Rainbow Six: Vegas is a first-person tactical shooter whose terrorist plot unfolds over a single night. The campaign runs from the Mexican border through the mines and casino interiors of Las Vegas, moving from a hunt to a hostage-heavy crawl.
The squad toolset is a highlight, with ordering teammates, breach-and-clear and frag-and-clear opening multiple angles into a room. Snake cam, thermal vision and rappelling extend the tactical options considerably, with the multi-angle entries the best part of the package.
The regenerating health system forgives mistakes, letting a run recover from a botched breach rather than restarting the whole section. Squadmates can be revived after being knocked down, which makes sending them ahead first a calculated trade-off.
Spotting enemies is the hardest part, with hostile figures blending into the scenery and deaths repeatedly coming from unseen threats. Shotguns dominate the enemy roster and kill instantly at close range, so whoever shoots first wins.
Checkpoints are sparse, with whole sections redone after a death and the chosen loadout failing to persist between attempts. The lack of a sprint option compounds the frustration during the long retraces through already-cleared ground.
The set-pieces carry real cool factor, with the security-camera level, the Spire assault and the casino interiors standing out. The solo mines section is the low point, a pistol-only stretch against shotgun-wielding foes that took a long time to clear.
Overall, the squad tools and the forgiving health system make the campaign an enjoyable tactical run. The enemy visibility and the sparse checkpoints are the price of admission for a shooter this focused on careful room entry.