Take, for example, your ability to command your squad to post up next to a door. The problem with the single-player is there just isn't all that much reason to use any of them, since it's ultimately such a superficial tactical experience. Along with all your other fancy tools like thermal and night-vision goggles, a snake camera to peek under doors, and a variety of grenades types, not to mention the bevy of firearms at your disposal, you prove to be quite the prepared counter-terrorist agent. To help survey the zones of battles you've got access to an overhead map capable of displaying enemy positions and the ability to periodically perform thermal sweeps of the area. If you've never been to CES then you won't care, but those who've attended have to envy the speed with which your squad is able to traverse the cavernous spaces, especially considering they have to take cover while under fire.
They're not the most interesting locations, especially when compared to the glitzier, glamorous battle zones in the first Vegas, but I really enjoyed blasting through the LVCC's show floor, which seemed to be in a state of partial readiness for a Consumer Electronics Show-style event. Fighting arenas range from large parking lots, storage yards, and convention halls to tight corridors and claustrophobic rooms packed with electronics. Your squad can perform special maneuvers as well, such as rappelling down the sides of buildings and smashing through windows, blowing open doors with explosive charges, and lobbing smoke and flashbangs to spots designated by your aiming cursor. The limited tactical elements are derived from your ability to command your team of two to move around the zone of battle and post up behind cover to draw enemy fire, open up flanking opportunities, and wipe out enemies. As a leader of Bravo Squad, a counter-terrorist team, you proceed through casinos, the Las Vegas Convention Center, a monorail station, and other locales in pursuit of generic terrorists harboring bombs and chemical weapons.
The gameplay here, like before, is heavy on action and light on tactics. Though little attention has been paid to alleviating issues with the single-player content, the online modes can be a lot of fun. With Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, Ubisoft delivers what's nearly a carbon copy of what we saw in its predecessor. Though it's certainly quite a bit different from what the PC-faithful may remember playing years ago, it still proved to be an entertaining formula when Vegas was released in late 2006. In case you missed out, the R6 titles bearing the Vegas moniker are more about action, far more forgiving of mistakes, and mix in only very light tactical elements. Most PC gamers have likely recovered from the shock of Rainbow Six: Vegas' drastic departure from the more hardcore tactical planning of the series' past.