Date:
Monday , May 12, 2008
Author:
Mark Warner
Editor:
Brent Justice
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Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Gameplay Performance and IQ

The PC version of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, has finally shipped a month after the console version. We've tested Vegas 2, backed by Unreal Engine 3 on six of today's best video cards. What kind of gameplay experience should you expect on which GPU!

Introduction

On April 16, 2008, Ubisoft shipped the PC version of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2, precisely one month after the various console versions hit the shelves. As the sixth game in the highly acclaimed Rainbow Six series, Vegas 2 adds to the Rainbow Six Vegas story line and continues the unique gameplay mechanics first introduced to the series by the first Vegas. Developed using the Epic's Unreal Engine 3 technology, Rainbow Six Vegas and Vegas 2 mark a radical departure from the franchise' traditional tactical shooter gameplay, and in fact are almost completely different from previous games in the Rainbow Six franchise. They are decidedly more action-oriented, leading some players to shun the new games' less-tactical nature.

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The Game

In Tom Clancy's universe, Rainbow is an elite group of counter-terrorist warfighters. It is a multi-national group, drawing its members from all over the world, including the United States, England, and Korea. The timeframe of this Rainbow iteration appears to be quite different, as the characters from earlier games (and even some Tom Clancy films), such as Ding Chavez and John Clark, are unavailable and unmentioned in this game.

Eschewing the traditional tactical shooter mechanic of leaning around corners, and removing the sometimes long mission planning process, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 employs a cover system and a more fluid, on-the-fly mission approach. Upon approaching a potential cover point, such as a column or low wall, the player presses the right-mouse button to "attach" to the cover. When in cover mode, the camera switches to the third person, as shown above, and can maneuver the camera to look around and scope for threats. Then, the player can press the W, A, or D keys to lean around, or peer over, the covering element and fire from a position of relative safety. Alternatively, the player can merely press the fire button and the character will "blind fire" by sticking the barrel of his weapon around the corner and pulling the trigger.

To replace the previous games' planning sessions, Vegas 2 features briefings in the helicopter while the player is on the way to the mission. You are given a few basic objectives during the briefings, but during the execution phase of the mission, those objectives frequently change. In addition, instead of hand-choosing mission operatives, which was allowed in earlier Rainbow Six games, the player must make-do with the characters given to him.

The storyline of Vegas 2 is as a sideline to the first Rainbow Six Vegas. There are frequent references to characters and events from the earlier game, and the player's character, named Bishop, even teams up with the same Rainbow characters seen in Vegas 1. As a new addition to the series, the player progresses through various non-commissioned and commissioned officer ranks in this game. Through various achievements during combat, the player gains experience points and rank, which unlocks new weapons, armor, camouflage patterns, and other accessories.

The Video Cards

We are testing Rainbow Six Vegas 2 with six different current video cards. In the high end, we will be looking at an NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GX2, a GeForce 9800 GTX, and AMD's ATI Radeon HD 3870 X2. In the more mainstream performance market, we'll be examining performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, the GeForce 9600 GT, and the ATI Radeon HD 3870. These six video cards provide us with a good cross-section of the video cards our readers have expressed that they are most interested in. These video cards also allow us to expose Vegas 2 to single and multi-GPU products from both GPU manufacturers.