Rainbow Six - Multiplayer gameplay example

With Ubisoft on my boycott list, I have been reminiscing about some of the games that I would no longer be playing. In particular, I think I'm really going to miss Rainbow Six as it was a really good game and I had lots of fun with it. In the past, I've posted some gameplay examples taken from the singleplayer and co-op experience but haven't really posted any multiplayer gameplay examples which is interesting as one of my strongest memories of this game is actually from the multiplayer side.

This particular game was a match of Retrieval on the casino map. The casino map itself has 3 levels. The top level is the roof which is where the attacking team spawns in. The middle level is the main casino floor and has a spawn room for the defending team. The lowest floor is the control room of the casino and, along with another spawn point for the defending team, is where the server room is located. The objective for the attacking team is to retrieve a hard drive from the server room and then extract to the roof to escape by helicopter. It goes without saying that the job of the defending team is to prevent the hard disk from being extracted.

In this particular match, I was on the defending team along with a friend and two strangers. The attacking team consisted of around 4-5 people as well so it was an evenly matched game. When defending on this map, my friend and I had a general system where he would defend the server room while I defended the main casino floor. Basically, I was the first line of defence while he was the second.

I had setup the match so that all weapon options were available (for some reason, a lot of people disabled the tech gadgets or explosives in this game). Just for kicks, I grabbed some frags and the GPS locator which, when activated, shows the position of enemies on your radar for a short time provided that the enemy doesn't have a GPS blocker.

For reference, here is a quick drawing of the map layout based on my spotty memory.



As soon as the game started, I activated my GPS and found that nobody on the opposing team had a GPS blocker. I had a general idea of how to defend this map and what options the attacking team to breach the casino floor from playing this map before. I also had a sneaky idea which I wanted to try out.

Taking advantage of the initial extra setup time that the defending team has, I made a dash for point A on the map. As I hunkered down into cover behind the slot machines, I activated my GPS again and sure enough, I found 2 enemies who were getting ready to breach into the room via the windows at point B. When I heard the tink of the windows being broken, I threw a grenade to point C. The timing was perfect as the two guys got there just as the grenade went off. I managed to get two easy kills with one very satisfying grenade.

As I sat there chuckling to myself, I wondered if they had noticed me. If they hadn't, it would be a great opportunity to get another two easy kills so I decided to hang around. After a short countdown, I activated my GPS again and noticed two guys getting ready to breach into the room via the windows at point B again.

Alas, it was too good to be true. They had actually spotted me and this time, they made a beeline straight for my position. R6V is the kind of game where even a couple of bullets will kill you so I have to admit that at that point, I thought I was toast. Still, I blind-fired half a clip as they were approaching and by sheer luck, managed to kill one of them as they were closing in although I did take a bullet in the arm. As the other one came in for the kill, I leapt out of cover and strafed left while emptying my remaining clip in his general directi9on (yes, I admit, this was a desperate move - sue me). My screen went black (indicating I was almost dead) but the message flashed up on screen "Jokemeister killed xxx".

I couldn't believe it! Although I almost died, I managed to fend off two attackers. At this point, I beat a hasty retreat and moved to point D on the map which was my secondary line of defence. Point D is a good place for defence as you can't get flanked from that position unless the attackers go all the way through the server room and come at you from behind.

From that point, I managed to hold off a steady stream of attackers. However, one incident sticks out in my mind. In one case, there was an attacker at point E hiding just behind the archway so I couldn't shoot him. Unfortunately, the git threw a flash bang and blinded me which really left me with limited options. I could either retreat and hope my vision recovered before he stormed up and killed me or I could take a huge gamble.

As the motto goes - who dares wins! I popped out from cover and rattled off some shots in the area where the attackers head would be assuming he had popped out of cover to try and shoot me. The message flashed on screen - "Jokemeister killed xxx" - and I couldn't help but scream "Yeah" which got me a nasty look from the missus for disturbing the peace.

