Schadenfreude

I’ve been playing Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Vegas 2 for a few evenings now and I have to say that I like it very much. Of course, I liked the first one a lot too, and they are basically the same game. Sure number 2 has more polish, a better experience system and some additional features, but the similarities vastly outweigh the differences.

What gets me, though, is the emphasis on new weapons. If you look at the videos section on game’s official site (http://rainbowsixgame.us.ubi.com/videos.php) you’ll find a “New weapons feature” that shows some in-game footage of a player using different weapons. What strikes me, though, is how similar the guns really are. Sure each one has a slightly different combination in terms of accuracy, penetration, range, etc., but in actual use (at least to me) they do basically the same thing. If I shoot an adversary (I refuse to use the game’s 21st century boogeyman term “terrorist”) with one sniper rifle in the game, he’s just as dead as if I shoot him with another. Most of the differences seem to be aesthetic and I’ll probably use the best weapon (stats wise) that I can unlock and stick with it, not trying most of the available choices.

That isn’t to say that I don’t like the unlockable weapons (and are more and camo patterns) I just don’t think that it’s anything to get all excited about.