I took a hammer to my toaster the other day, not because it was broken mind you, I just wanted to see if I could fix what wasn't broken, naturally I failed in my quest and ended up on the floor surrounded by tiny pieces crying over the loss of my much beloved warm bread and buttery meal.
This technique of fixing the unbroken seems to very popular with big development companies, I used to call this the "EA EFFECT" but it would seem that UBISoft are jumping on the bandwagon, We could call it the "MASS EFFECT" yes not the best pun in the world but I have made it now so lets move on.
Rainbow Six was first produced by Red Storm Entertainment which was founded back in 1996 by Tom Clancy. The game itself was very complex, it required a lot of planning, You could take one team with you and send another on a preplanned course, you had to decided would both teams link up and certain sections or both go it alone, would you go in hot and heavy or swift and silent, you may have taken losses but you pressed on knowing that there was innocent lives at stake (feel glorified feelings here). Sadly Red Storm was bought by UBI in 2000 and in March 2008 UBI severed all working relations with Tom Clancy for royalties, since then UBI have moved as far away from the original concept as my rewrite of the film Alien with Dan Akroyd's famous extraterrestrial character as the focus of terror, unlike UBI I know that my rewrite might be awful.
The first thing you are greeted with when entering the game is a customizable character which I thought was a nice touch, I was able to change my weapon loadouts and armour and even the colour of it, Then I started to realise the problems with this, one being that the original game would let you do this anyway, not just yourself but your team mates as well, If I changed my armour colour my team mates stayed the same defeating the purpose of camouflage not that the game takes this into consideration anyway but this kind of individuality doesn't happen in military organizations, hence why you didn't see any of the entry men of the SAS wearing bright pink tutus as they bust into the Iranian embassy. The ranking and unlock system also seemed pointless, the new gear didn't seem useful when I unlocked it and why did I start as a private?? Surely they wouldn't let a new recruit lead a highly trainer anti-terrorist unit would they?
They game itself looked nice, but its the unreal engine so there really isn't any point discussing that. The gameplay was a bitter disappointment, It just lacked any of the tactical element that the original games used to carry, everything was preplanned for you and the only options that you were left to make were either attack from downstairs or upstairs, or attack through door or go upstairs and repeal down the side smashing through the windows and increasing your collateral damage bill. As with the original games your team mates could be trusted to get the job done, sure they might take a loss or two but thats the price you pay, sadly this is not the case with Vegas. The AI enhancement that was promised from the first game isn't visible and your team mates still require you to hold there hands, The most fun that can be had with them is sending them into certain doom, but even UBI have managed to spoil that as the gleeful idiots can not even die right, which requires you to inject them with what seems to be the best drugs in the world to make you recover from bullet wounds in about 10 seconds.
The audio levels in this just frustrate me, developers seem to forget that in real life situations involving gun fire, that you speaking voice becomes almost impossible to hear, yet all the voice acting in the game, which mind you is also just terrible, is on a spoken level making it impossible to hear for the most part. The story along with the AI improvements are just not present in the game which is a shame really considering that Tom Clancy was a story writer, you would of thought they would have kept him on to do that.
Quick summary then
Graphics: 8, as I said its the unreal engine
Sound: 6, What I can hear you?
Gameplay: 5, Its not really a tactical shooter anymore which is a shame, and the game is just generally poor
Lasting appeal: 5 Its a rental game at best, as for the multiplayer there are better ones out there.
Overall 5/10
This technique of fixing the unbroken seems to very popular with big development companies, I used to call this the "EA EFFECT" but it would seem that UBISoft are jumping on the bandwagon, We could call it the "MASS EFFECT" yes not the best pun in the world but I have made it now so lets move on.
Rainbow Six was first produced by Red Storm Entertainment which was founded back in 1996 by Tom Clancy. The game itself was very complex, it required a lot of planning, You could take one team with you and send another on a preplanned course, you had to decided would both teams link up and certain sections or both go it alone, would you go in hot and heavy or swift and silent, you may have taken losses but you pressed on knowing that there was innocent lives at stake (feel glorified feelings here). Sadly Red Storm was bought by UBI in 2000 and in March 2008 UBI severed all working relations with Tom Clancy for royalties, since then UBI have moved as far away from the original concept as my rewrite of the film Alien with Dan Akroyd's famous extraterrestrial character as the focus of terror, unlike UBI I know that my rewrite might be awful.
The first thing you are greeted with when entering the game is a customizable character which I thought was a nice touch, I was able to change my weapon loadouts and armour and even the colour of it, Then I started to realise the problems with this, one being that the original game would let you do this anyway, not just yourself but your team mates as well, If I changed my armour colour my team mates stayed the same defeating the purpose of camouflage not that the game takes this into consideration anyway but this kind of individuality doesn't happen in military organizations, hence why you didn't see any of the entry men of the SAS wearing bright pink tutus as they bust into the Iranian embassy. The ranking and unlock system also seemed pointless, the new gear didn't seem useful when I unlocked it and why did I start as a private?? Surely they wouldn't let a new recruit lead a highly trainer anti-terrorist unit would they?
They game itself looked nice, but its the unreal engine so there really isn't any point discussing that. The gameplay was a bitter disappointment, It just lacked any of the tactical element that the original games used to carry, everything was preplanned for you and the only options that you were left to make were either attack from downstairs or upstairs, or attack through door or go upstairs and repeal down the side smashing through the windows and increasing your collateral damage bill. As with the original games your team mates could be trusted to get the job done, sure they might take a loss or two but thats the price you pay, sadly this is not the case with Vegas. The AI enhancement that was promised from the first game isn't visible and your team mates still require you to hold there hands, The most fun that can be had with them is sending them into certain doom, but even UBI have managed to spoil that as the gleeful idiots can not even die right, which requires you to inject them with what seems to be the best drugs in the world to make you recover from bullet wounds in about 10 seconds.
The audio levels in this just frustrate me, developers seem to forget that in real life situations involving gun fire, that you speaking voice becomes almost impossible to hear, yet all the voice acting in the game, which mind you is also just terrible, is on a spoken level making it impossible to hear for the most part. The story along with the AI improvements are just not present in the game which is a shame really considering that Tom Clancy was a story writer, you would of thought they would have kept him on to do that.
Quick summary then
Graphics: 8, as I said its the unreal engine
Sound: 6, What I can hear you?
Gameplay: 5, Its not really a tactical shooter anymore which is a shame, and the game is just generally poor
Lasting appeal: 5 Its a rental game at best, as for the multiplayer there are better ones out there.
Overall 5/10
