What happens in Vegas…

To say Rainbow Six Vegas ended abruptly would be an understatement, but that was the plan all along, according to Philippe, as Ubisoft had long decided to conclude the story in a sequel. Rainbow Six Vegas 2 doesn’t pick up where Rainbow Six Vegas left off though, at least not immediately. The story actually takes place before, during and after the events of Rainbow Six Vegas. The first mission will take place in wintertime in the Pyrenees, a range of mountains in the southwest of France, five years before the events in Las Vegas. You’ll play as Bishop and lead a team of new recruits on a mission to free a group of CEOs from a communications tower. The ramifications of this initial mission will lead directly to the events of Vegas.

You’ll then continue to control Bishop, as you lead a team consisting of Jung Park and Michael Walter through a series of missions in the grittier areas of Las Vegas, such as the industrial rooftops of Old Vegas, back alleys and strip clubs. These missions take place at the same time as Logan’s Mexican mission in Rainbow Six Vegas. The story will eventually catch up to the ending of the first game, with former Rainbow Six operative Gabriel Nowak fleeing the Nevada Dam. In the third and final act, Bishop will track Gabe to a hideout in Central America, where Philippe Therien ensures the story of Rainbow Six Vegas will come a definitive conclusion.

Although Logan Keller will play a small role in the sequel, you’ll control Bishop, an all-new character in the world of Rainbow Six. Unlike Logan, Bishop is not a defined character. It’s up to you to create Bishop, gender, race and all, much like you would have your multiplayer character from Rainbow Six Vegas. In Rainbow Six Vegas 2, PEC permeates the entire experience, not just multiplayer, so you’ll be able to use your customized character in both single and multiplayer, gaining experience and rewards throughout both modes.

On the topic of experience and rewards, there are two different types of experience points in Rainbow Six Vegas 2. The first is general experience, which is earned by reaching checkpoints and completing missions in singleplayer, and in all the same ways in multiplayer as the original Rainbow Six Vegas. And much like the original, you’ll gain military ranks that unlock new camouflages to suit up your character in. All of the old camos from Rainbow Six Vegas will return in the sequel, as well as a few new ones including Canadian and British garb. The second type of experience is a new system called ACES, an acronym for Advanced Combat Enhancement and Specilization. There are 36 ways to kill a terrorist and each method falls into one of three categories: Marksmanship, Assault and Close Quarters. So for example if you snipe an enemy from long range, you’ll earn Marksmanship experience, whereas if you use a flash grenade to stun an enemy before killing them, you’ll earn Assault experience. As you rank up in these three areas, you’ll unlock new weapons specific to that discipline.

That’s coooold cabroooon!

Although Rainbow Six Vegas 2 won’t be a grand departure from Rainbow Six Vegas, Carl and Philippe did demonstrate a number of adjustments and improvements that have been made to general gameplay. Taking a page from Call of Duty 4, a sprint button has been added to the controls, allowing players a short burst of speed to escape a blast radius or to move quickly to safe cover in the middle of a firefight. They’ve also enabled bullet penetration, meaning if you’re taking cover behind drywall, wood, or any other penetrable surface, there’s a good chance the material won’t hold up long, or at all, against heavy weapon fire.

Controlling your AI teammates in the singleplayer campaign is relatively unchanged, though there is one significant development. Depending on the rules of engagement, you will be able to command your team to throw one of two types of grenades. Previously you could only command your team to use various grenades on doors, such as frag grenades when you ordered them to “frag and clear,” but now if you’re in infiltrate mode, you can order your team to use flash and smoke grenades at any time. In assault mode, you can command them to throw either frag or flash grenades.

Last but not least, in addition to using the snake cam to view and designate targets behind closed doors, there’s the new addition of thermal scans. Players can request a thermal scan from their Intel officer, which allows the player to see hostiles around their position on the tactical map for a short duration.

Would it help if I ran into your bullets?

There were some issues with the enemy AI in Rainbow Six Vegas, issues that have been addressed for the sequel. Enemies would often throw smoke grenades but without thermal vision, it would actually help you more than it did them. And if an enemy took cover behind an object, sometimes a small portion of their body would protrude, allowing you to shoot and kill them without them realizing they need to better move into their cover. Both of these issues have been ironed out. Enemy soldiers will have access to a much larger arsenal of weapons as well. Certain terrorists, deemed “elites,” will be outfitted with heavy armor, night and thermal goggles, and even shields. They’ll use smoke grenades and their vision goggles in tandom. You’ll be able to recognize these soldiers by their armor and goggles so if you see one, you’ll know there’s no point in throwing your own smoke grenade.

Friendly and enemy tactics have been tweaked as well. When friendly units are ordered to advance to a position, they’ll move from cover to cover, analyzing the terrorist threat ahead, as opposed to simply running straight to the waypoint. Similarly, enemy terrorists will “leapfrog” as they advance on your position, meaning that as one terrorist moves to closer cover, other terrorists will provide covering fire, allowing them to safely move forward. Equipped with their new gear and tactics, the terrorists should prove to be a more formidable foe in Rainbow Six Vegas 2.

There are a number of little additions that round out the experience. Environmental awareness plays a larger role in the game. If you knock over a barrel, you might alert a group of terrorists to your presence. If you see a trail of blood leading behind a door, you can be pretty sure that room won’t be empty, and you can even use your environment to distract enemies. Philippe and Carl showed this one tactic where Philippe used the butt of his gun to break a window, causing the enemies in the room to look in his direction, while Carl and the two AI teammates stormed the room and flanked the terrorists. Little details like that help add to the level of realism.

There is some disappointing news to report, news that some of you may have already heard. While the game will continue to support four-player co-op in Terrorist Hunt, the co-op story mode will only support two players. The reason for this, as Philippe explained, was to allow for a seamless experience. In Rainbow Six Vegas, even though the story mode supported four players, the campaign lacked a number of cutscenes and moments of dialogue that were crucial in building tension and revealing story arcs. The fight with Irena, for example, was a complete bust when playing through the campaign co-operatively. There won’t be such issues in Rainbow Six Vegas 2, but only two players will be able to participate. The host will control Bishop and two AI teammates, while the guest will control a character named Knight.

Along with the co-operative modes, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 will feature the usual suspects in terms of competitive modes, along with two new additions: Team Leader and Demolition. Team Leader sees each squad designate a team leader. For as long as the team leader is alive, squads will be able to respawn. The goal is to eliminate everyone on the opposing team, which helps if the team leader dies first. In an interesting twist, team leaders, and team leaders alone, will be able to see the opposing team’s leader on the tactical map, so communication by the team leaders is paramount to success. The other mode, entitled Demolition, sees one team trying to arm and detonate a bomb in enemy territory, while the opposing team attempts to disarm the bomb. With an arsenal of new weapons and maps, the multiplayer portion of Rainbow Six Vegas 2 aims to have gamers playing for months if not years to come.

Oh my god! They killed Marcelo! He owed me money!

With fan feedback playing a key role in the development of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, Philippe promises the sequel will be bigger and better than the original. He even went so far as to say Rainbow Six Vegas 2 is the game Rainbow Six Vegas should have been, had they more time to develop it. I wouldn’t bet against it, but you can be the judge of that when the game ships for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC on March 20th.