After fending off a few more attackers, I was actually starting to run out of ammo in my assault rifle. I was down to my last half clip when I heard one of the strangers on my team ask, "Where the hell are the attackers?" (which caught me by surprise as up till then, the two strangers on the team had been completely silent).

Before I could say anything, the other stranger answered "Yeah, there's one guy upstairs in the corridor holding them all off."

Taking this opportunity, I flicked on my mic and yelled down the line, "and that guy needs help as I'm about to run out of ammo!". I can't remember but, in the heat of the moment, I may even have thrown in a swear word. Maybe.

Thinking about it now, I actually feel an immense amount of pride at how well I had been doing. However, at the time, I distinctly remember thinking "What the f#&k have you guys been doing if nobody has been attacking the server room?"

Anyway, one of the other guys immediately heads up to help defend the corridor so I head out to the main casino floor to pick up an assault rifle from one of the dead bodies (it wasn't one I normally used but it was better than having to use my pistol). It was at this point that I realised that there was nobody around on the casino floor which meant the attacking team had finally given up on breaching the corridor and was now trying to reach the server room via a different route.

The game ended soon after this and suffice to say that the defending team won. By the end of the game, I had 15+ kills with no deaths (I can't remember exactly how many kills I had but I know it was 15+ as I got an achievement for this). I was also, far and away, the best player in that match and it felt really good when, in the lobby afterwards, some of the enemy players commented on how good I was.

Good times.


Addendum
I should add that the above is one of those freak occurrences when everything just clicked. I was extremely lucky in a couple of situations not to die and it really was by sheer luck that I managed to do so well. The reality is that when I jump online, I am generally in the bottom half of the rankings and have come last on more than one occasion.

Still, it feels great to have pwned everyone.
:D

Gears of War 2 - Horde mode

Recently, I bumped into an old friend in the street. Turns out he recently bought an Xbox 360 and is playing GoW2 on it. Naturally, I immediately asked his gamertag and sent him a friend request.

As you can guess from the title, we met up recently online to play Horde mode in GoW2. Horde mode is kinda like old school arcade fun in that you and your buddies are dumped in a map and then tasked with surviving 50 rounds of increasingly hostile Locust. Horde mode takes the great gameplay of GoW2 and strips away any pretense of story - leaving you with 50 levels of awesome shoot em up action fun.

But not just shoot em up action fun. The sheer number of enemies in Horde mode means that the only way you have any hope of surviving is by working together as a team. If you can get a team that communicates and looks out for each other, playing Horde mode is an incredibly fun and addicting game.

We were playing on the River map - which is great for Horde mode as it has an old two level house with only one entrance to it. Basically, you would have 2-3 guys defending the entrance to the base while 1-2 guys go up to the second floor. The second floor generally has either the sniper rifle or a torque bow so you want to go to the house for the weapons anyway. Unfortunately, the second level isn't particularly safe as a large corner of the house has been blown away meaning people on the second floor are susceptible to gunfire from 2 directions.

We had four guys so I took the second floor while the other 3 held the front door. I was up there sniping enemies and reporting on enemy movement. Every once in a while, when the enemies rushed the front door (which is quite often), I would run down and help out on the main entrance. And then, when people needed to leave the house to get ammo (having an ammo box inside the house would admittedly have made it too easy), it was a mad rush to the ammo box while everyone else tried to lay down covering fire.

Awesome fun!

Rainbow Six: Vegas - coop

Looking back at last weeks post, I just realised that I sound pretty negative about R6:V. I guess its worthwhile reiterating that I do think the multiplayer is quite good. The problem is just that it doesn't feel very tactical - which, in my opinion, is the strength of the R6 series in the first place.

Anyway, despite any perceived problems with the multiplayer, the coop in R6:V is excellent with just one proviso which I'll go into momentarily.

The great thing about coop gameplay is that it really does cater to R6's strengths. Just like in the singleplayer, you get rooms full of tango's which you and your squadmates can breach and clear to your hearts content. As I said, the key strength of the R6 series is the tactical nature of the combat and coop captures this beautifully.

