by default. I think that tells you everything you'd wanna know.

It a good game Only if you know how to play it

The campaign is a pain in the ass with the trash checkpoints on realism mode, but the story with chad Logan Keller is alright.

In fairness, I don't remember this game running super smoothly on xbox back in the day, but it runs horribly on PC. I constantly have geometry fail to load, and my framerate is all over the place. I can run far more advanced games on my PC with no problem, this is just not optimized at all.

Also seems like features are missing from the game. Maybe I'm misremembering and it was only in the online portion of the game (which doesn't work anymore) but I know you were able to customize your character with different armor, camo, etc. Can't do that anymore.

Overall: B- (8/10)

Enjoyable? Yes
Recommendable? Yes so far
Replayable? TBD

++Squad based FPS with good squad mechanics
++unique setting (Las Vegas, NV) with mostly near to mid range/ indoor combat
+low ttk, recoil, muzzle flash, steady paced jog and generally responsible squad members
+3rd person view when taking cover helps relieve the monotony of the FPS view
+decent graphics, considering its age

- checkpoint system — increases tension and suspense but can be frustrating for obvious reasons
Minor gripes:
-squad members and NPCs repeat the same phrase way too often, enough to where I have to mute the game at times :/

Steam Deck compatibility: ✅
No crashes ✔️
Controls are dated but acceptable after a slight reconfiguration
~8hrs at full charge with video settings maxed

***Mid campaign, will update review when game is completed***

This game learned from Lockdown and abandoned all pretense at being some kind of slow, serious military sim. And it’s all better for it.

It’s a slick, vaguely tactical action-movie game now, and I’m mostly had a blast playing it. When the levels are good, when they are those open-ended arenas with multiple entry points and floors - killing terrorist by the hundreds feels amazing. And quite challenging too, I just sleepwalked through Lockdown and this game forced me to wake up and pay attention.

It’s still alright even when it is straight-up just corridors. The problems start with those defend the hacker, you just alerted the horde sections, Those nosedive the game into being the lamest, most irritating game of Whack-a-mole in existence. Thank god there is not so many of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McNM-7V8jhQ&ab_channel=Silent_fog
Oh, and checkpoints are just psychotic. Get ready to repeat ten minutes of nothing before arriving at the actually challenging part over and over and over again. And they are placed BEFORE every dialogue ever, so I hope you are into listening the same thing 20 times.

And the ending is straight up is not there, so you better buy Vegas 2

For it's time this game was awesome. The story, characters, audio, mechanics, graphics, everything was perfect

thumbs up

Played it once, crashes every time I launch it now.

buy the 2nd game too otherwise youll be depressed at the to be continued

An awesome classic special forces game that was ahead of its time. feels great and the action is intense. Its been years since I've played it but if they add steam achievements I'll be back for more.

So many terrorists I could not fathom how I could possibly touch all of them where the sun doesn't shine. Also they were all middle aged white dudes instead of muslims so that was a minus to me.

Played the original on console, seemed longer than this version? The graphics are dated now, but the gameplay is still good. A few bugs like mouse sometimes not working; controller not compatible; some 'hacking' tasks either don't trigger or fail for no reason, but overall worth playing

Going from Raven Shield to this was a bit disorienting. Rather than the methodical planning and surgical action of the earlier game, this felt more like "call of duty but you die faster". Most engaging element is better control of a team in combat but overall this feels a bit of a jarringly different experience. Fun time, just not what I'd expect from a "tactical shooter".

Gambling is Bad

vegas

⠄⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⠘⡿⢛⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣧⢻⣿⣿⠃⠸⣿⣿⣿⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⢀⠼⣛⣛⣭⢭⣟⣛⣛⣛⠿⠿⢆⡠⢿⣿⣿⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠸⣿⣿⢣⢶⣟⣿⣖⣿⣷⣻⣮⡿⣽⣿⣻⣖⣶⣤⣭⡉⠄⠄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠄⢹⠣⣛⣣⣭⣭⣭⣁⡛⠻⢽⣿⣿⣿⣿⢻⣿⣿⣿⣽⡧⡄⠄⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠄⠄⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⣌⡛⢿⣽⢘⣿⣷⣿⡻⠏⣛⣀⠄⠄
⠄⠄⠄⣼⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣦⠙⡅⣿⠚⣡⣴⣿⣿⣿⡆⠄
⠄⠄⣰⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣷⠄⣱⣾⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⠄⢀⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⢸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⠄⣸⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡿⠣⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠿⠛⠑⣿⣮⣝⣛⠿⠿⣿⣿⣿⣿⠄
⢠⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣶⠄⠄⠄⠄⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⣿⡟⠄