Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2 (PS3)

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Like in the last game, shot partners lie there bleeding to death, but you can rescue them with a miracle syringe, or order one of the remaining ones to do that. They still sometimes get stuck on things like slot machines or ... boxes. It doesn't happen often, and you can order them to different areas easily, but man does it spoil any realism when this happens. The sidekicks are useful, because they give you a choice: You take the fight to the terrorists yourself, like an action hero -- and risk dying in one of the many ambush set pieces here -- or just send your two buddies in to flush them out, figuring you can just inject your sidekicks with drugs and they'll be hale and hearty. Man, if only it worked that way in real life!

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 shares another trait with its predecessor: The online play is almost as good as single-player. You can tackle all the missions in split-screen or over PlayStation Network, or play in teams with and against human players. Online play is hampered by the fact that you can't see the latency until you've entered the game and because there aren't a whole lot of players, yet. Multiplayer offers the same mixed bag of scenarios as single-player. Nondescript warehouses, hotels and office buildings drably sit among the convincing replica of the Vegas Convention Center and a lovingly recreated theater where one team gets the balconies and the other has to make do with the confining stage. You might remember a level like this in the original game, but in single-player, that level had you fighting from the stage; this one casts you as the attacker.

Taking a cue, perhaps, from Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Vegas 2 takes its experience point system offline. This means whatever ranks you attain, or equipment or costume options you unlock, can be taken online with you. One problem with this addition is that when you shoot, blow up, or kill a terrorist, you see the experience points flash on the screen. "Shoot through cover" = +5 XP. Can you see the problem with this? When you shoot a bad guy through cover, you now know he's dead because of the experience points. Before, you had to send a partner to check, or look yourself, a harrowing prospect now missing from the game completely. Also, you don't get XP for teammate kills, thus offering incentive to the enterprising anti-terrorist do-it-yourselfer.

Online play has been streamlined. The co-op is limited to two players, but the Terrorist Hunt option lets four play together. Playing together is a lot of fun simply because of the tactical options. One guy bursts through one door, the other guy enters through the balcony, and the terrorists never know what hit them. It is cool that now one player gets to control the artificial intelligence partners, so you're no longer limited to a two- or three-person assault. Even better, a friend or sibling can jump in or out without hurting the campaign.

A few new multiplayer modes round things out (Team Leader is especially worth a look) and there's also the addition of armor and shields. You can sacrifice movement for protection and vice-versa. The riot shields are just plain cool, forcing you to aim your shots carefully or use a precious grenade. Thankfully anyone carrying the shield is limited to using the pistol (and yes, you can pick up the shield and use it, too). The PlayStation 3 version is fundamentally the same as the Xbox 360 version but, of course, the PS3 controller lacks the rumble feature. It's slightly less satisfying, but only slightly.