At least it does, if you get the right team together (here's that proviso I mentioned!). While I have been in some good games, I've also been in some games with kids. And the problem with kids is that they just want to run around and shoot things. At this point, the game just turns into a run n gun FPS which kinda defeats the purpose. Having said that, you can't really blame the game for this.

When done properly, the feeling of you get from a good coop session is awesome and I'll try and capture it with a gameplay example below.

There were three of us in the group. Before the game started, we had discussed what ordinance each of us would be taking. Some of us had breaching charges (so we could blow in doors), some of us had smoke grenades (to provide cover), some of us had flashbangs and some of us had frags (I had the smoke and flashbangs). All in all, we had a fair mix of ordinance to play around with.

We start the game and by this time, we are already in Vegas. We get to a room with two doors and split into 2 teams - me on my own and the other two guys in the other team. Both of us snake cam each door and spot several tangos waiting inside and we quickly devise a plan of attack.

The guy with the breaching charge sets up the charge on my door before rejoining his teammate. We all setup shop by the side of the door and wait.

The team leader checks everybodys position before counting down. "1 .. 2 .. 3 .. Go go go!!"

The breaching charge by my door sets off and blows away the door. The guy standing behind the door is killed immediately and the rest of the room erupts into bedlam as the tangos dive behind cover. They immediately target my door as evidenced by the hail of bullets pouring through.

However, while the tango's are focusing on my door, the team leader has opened the second door. The third teammate pops out from behind the second door and starts to get some easy kills as all the tango's are focused on my door. The room erupts into chaos for a second time as the tangos shift cover and start firing at my teammate by the second door.

This is the perfect opportunity for me to pop out from behind the first door and take out the remaining bad guys. Perfectly planned. Perfectly executed.

Rainbow Six: Vegas - multiplayer

Last week, I mentioned that I was playing R6:V and gave a single player gameplay example. I also took the opportunity to test out the multiplayer which is what this post is about.

One of the cool things about the multiplayer is that you create your character and then get to decide what equipment that he will have. In addition, you also get to decide what clothes and armor he will wear. As you start, you only have very limited options. However, as you play more games and level up your character, some of the better equipment will unlock.

The great thing about this is that it really allows you to invest in your online persona. At the same time, even the "lesser" weapons are extremely lethal and can kill other players very easily. Given all this, you would think that I really enjoyed the multiplayer. Unfortunately, I didn't.

To be fair to R6:V, its not that the multiplayer is bad. The problem is that the multiplayer is so disconnected from the single player. Let me explain.

In my opinion, the key strength of R6:V is in the tactical nature of its single player game. This is very different from other FPSs on the market and is one of the key differentiators for this game. However, when you get into the multiplayer game, the game effectively devolves into a run and gun FPS. Although you can still use the tactics and equipment from the single player game, there just isn't any point as its more effective to keep on the move.

And this is what I mean when I say that the multiplayer is disconnected from the single player. The reason I like this game is because I like the slow tactical buildup element in planning out an assault on a room and then executing on that plan. Unfortunately, that just isn't how the multiplayer game works. It's like the multiplayer game is a different game altogether.

And this is where we run into problems. First off, the expectations gap means that R6:V isn't off to a good start. Throw in the fact that Halo 3 has since been released which does multiplayer run and gun superbly (in my opinion) and it doesn't look like R6:V has any legs left to stand on. As I said before, its not that the multiplayer is bad. In fact, its actually quite good. The problem is that after playing a couple of multiplayer games, I just couldn't help but think, "Why aren't I playing Halo 3?"

Gears of War - Multiplayer gameplay example

I am still working on my Gears of War review. However, in the meantime, I thought it would be interesting to post a gameplay example just to give you an idea of what the game is like. The following example is taken from a multiplayer deathmatch session and is one of the rare occasions where I did quite well (normally when I go online - I get completely pwned).

