Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

It's more and better Rainbow Six: Vegas. Considering it's prequel was really solid on it's own - it should be enough for a recommendation.

Art:
If we're talking graphics - Vegas 2 couldn't escape comparison with Crysis or CoD4.
Crisis obviously overpowers it with details, indirect lights, polygon count, etc though Vegas 2 simply looks better. I don't care about tech, if it doesn't contribute in any meaningful way. If I can't see n-th degree reflection from some railing - it may not exist. I liked what I saw better while playing Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.
... and tech-wise Unreal newest engine is powerful too and RS:V2 has ton of polygons of its own.
Tough, it won't grab "best graphical depiction of modern combat" from CoD4. Something is 100% perfect in colours and moods - which was the case with CoD4. Game seems over-saturated. Maybe setting forced this one - it's Vegas after all.
Overally it's still very good and some colorizing plus realisitc-looking destruction of equipement could move it to perfect. It's also got pretty good sound.
8/10

Story:
It's not on B class movie script's level. Rather C.
It's preposterous, twists are obvious and it'd be better if characters wouldn't say anything about the "big picture". "Just concentrate on shooting bad guys boys - why bother with anything else?"
Spolier warning, for C class movies fans.
Story sometimes borders madness. You get reminiscence mission to show why shwarz-character turned into genocidal maniac. Than there's military-scale assault on Vegas, where hundreds of well trained mercs kill some civilians and police just to die on hands of Rainbow operatives. At some point some NSA agent appears on your comm frequency. He wars total face cover and won't even give his name. He feeds you bad intel three times. That he gets onto your heli to show you some another fake clue... If I was Bishop I'd shoot Gabriel on that spot. Why Gabriel? It's C class movie script. It's obvious it's traitor from first RS:V, after first part of bad intel.
After that it's only worse.
Overally story is outrageous, but this game is "classic" fps and it doesn't weigh too much on the game.
2/10

Gameplay:
Most of the game you got two partners. You can command them with console-style 3 buttons that represent different actions depending on situation (I hate console dumbing down - it killed Deus Ex 2. It would be no problem for PC user to have 5 commands in reach, but you have to change infiltrarion/assault mode to have your team swap frags for flashes - becouse console pads have so few buttons.). They're not the brightest, but will do the job. At some places they're extremaly useful covering your rear, flanking or used as a bait and I can't really complain about teammates in RS:V2. It'd be nice to have additional commands like "supressive fire", or "assault that target". These wouldn't stick so much to convention in which you are still ... police. Elite SWAT but still apprehending criminals. However most of this missions are far more military style. You get ton of enemies and most of them you just gun down in intense fire fights.
Which isn't a bad thing altogether.

RS:V2 naturally has cover system. It seems to me as it was tweaked and upgraded comparing to original Vegas. It's pretty sweet. Angle on which you can shoot and fire blindly sticking only hand out of covers feels perfectly real. Stepping with your back to the wall (nice shots on Bishop, which can be woman as well as man (!) are added bonus), firing blindly at enemy running to you, throwing a granade to enemies that fire on you from behind, looking on the other side just in time to cut down flanking terrorist is really awesome.
I hope Americas Army 2 will have cover system this good.

Enemies will flank you, sometimes run at you, sometimes fire from the cover, use granades and pose some challange on "realistic" level. They will obviously make many misteakes but all in all they're not the dumbest bunch in the gamining history. They're chatting while fighting which is very useful to player... hardly realistic but they make it up in numbers.
There's one awful thing about enemies - they sometimes spawn in your sight. In campaing I've had to defend one location. I've moved where enemy comes from and secured only door in waiting for their attack. They spawned all around me...
It's very bad that there're no guys where you're going until last moment (rarely - after last moment - u can see actual spawn on some instances). You can't hear anything and see anything ahead, unless there's a scene scripted out there.

In RS:V2 you can dress your own Rainbow operative.
Choose armour (some cool looking - totaly unrealistic - whole body cover armours are availible), choose clothes, glassess, helmets and stuff. Camo pattern also customizable.
As far as it may sound radiculus it's actaully pretty fun. And - just look back at story paragraph - this game isn't about realism or consequence. Convention is just a theme for nice shootout.

There're also some accomplishments that unlock new stuff, but this played average. They're not bothersome, but don't get so much into the game.

Overally gameplay is formidable. Run to covers, throw things, shoot things and two teammates as an added bonus. Innovative? Maybe not, but well executed.
7/10

Seriously, if you like fps go get the game. It won't blow you away. It doesn't have AC-130u. But it's worth the time and (except for the story) won't get you dissapointed.
7/10