Like many of you, I was very excited for the release of RSV2, so much so that I actually went and reserve a copy a WHOLE day before. That shows how devoted I was. But in all seriousness, I was a big fan of the first one and have a lot of good memories since it was the first game I got to play with Dtoiders. So RSV2 had some sentimental value to it.

I'm going to try and do some things different with this review than I have done. Most of you have read all the others calling it RSV 1.5 and such and I don't disagree with them. So what I plan on doing is instead of reviewing every single part of the game I am going to divide it up into three sections, Jailbait(worth going to jail for), One Night Stands(good once but nothing past that) and Beer Goggled(the part where you go, "What the fuck was I thinking?"). So let's start on the first section: Jailbait



1. XP Pool/ACES. Ubisoft did something different this time around. In RSV1 the XP you gained in multiplayer matches went toward leveling you up to the next rank which in turn unlocked newer guns and armor etc. The biggest problem with this is that you got no XP unless you completed a VS. Match or successfully cleared a level of terrorists. So you could spend 10 minutes on a terrorist hunt only to be killed by the last guy on the level that snuck up behind you which means you got no XP. Pretty annoying to say the least.

Well Ubisoft went back and revamped this into something that other dev's should take note. Instead of only getting XP for your character through Terrorist Hunts and Vs. Matches, EVERYTHING you do in the game contributes to the XP pool for your character. This includes Single player story, Co-op story, terrorist hunting and vs. matches. Plus the xp is not given based on objectives completed but rather on bad guys you killed. On realistic setting, each bad guy is worth 10 xp, regardless of how you killed them. This is a much needed boost to the old system of ranking up.

The other nice ranking is the ACES system. ACES is divided up into three sections, Marksmanship, CQB(Close-Quarters Battle I think) and Assault. To gain points in one of those three areas, you must kill bad guys in certain ways. For instance, if you kill from far away or with headshots you gain points into Marksmanship, close quarters kills and killing from behind give you CQB and killing through cover and with grenades give you Assault points. As you rank through these areas you unlock weapons and extra XP.

Both of these things, when added together, makes for a much easier and fun time ranking up through the ridiculous amounts of XP needed to be promoted. Well done Ubisoft, well done indeed.



1. Story - Honestly, after the first few levels, I wasn't sure what my purpose was in the story besides killing the bad guys. I liked that they kept referencing things that happened in the first game, but the story has never been the high point of the Vegas series anyways so I didn't mind it that much. Like the girl you pick up in the bar and take home on a saturday night, you never keep her for more than one night and you always wrap your shit up, so goes the story of Vegas 2. Fun to play through once or twice to get the achievements or to help a friend out in Co-Op, but not worth going back to time and time again. Not when there are other parts of the game better looking. So play through it once but then on move to the real high(or low) points of the game the multiplayer.




Multiplayer - Ubisoft consider yourself Beer Goggled for this mess of a multiplayer system. My biggest hope from the first game was they would take what Infinity Ward did with CoD4 and implement it into RSV2 but alas, like the girl that suddenly becomes pretty after 6 or 7 beers, this multiplayer system can only make you say, "Wat the fuck were they thinking?".

Instead of having a nice, efficient matchmaking system like CoD4 has, you must search through a list of servers and decide which one to join. This wouldn't be so bad except that by the time the level and character models have loaded, a 10 man server has become a four man server. This is the gaming equivalent of 'Whiskey Dick'; you get all excited and ready to go only to be let down and not able to stay in the game.



So there you have it people. My little take on the game. Pretty much if you liked the first Vegas and enjoy tactical, realistic shooters, I don't think there is a better game on the market for either system right now. I know the PS3 is having trouble with the online portion but so far I have not experienced any lags or setbacks online.