Rainbow Six: Vegas [PSP]

Ubisoft's squad-based shooter goes portable and follows a parallel story to the home console versions, with the player controlling a team of two on a recovery mission to save fellow Rainbow Six members abducted by terrorists.

The single player Story mode features various mission objectives such as clearing areas of hostiles, hacking computers and reaching waypoints, much as expected. A nice twist is that you'll switch between characters to complete tasks, with one clearing out an area from above so that the other can escort a civilian to safety, for example. This adds more depth to the missions, and keeps things more interesting than if you simply had your second character following you around to provide cover. Completed missions can also be replayed for a better rating, or in a "Terro Hunt" mode, which eliminates objectives and serves as practice for the multiplayer modes.

The game looks quite good, though the PSP does seem to be pushed to its limits, as a kill is often accompanied by a rather large frame rate stutter. The sound is a bit sparse, but certainly realistic, given the game's scenario. There's also a good amount of speech throughout the game via mission briefings and radio chatter, adding to the feeling that this isn't a stripped-down port. The controls take some getting used to, as the face buttons are used to control the camera, but work well overall. It would be nice to see more games allow for custom controls though, especially on the PSP.

Multiplayer mode allows two to four players to join in a game of Survival or Team Survival via a local (Ad Hoc) or online (Infrastructure) Wi-Fi connection. While both modes are certainly welcome, it seems hard to find many players online as of yet. Six maps and a good amount of server options should satisfy most players looking for some online action. There's also Friends List support and a selection of canned voice messages you can send to teammates.

While it's naturally not as deep or technically polished as the home console versions, this game does offer a good experience for players who want some squad-based action on the go. It does have some rough edges and lacks some of the competition's features, such as real-time voice chat or connectivity with the home version, but most shooter fans will likely enjoy it.

7/10