The latest installation in the long line of Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six games will keep players on the edge of their seats from beginning to end. The game takes place primarily in Las Vegas, and the player must lead their elite anti-terrorist unit against a plethora of enemies that are well prepared, well armed and downright lethal.

Fans of previous Rainbow Six games will have some adjusting to do in Rainbow Six: Vegas, but the core gameplay that drives the series returns. Smart tactical decisions and teamwork are still essential to the game, and it is still the intense, tactical shooter that its predecessors have been. No player will last long in the open, and if they don't have good squad leadership and a quick trigger finger, they will be cornered and eliminated. The constant adrenaline rush of never quite being safe is a rewarding thrill that makes each encounter with the enemy just as thrilling as the first.

The game introduces some new features that the classic Rainbow Six games did not incorporate, and for the most part they work well. The cover system plays well, and it takes a simple button tap for a player to take cover. From cover, a player can lean out to take a shot or blind fire their weapon without exposing themselves, both of which are similar to the excellent cover system used in Gears of War.

Health now regenerates instead of being a fixed amount. This is a departure from previous Rainbow Six games, but it follows such other games as the Call of Duty series and Gears of War in making each level more manageable for casual players. In the previous Rainbow Six games, once the player lost a significant portion of their health, they were forced to relegate almost all duties to their teammates in order to survive, and the new system allows the player to get into cover, regain their health and continue leading their team into the thick of the action, which is a nice improvement.

There are a few minor flaws that detract from the game, although none of them distract too heavily from the gameplay. There are occasional graphical glitches, but they are infrequent enough that the overall beauty of the game's graphics, the lighting effects especially, outweighs them. Occasionally, the enemy AI glitches and the enemies just crouch in a corner rather than take cover, and there are a few spots where the opponent's actions are too obviously scripted, but besides those flaws, the enemies will provide enough of a challenge to keep players honest about finding cover and playing tactically.

The one confusing aspect of the game is the main player's ability to heal downed teammates, yet inability to be healed by those same teammates. It's understandable to place more importance on the life of the main player, but it would make more sense to give the computer a chance to heal the main player within a set time like the system that was implemented successfully in Star Wars Republic Commando, a somewhat similar game.

The game's plot is not very engaging compared to the actual gameplay, at least until the very end of the game, and most of the missions are typical hostage rescue and bomb diffusal, but the intensity of the gameplay makes up for the mediocre storytelling. Without giving too much away, some good advice regarding the plot would be to trust nobody and to expect a cliffhanger at the end, with a follow-up game within a year or two.

The game is a solid shooter with fun gameplay, and that is more than satisfying. It deserves an A- for its efforts, and the next installation in the series will no doubt be eagerly anticipated by tactical shooter fans and thrill-seeking gamers everywhere.