Rainbow Six: Vegas Diaries Part Four

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 continue Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas.

After a detour to rescue a reporter, we were on our way to deal with some apparent professionals…

Operation: Vertigo Spire began at 0135hrs, and it was clear that the terrorists weren’t going to sleep any time soon. As the helicopter flew towards the spire, we were fired at by an RPG. SWAT were apparently going to assault the ground floor as we went in through the roof, but I wasn’t too certain how subtle we were, since we were clearly visible to anyone on top of a building, as proven by the snipers shooting at us, too!

Despite there being some rappel points in the skylights, I decided to go through the door and down the stairs, since I couldn’t get a good line of sight on most of the tangos. We entered the lounge to the right and shot the two tangos inside, but the noise summoned the terrorists in the bar nextdoor, so they came barging in. This did help, however, because we managed to kill a couple of them before we even entered the bar area to mop the rest up.

There were still tangos talking, so I opened the door into the kitchen. This proved to be a mistake, as Mike and Jung were downed, after I threw a grenade and it bounced back off of a worktop… After getting them both back up, we killed the tangos, then went down the stairs behind us. Unfortunately, the restaurant below us was similarly filled with tangos, so I sent the squad down to a booth, and waited for them to clear out some of the enemy force.

As this was taking longer than I liked, I eventually joined them to clear up the few remaining, then headed downstairs with the squad. Ahead of us were two elevators, with bathrooms to our left, and a hallway to the right. Opening the ladies’ room, I surprised - and shot - a terrorist. Deciding to check the men’s room as well, there was another terrorist inside - but since he’d left the door into the bar open, we came under fire. After killing all of the tangos, we went to the door labeled with an exit sign.

Since we heard voices, I checked it out with the snake cam, spotting a couple of tangos. We burst in and shot them, finding an outdoor seating area, and a bunch more tangos. So many, in fact, that both Mike and Jung were taken out. As the doorway was under heavy fire, I threw two smoke grenades just outside. It gave me enough cover to get Mike up, then I ordered him to revive Jung while I took cover. Ahead of us, a news helicopter was way too close, but was seemingly ignored by the enemy.

It was a tense firefight, with tangos on either side of us as we moved forwards, but eventually we reached a rappel point, and went down. Yes, there were some terrorists still shooting at us, and they could have fired down at us, but we loaded into the next area so it was moot.

Joanna contacted us to tell us about a news chopper ignoring the no-fly zone - which we knew - but also it was broadcasting live footage. Worse, it wasn’t just the general stuff, it was filming the terrorist giving demands, who had Dr. Williams at gunpoint.

We entered the only door on this level, and went down several flights of stairs. Unfortunately, just before we reached the door at the bottom, we heard a hostage get killed. At least that was a scripted event, but even so it almost made me act hastily. After checking with the snake cam, we went in and shot the couple of tangos in the hallway. There were two sets of doors which led into what was a lounge, according to the sign above one door.

Deciding to use both doors, I had the squad stack up at the first door, then went to check on the second door. There were two tangos right next to the second door, with a few scattered around the rest of the room, so I gave the go command and waited two seconds for the terrorists to pay full attention to my team. Then, I opened my door and shot the two closest to me, and that was it. I was right in thinking my men wouldn’t have been able to shoot the ones closest to me, but it seemed that they were perfectly able to kill everyone else.

Moving out into the next hallway, my snake cam failed to warn me that someone was about to walk across the doorway, and he shot at us. I was almost immediately blinded by a flashbang, and tried to get back through the door that we’d come out of while my men returned fire. When it was clear, we moved through a reception area, and I checked the next door.

As Joanna had said, a news chopper was opposite the doors, just beyond the balcony. Standing on the balcony was a terrorist with our Dr. Williams, ranting at the news camera. I marked the ranter and one other tango for my squadmates, then opened the door. Mike told me to “take him out, boss”, despite having just killed the guy in charge, and we cleared out the rest of them.

Williams told us that we had to get out of the building, as the micro-pulse bomb was here. There was also a conventional explosive in the building directly opposite, which no sooner had he mentioned when the top of it exploded, shattering the windows of the room we were in. Luckily, it didn’t shatter the glass balcony which he was stood on - I had already retreated into the room.

After finding out that the micro-pulse bomb was in the bar, Logan told him to go downstairs where SWAT were waiting for him. Of course, I’d been through multiple bars already, and given how tall the building was there were definitely more… But Logan seemed to know, as a waypoint marker appeared on the HUD.

Exiting the room, I decided to ignore the door ahead of us, and swing around to head up the stairs next to us. Checking through the snake cam, I marked a couple of terrorists for the squad to shoot, and we entered. We were on the upper level above a hall full of slot machines - and tangos. Shots fired, machines spilled their coins, men fell down dead… It was a fast, but fierce, firefight before we could head downstairs to clear up the final couple of men.

Through another door, I could hear chatter about the bomb on the other side of the next door, so I checked with my snake cam. Opening the door, we shot the two men, then spotted another two men to the right down some stairs and shot them, too. We went down the stairs, and I looked through the windows into the bar which we were heading towards. It was on a lower level, and I could see the bomb, but I couldn’t see any enemy forces from my angle - the light from other buildings was too bright, and causing glare.

We went down the next staircase, but I stopped and looked through my sniper scope, having caught a glimpse of a tango. I shot him, then checked the nearby door with the snake cam. I could only make out one tango, so marked him and told the squad to stack up. Sneaking around to the left, past the guy I’d shot, I reached the second set of doors and checked again with the snake cam. Spotting a few more tangos, I marked one and prepared to shoot at the others.

I gave the go order, and we breached almost simultaneously, with my teammates focussing fire on most of the tangos as they didn’t seem to notice me. Proving that fact, the two tangos on the balcony above let me shoot them without moving a muscle. Once the room was clear, I told Mike to disarm the bomb. But it started beeping more rapidly - it was armed to blow.

Mike said that it would obliterate everything within five miles, or to put it in his exact words “think family pet in the microwave”. Thankfully, he managed to defuse the bomb just in time, and Logan reported to Joanna. She told me that Williams had made it down, and that they would pick us up from the roof. Making our way back upstairs, a door opened and a man came through firing his rifle at us while shouting “come out, I won’t shoot”... I took him down without taking damage, thanks to a sign and his bad aim absorbing most of the rounds, and we went up the several flights of stairs.

Just before reaching the roof, Joanna piped through a news report about the top of that building being on fire, then told me that we had to stop Irena Morales. As if I had made other plans - it was like two in the morning, what else did I have going on?!

The chopper landed, and we boarded. Coincidentally, that was when Irena contacted us, wanting to speak to me! Logan demanded to know where Kan and Gabriel were, and she told me that I just had to go to her to get them. Joanna said that Irena was at Dante’s Casino, and we left the Vertigo Spire…