Last year’s Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas was a great shooter that build upon the Rainbow Six franchise of games by offering accessible action and great story elements. Now, Ubisoft Montreal is wrapping up production on the sequel, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

The last game in the series to take place in Sin City, Vegas 2 will feature the same core gameplay elements as the original, meaning that it will be immediately familiar to fans of that game. What the developers brought to the table was new story elements, expanding on the events that took place in the original game and explaining some of the bigger events in the first Vegas. Vegas 2 won’t offer many new gameplay elements, but should still be a worthy tactical shooter for any fan of the genre.

While most of the gameplay elements and controls are unchanged from the original Vegas, the sequel does add one new element not featured in the original, and that’s the sprint button. You can now make a mad dash to cover if things get too heavy, which is a nice and much needed touch to the game formula.

The game has a new in-game achievement system, referred to as the ACES system, which will allow you to unlock new weapon mods as rewards for performing certain tasks. These vary greatly, usually involving killing an enemy in a specific way, either sniping them from a certain distance or getting a certain number of headshots and so on. This works on a point system, and more difficult tasks will net you more points to spend on new gear.

Graphically, the game looks much the same as the original, which is still not bad, considering that the first Vegas was built on Unreal Engine 3 tech, which isn’t too shabby these days. The character models look great and the environments are gorgeous, with some truly amazing lighting effects bringing the city to life.

The sound effects are also quite good. The music is the same quality score that the Tom Clancy games have been known for, and the sound effects are crisp and realistic. The voice acting is also very good.

While the gameplay won’t be drastically different, Vegas 2 is a nice step up from its predecessor, offering up some great new gameplay elements and focusing on finishing the storyline. Look for more on Vegas 2 once it launches later this month.

Originally from GameZone