Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 Diaries Part One

Here it is, the final single-player Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six title. I’m writing this post-E3 2021, so we’ve seen that Rainbow Six Extraction (formerly Rainbow Six Quarantine) is going to be a service game. That means it will be playable in single-player, but it won’t have a storyline to follow. If that turns out to be incorrect, of course I’ll write a diary about it!

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is the 2008 follow up to Rainbow Six Vegas. Much like the PSP version of Vegas, the story apparently runs concurrently and after the first game. As a result, you don’t control Logan Keller this time. In fact, you control a customisable character, Bishop, who is either male or female depending on what you choose when you load up the game for the first time. That’s not made clear by the game, though, I just assumed it was for multiplayer only, and that Ubisoft had coincidentally made Bishop a woman... But here we go!

This is my ongoing exploration of Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six series, played in release order, where I will chronicle my playthrough like a text-based Let’s Play. This time I begin Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2.

It’s 2005, and Bishop arrives at the Píc des Pyreneés observatory in France. They’re required to lead Bravo Team, made up of Gabriel Nowak and Logan Keller, into position to rescue some hostages. I had arrived just as the negotiator was set to head inside. I led a team beneath the gantry that the negotiator was on, and we quietly made our way through the building. Back outside we killed two more tangos, then went back inside to kill another two.

Things were going well, except for the grenade I accidentally threw, yet apparently drew no attention. We rappelled down into an office - or more correctly, one of my teammates did while the other remained outside the window, and I couldn’t find where my rappel point was until after the tangos were dead… We worked our way through the building, reaching a point where we had to climb up ropes and I accidentally shot Alpha Team through the window.

Reaching where the hostages were being held, we were under orders to wait for Alpha Team to get into position. The negotiator held his own against the terrorist leader, but the strain was too much for Gabriel as he opened fire. The negotiator was killed, but the hostages ran in the confusion. We fought our way through the facility, making our way to a bomb. Logan defused it, and we fought off another wave of tangos, completing the prologue…

When things faded back in, Bishop was heading into Las Vegas on the 2nd of July 2010 at 1827hrs for Operation: Old Vegas. On the helicopter were Bishop, Mike Walter and Jung Park. Bishop had been called in by Ding Chavez himself, as he suspected that something was going to happen soon. Logan’s team down in Mexico were uncovering something, and it looked to be big.

We fast roped down onto the roof of a building, and made our way up to another rooftop. Deputy Director Lawrence of the NSA came through on our comm to tell us about the mission. The Coyotes - smugglers turned terrorists - had been gathering components for chemical weapons, and the NSA’s operative had gone dark. So they sent in a second operative, Agent Neville. Once they had confirmation of chemical weapons, we were to move in.

Entering a door, we took out a couple of tangos as Neville arrived, our operator Sharon Judd patching the CCTV footage through to us. Down the hallway laid another room with tangos, but Sharon suggested that we go outside and fire in through the windows. I went outside and shot a tango, then sent the squad into the room while I climbed a ladder. What I hadn’t realised, however, was that there were tangos up on the roof.

Despite waiting near the top of the ladder, hoping that the tango coming towards me would somehow miss me - he spotted me. I quickly got to the top of the ladder and shot him, but his buddies were also on me. After a brief firefight, we continued along the rooftop, while Neville was questioned by one of the Coyotes. At the far end, I shot a guy and we fast roped in through a skylight. Another firefight ensued as we cleared the rooms and headed for a fire escape.

Crossing the roof, we entered the next building just as Neville got shot in the leg, whoever was interrogating him not believing his story anymore. Sharon confirmed that we could go in, though we weren’t anywhere near as it turned out. Entering a dark room, we shot some tangos wearing night vision goggles, and resupplied in the adjacent room.

As we exited onto the rooftop, Neville began getting tortured quite badly. So badly that Bishop told Sharon to cut the audio. Since they knew that we were on the rooftops, they came out in force. Fighting across to another rooftop, we headed up some stairs and inside, only to fast rope down and go back outside! However, we could see into the room where Neville was being tortured, so we shot the tangos inside before heading up a ladder and fast roping through the skylight. Unfortunately, there was one tango left, and Neville was dead.

Sharon relayed that Chavez had given authorisation to move on the warehouse, so we left the scene and entered the Crazy Globe nightclub casino. Since I checked with the snake cam beforehand, we shot the tangos on the upper level before moving in, but there were two levels and plenty more tangos to kill before we could move downstairs. Two more tangos entered as we tried to leave, so we shot them and left.

Well, we tried to leave, as there were a handful more tangos hiding behind a bank of slot machines. We exited into a parking garage, because the street above had construction blocking it. Unfortunately, according to Sharon’s scans the tangos in the garage were expecting us. We fought our way through, taking cover from car to car. At the exit, the Coyotes were talking about how “the SWAT team” were closing in, which I took to mean us. After killing a bunch more tangos, we entered the construction site which was filled with more tangos.

Once the way was clear, we moved on ahead only for the nearby bridge to explode, collapsing a section of it! To make matters worse, even more tangos poured into the construction site. Eventually, we made our way into a warehouse and resupplied.

Checking the door with my snake cam, I saw two tangos bullying a civilian, so we quickly shot them. The civilian begged us to save her family, and Bishop told her to stay out of the way. So, in the firefight that ensued, she got directly in the line of fire no fewer than four times. Deputy Director Lawrence told me that a van had escaped the area, not that I was certain what I could have done, but Bishop told him that Chavez wanted us to secure the hostages.

At the far end of the road, our civilian entered the code into the gate - somehow knowing it - and told us to wait while she lured someone out. The instant the tango exited the doorway, one of my men shot him. So, we had to go in guns blazing! Not that the warehouse was particularly full, as it transpired, so in no time flat we were through it and I shot the two tangos guarding three hostages. They said that there were more hostages, so we set off to rescue them too.

Exiting the warehouse and crossing the road, I set up the squad at the front doors, and checked the side door with the snake cam. We killed two tangos, and I stacked up the squad at the next door as I headed up a ladder. Unfortunately, there was a tango up there with me, so I blew our cover and gave the go order while providing covering fire from the upper level. When the coast was clear, we headed out through the back door.

Sharon gave me a blueprint of the final warehouse, and suggested we go in through the loading bay. That was good, as some tangos spotted me through the loading bay and we got into a firefight. Once the warehouse was clear, we had the option of a couple of doors to get to the hostages, or the windows at the back. Of course, I went for the windows and shot the tangos inside.

I climbed in through the window and the hostages thanked me. It turned out that they had been being forced to make chemical bombs. Bishop asked Sharon where the van was, and apparently it had been slowed by bad traffic, so we went outside to get on board the helicopter. We got aboard when it arrived, and Sharon said that she knew where the van was heading - to a rec centre…