On a remote farm in the country things are peaceful. Everything isn’t as it seems though. A stranger appears outside of your home; little do you know that he is one of the many walking dead. In a desperate struggle for survival you make your way to the one city still controlled by the living. The only thing standing between you and your goal of survival are several thousand zombies and one very crappy game brought to you by our friends at Grove Games. This review is based on the PC version of the game, though it is available on the original Xbox as well.

Graphics: 6.5/10

The best way to describe the graphics of this game is “ok”. Not great but not terrible. The zombies are well animated and detailed with huge chunks of flesh missing from them. Character movement is fluid and smooth. The weapons though are very bland and plain looking though and there are some animation glitches in the weapons. For example, the shot gun. No matter how many rounds you have left the animation stays the same. If you have 2 rounds left out of four and then you reload, it shows him putting four shells in the gun.

Sound 7.0/10

Ah the sounds of zombies crawling around, beautiful. Too bad all the other sound effects are low quality at best. The voice acting is horrible and at times it even sounds like the actors are half asleep. The greatest disappointment is the weapon sounds, not all of them, but most of them. The sound of a baseball bat connecting with a zombie’s skull is music as with most melee weapons. However the guns in the game sound weak and pathetic.

AI 5.0/10

Zombies are dumb, that’s a fact of life but this is just sad. I’m standing on top of a car shooting a zombie and it doesn’t even react. The zombies around it just stand there even though I am in plan view in front of them. Why aren’t they trying to get to me?

Multiplayer 7.0/10

It’s hard to connect to a server to play land of the dead. It’s even harder to find decent people to play with but once you do and download some moded content, this game’s online play really shines. Nothing like trying to kill someone while trying not to be eaten by zombies.

Overall 6.5/10

The game is not horrible but does suffer a lot from its many flaws. If you’re a die hard zombie fan then pick up a copy (good luck finding one) if not then don’t waste your time. There are a few communities out there dedicated to moding and improving the game with better weapons and online maps which renders the game enjoyable but not any where near perfect.

Graphics: 8.5/10

Pros:

• The environment’s graphics are good no doubt about it but they are nowhere near the best.

• The guns are nicely detailed and look authentic which is a plus in my book.

• Characters are well animated and look realistic.

• Particle and smoke effects are top notch.

Cons

• Whenever you start a level it takes awhile for the textures to catch up with the models. For example when you first start, your armor will not have any camouflage and the guns will look bland. Give it a second and the textures will finally map to the models.

Artificial Intelligence 7/10

Pros

• If you use smoke grenades frequently the enemies will start to use thermal vision to see you and will try to flank you.

• They are smart enough to realize that you can’t shoot what you can’t see. So building upon that wisdom they will use flash bangs. A lot.

• At long distances they will actually fire in bursts instead of going full auto. This is more accurate and saves ammo.

Cons

• The enemies don’t react to what’s happening in their environment well. Fore example, if you throw a grenade they don’t react or try to run for cover. Even enemy’s nearby that just saw their friends get blown up do not react.

• I’m walking up some stairs and a terrorist runs right by me. I know he saw me. I conclude that it was just a glitch in the AI and probably wont happen again. Lo and behold two more run by me into the bottom floor shouting “where is he?” So I shot them in the back of the head for being idiots.

Story 7/10

Pros

• It has a few interesting twist here and there. For example, in one mission I was trying to save hostages and when I finally found them the door to their room was wielded shut and they were killed by a bio hazard weapon.

• The storyline is actually something that could really happen in real life.

Cons

• Nothing in the story has really changed much. Vegas is under attack by terrorist and doing more than destroying slot machines.

• Three guys taking on hundreds of terrorists that are armed to the teeth with every weapon imaginable to the human mind. There’s not enough armor in the world.

Overall 8.5

Overall Rainbow Six Las Vegas 2 is an awesome game however veterans of the first game will quickly realize that they’re playing part one all over again, with a few new features tacked on. Notably, the new weapons and the RPG like experience system are fun but it feels more like a mod or an add on than a 60 dollar game. I would recommend this game for die hard fans of the first game or to new players who are fans of first person shooters.