The Gameplay
Unlike run-and-gun shooters, tactical shooters take a more strategic approach to taking out enemies. Much like R6 Vegas, R6 Vegas 2 takes this element in the direction of real time strategy, as players will command their squad mates on the fly. These commands are simple to initiate and include ordering your teammates to prepare for entering a room full of terrorists. Then, after peering through a snake cam that allows you to see what's going on inside, you can order your team to open the door, toss in a grenade, then storm in and take out whoever is left standing. You can also order your team to rappel down the side of a building and surprise enemies by busting through windows. This aspect of the game is hugely satisfying and really gives players the feeling of playing the lead role in an action movie.
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As described in the previous example, your goal is to strategically order the members of your team to take defensive positions that aid in your squad's victory. While scenarios exist in the campaign that will allow your teammates to do all the work, the game is designed to keep you in the action. In fact, you'll often choose to take point and be the first to rush in and clear a room full of bad guys. If your character dies in the process, you can choose a different strategy the next time around. For instance, you may choose to have your two squad members hold their position at one door to a room while you take position at another door, then storm the room from both sides at the same time. If that doesn't work, you may choose to provide cover fire from an elevated position while your team takes care of business down below. R6 Vegas 2 makes this kind of coordination easy and you'll have an absolute blast designing your own methods of attacking your pursuers. The beauty of tactical gameplay is that there is no one way to successfully take down your attackers. Much like a game of chess, the experience can be different every time you play the game.
With every good game come a number of bad elements. These elements may be in the form of glitches, oversights, lack of polish, or just plain neglect by the development team. R6 Vegas 2 is no exception to this rule and there are a number of annoyances that are worth mentioning. First off, your AI teammates do not always like to follow orders. For instance, after you've knotted up your ropes and give the order to scale a building, your squad may just sit there instead of acknowledging your command. This happened a couple of times during the campaign and was downright frustrating. And when orders are followed, your squad mates do not always follow them correctly. While one teammate runs to the covered area you pointed out, the other often stops and kneels in the line of fire. They'll also run into you a lot and blatantly refuse to follow orders when there is clearly nothing in the way of their ability to do so. These occurrences appear to be the largest issues you'll experience. Luckily, they won't happen very often and will not hinder you from completing your mission.
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Another minor issue is with the game's voice command system that was introduced earlier in the series. What this does is allow you to issue verbal commands into your USB headset that your AI squad mates will follow in the game. This is a really cool feature that was spoiled this time around by its inability to recognize even the simplest of commands. Instead of following your order to "get over here," your team will "frag and clear" thus starting a firefight that you may not have been ready to begin. Other voice commands may simply be ignored, causing this feature to be utterly useless. Not to worry though; tapping your d-pad to give an order is just as easy and works flawlessly.
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Omega215D - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
I'm still waiting for the PC version to come out with its mouse and keyboard goodness. I would hope it's a little more refined than the console versions. I'm still enjoying the first game but the graphics seem to have gone downhill after the first 3 levels.Calin - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
"You can also order your team to repel down the side of a building "Rapelling is descending a rope under control. Is used to climb down a building, or to descend from an helicopter when the helicopter can't land (like in C&C Generals).
Repelling is to drive or force back (an assailant, invader, etc.):
"All hands repel boarders", this would be the order on a sail ship in the great age of sail.
nerdye - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
Much grief has been given to ign and all of the game ratings coming from different online/print publications for as long as games have existed. I love anandtech for the analysis on hardware and technology that I can't find anywhere else to such a degree of quality. But rating a game on the fact that its "sweet", or "good", or "crap" for that matter is not revolutionary, actually its a step backwards from the ratings systems we have grown accustomed to.Sure you can argue that I can read 5 pages of info and it will fill me in on your "personal opinion", but I have no time for such with so many other resources available on the topic.
Forgive me anand as I have the utmost respect for you and your site and enjoy your articles more than anyone else's, but I must say my part my friend, game ratings systems are fine as they are.
tuteja1986 - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
Good start :!A little pointer :
* Review is too long
* Review system will face problem when reader start to question why every game you review is "Great game" & "Recommended" & "Must play". Best review scoring system is A - F as its most accepted standard everyone gets.
* You start to review with PC games 1st as your majority of reader don't like console
* You should review game based on how fun it is and the experiences you had while playing the game. You should see GFW's Shawn E reviews as i would consider him one of the best PC game review editor. less technical more emotions.
AcydRaine - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
Just because you don't like consoles doesn't mean that most other readers do not. I have a PS3/360 and mid-upper tier gaming PC and love them all. I see nothing wrong with a console review at AT.Great review Eddie. Keep it up. :)
pomaikai - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
I prefer anands rating system. I am not gonna pick up a game because it got a 8.7 instead of another that got an 8.2. I dont see how you can give a score if the scoring system is not laid out in plain terms. What equates to a 10 in graphics? What gets a 10 today might get a 8 two years from now. All I really care about is if the game is good and worth playing. If a game gets sweet that means that is was really fun to play and thats all I really care about.JarredWalton - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
The conclusion should give you ample information to determine if the game is something you'd like to play or not. If it sounds interesting, then you can read the rest of the article to find out more details on the various aspects of gameplay, graphics, etc.We will basically categorize games as "Excellent", "Good", "Okay", "Subpar", and "Lousy". That's all a game score really tells you anyway. A game that one reviewer gives a 7.7 might receive an 8.7 by another person; there's a lot of room for opinion, and rather than getting tied down in the details we're going to take a step back.
Personally, I used to love Computer Gaming World (R.I.P.) and the fact that they didn't give scores. Maybe that's how I ended up as a writer: I enjoyed reading the page or so of text to find out what a game was like, and then I'd try to decide if it sounded like something I wanted to try. I still take that approach in most of my articles, even if I have nothing to do with CGW.
Omega215D - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
Any chance of you guys reviewing the PC version when it comes out, hopefully in the middle of April?Lonyo - Friday, April 4, 2008 - link
Hopefully it'll support multi-core this time round.