Rainbow Six Vegas - multiplayer hands-on

While the Rainbow Six Vegas team proclaimed that their focus was to "offer both classic and innovative game modes," we only got to see two. Still, we really enjoyed getting the jump on chumps with our handy snake cam and fast-roping down on top of the unwary soon-to-be-deads we encountered. The action was fast and devastating in both Team Survival and Attack and Defend modes, and left us hungry to give Survival a try, but, sadly, that wasn't on the menu.

We ran two maps, both distinct in their themes: a casino map and a burnt-out compound that had a sort of wild west flavor. The casino was best suited to the Attack and Defend game mode where one team attempted to nab something from the other, like capture the flag only with data disks or hostages in the place of flags (and only one team has one that the other team tries to capture). Playing on the side of the Attackers, we were entranced by the way the warren of hallways and banks of slot machines provided no end of secret hiding spots for our enemies to entrench themselves in. Team tactics were essential under the circumstances, requiring coordinated diversionary attacks and feints while having a smaller squad break off in search of the elusive "package." Fortunately, we had Ryan "Dead-eye" McCaffrey (from our sister mag OXM) on our side to aid us with his wealth of experience with the Rainbow Six series; otherwise, things may have gone decidedly different for us had we been clumped together with a disorganized rabble.