I have been playing the new Rainbow Vegas 2 since launch day, and as much as I hate to admit it, I really do prefer the first Rainbow better. In fact, I just finished playing a game of Attack and Defend on Calypso Casino for old time’s sake… okay, and for my own sake!

If Ubisoft had just made a few tweaks to R6V2, it would have topped the original, especially with the addition of sprinting! So here is my wishlist of what I wish Ubisoft would do so that I would love R6V2 just as much as the first.

No team talking
Okay, this really sucks. I hate playing a game and trying to hold any kind of conversation with friends while playing. Because I’ll be in the middle of saying something and then I’ll get popped in the head, which means I can’t hear the other players and they can’t hear me (unless they happen to be dead too!) So during the 7-10 second respawn time, you need to keep track of who else is dying so you know whether you can continue the conversation or if now you have to wait for the other half of your conversation to respawn. And god forbid you are trying to talk to your entire team of 4-7 players, because there is no chance unless you are completely dominating the other team. I don’t know why Uisoft made this change (it was a multiplayer option in the original Vegas) especially since it is really only going to be liked by the Pros when they are competing. Otherwise, all it does is hurt the players, especially the casual gamer who might want to play with a coupe of buddies.

Limiting respawns in Attack and Defend
A&D on Calypso Casino was my favorite map and mode for the entire time I played the first Vegas… and yes, I got that right on launch day and played it until the new one came out. So I was pretty excited to get to play it on some new maps… until I started playing it and realized that even in player matches, respawns were limited to 3, and there are none in ranked matches. So really, all A&D games turned into a game of team survival… which was my least favorite game mode of all! So it went from my favorite to my most hated, all because respawns were restricted.

More “real life” settings
OK, so there is Three Kingdoms Casino (which is painfully dark), Theatre (which I think everyone I know hates) and Villa. But all the other settings are either warehouse type places or very much under construction places. There are no more “real life” maps… in the first one we had tons (Calypso, Vault, LVU, Library, Doscala, etc) but in this one, there just isn’t the same diversity of settings.

Frame rate
Okay, I can totally understand frame rate issues on downloaded maps, as there was sometimes issues on Doscala. But there is no reason why a map such as Oil Refinery, which is on the disk, should have such a major frame rate issue. This map should be banned in clan matches because if it, it is truly horrendous.

In defense of R6V2
Okay, it does have some nice things the first Vegas didn’t have, the biggest being sprinting. The team swapping etc. is convenient, as is changing the primary and secondary gadgets. But I would gladly swap some of those (well, maybe not the sprinting!) for unlimited A&D respawns and having the team be able to talk the entire time.

Is it a dealbreaker for me? No, of course not. But I haven’t developed that “true love” of the sequel as I did for the first game. Now if only they would come out with a downloadable “vintage” map pack with Calypso, Vault, LVU, Neon and Library… even if they are all in Redux editions!