Anyway, I joined a game of Execution online. Execution basically means that in order to get a kill, you have to shoot the guy until he goes down (either that or gib the guy using explosives or a shotgun at close range). Then you have to get close and curb stomp him (basically, kick his head in!!). Otherwise, the guy will get up again. Also, his teammates can revive him while he is down. This tends to make combat much more up close and personal!

In the game I was playing in, they had set the revive time at 5 seconds (I believe the host can choose from between 5 - 60 seconds). This basically allowed them to play rambo style as the revival can be quite quick (you can also speed up your revival time by mashing on the "A" button). When I first joined, the game was already underway. My group was losing 2-0 in terms of rounds (first to 6 rounds wins the game).

The tactics for singleplayer and multiplayer are very different and I got completely pwned in the first game - kept on getting killed before I could do anything. Obviously, no kills although I managed to get 1 down and 2 revivals - hence some points! Anyway, I knew this would happen so I took the opportunity to watch how they played every time I died (which was quite often).

Luckily our team had 1 player who was okay and I was able to learn a lot from watching him. So we finish the first game and start the second game (after evening out the teams a bit). Things are starting to improve and I manage to help out a lot more - even getting some kills! We start off quite well but then one of the guys on the opposite team decides he has had enough of losing and picks up the sniper rifle (lets call him snipey). A shot to the head with a sniper rifle is an instant kill and the guy was good with the sniper rifle. Basically, he was headshooting people left, right and centre (the game tells you who kills who so I knew he was getting lots of headshots) and they managed to catch up to 5-4 (we are still leading).

So, we start the tenth game. Tenth game starts as normal with Snipey grabbing the sniper rifle and headshooting people. It comes down to me being the final guy on our team. The map we were on basically has 2 bridges which are really good sniper spots.

I was close to one bridge when I saw the notification that my last teammate got headshot. I quickly checked the bridge but no sniper so I figured he must be on the other bridge. I start running towards the other bridge and sure enough, I see him on the bridge and he is aiming at me. I had already been headshot by him a couple of times even though I was in cover (I guess my head was poking out!) so I knew not to hide. Instead I kept running and tried to guess when he would shoot. I guessed perfectly.

I managed to dive just before he fired and he missed! Huzzah! This allows me to get onto the bridge without being sniped. At this point, we start running towards each other (playing chicken with guns) and he is trying to shoot me while I run in with my chainsaw (getting hit while you are revving the chainsaw means you lower it and have to rev it up again). Luckily he missed and I managed to chainsaw him (that animation never gets old!). Raarrrggghhh!!!

At this point, I was thinking "Yay, we won". However, at the end of the chainsaw, the game didn't end and at this point, I realised they had another guy. I guessed he would be behind me as I couldn't see him onscreen (I figured he would be trying to sneak up behind me during the chainsaw animation) so I quickly jumped backwards. Sure enough, he was behind me (luckily not directly otherwise he would have chainsawed me - I'm guessing he was quite far away originally) and I ended up jumping behind him. At this close range, I whip out my shotgun and we start circling each other - me trying to shoot him and him trying to melee me (he was also holding a sniper rifle).

Dammit! He got me first with a lucky shot (git shot me with a sniper rifle at close range - luckily not to the head)! I'm now on my knees and I start to frantically hammer away at the "A" button trying to getup. Luckily for me, I don't think he expected to hit me with a sniper rifle at point blank range so at the time he shot me, he was backing away. Although he started to come forward, I was able to get up in time before he could curb stomp me. So I'm back up and I start backing away as well (to give myself a chance to heal) while trying to aim my shotgun at him.

Crap! He shot me again - before I could even fire. I'm back on my knees and hammering away on the "A" button while I can see him running in to curb stomp me. He runs right up to me and is standing right next to me. In about 0.1 second, he is going to curb stomp me and I will die a horrible death!

Hooray for button mashing!! I manage to get up just before he curb stomps me. Point blank range with a shotgun. >:)

Gibbed the f$&ker!!That won the game - 6-4 to us! :D

Awesome!