After the debacle of Lockdown, it might have been quite reasonable to assume that the Rainbow Six series would seek former glories through a return to the kind of intricate premission planning that brought it fame in the first place. So, let us get it out of the way immediately: this is not what has happened. Not by a long shot. Though development has been restored to older more experienced hands, the focus shift remains, albeit one that’s characterised more fairly by a hike in tension during action sequences than a general sense of proceedings being dumbed-down.

As you rappel down from yet another glowingly Mexican 360 helicopter entry, straight into a standard plot covering the smuggling of terrorists across the southern border of the US, the most notable changes are immediately apparent. Firstly, though cries of witchcraft are no doubt shooting around forums across the globe, a cover system not too dissimilar to that found in Gears Of War has been implemented. When perched up against pretty much any outhouse corner or cannily positioned vehicle, apple pie-loving hero Logan Keller can stick to it simply by holding a trigger button, in so doing tearing the camera straight from the back of his head to a third-person view facing the enemy. Apart from a stylistic shift, this represents a necessary move towards more instant controls, on a battlefield more densely tango-populated. Taking down an unsuspecting guard with a pinpoint shot between the eyes still remains quite a high, made much easier to access by your ability to aim before emerging from the shadows, and more satisfying by the fact that it is virtually impossible to mistakenly expose yourself.

Further refinements reveal themselves more slowly; the resizing of your team to a more easily manoeuvrable three, for instance. Although careful play should necessitate sparing use, healing your team-mates after some moment of buffoonery leaves them stricken is another of a handful of publishing house influences. Close-quarters combat has also been given a boost by the ability to prioritise targets. Stacking up against a doorway, a quick peek through the snake cam allows two terrorists to be tagged as top of the hit list. Once the flash grenades fly, this ensures your team-mates don’t snap to a newly spawned enemy quietly reading the newspaper in an adjoining room, but instead take out the strategically optimum bad guys with minimum fuss. All you then need to do is don the thermal viewer and complete your nicely simplified objective in the matter.

All very involving and shiny set pieces we’re sure you’ll agree, but ones that would mean nothing without a strong and realistic enemy force to square off against. Happily, this is easily Vegas’ trump card, offering an – at times – close to unbelievable difficulty level. Even seemingly insignificant moments – peering down both sides of a building at an alerted bogey’s movements, for example – have the potential to shock, as repetitive behaviour is punished by persistently aggressive AI routines, rather than the same old ‘investigate then return to the rails’ nonsense. Later on, the game still manages to consistently shake you from a belief that you have got this tactical movement game covered. Leaving your men ever so slightly too close to each other for a mere amount of seconds will result in everything going strangely quiet on the gunfire front before a quick glance at the tactical map reveals an imminent ‘game over’ screen as terrorists approach at right angles. Even intelligent flanking formations seem to be rewarded with little other than one or the other of you and your team being singled out for individual attack. The attention that must be paid to making sure you do not inadvertently box yourself in is immense, making the expansive, dovetailed (though not especially non-linear) maps appreciable foes themselves.

For all the tactical depth that alerted opponents show (not to mention the improved ability of your men to cover their own asses), one or two elements show disappointing transparency. To begin with, the whole thing still feels like (and is) a series of enemy spawn points inside otherwise disconnected strategically strong map areas – the fact enemies appear very abruptly on your tactical map only highlights this. Also, some sections appear to be programmed in a very odd way. It’s almost as if characters are only able to respond to one stimulus at a time. For example, an enemy may be attacking one second then, once you’re behind cover, be distracted by a grenade and move straight back into your line of fire. Also, silenced weapons (even the still relatively noisy sub-machine guns) sometimes fail to raise eyebrows on a mezzanine level in the same room. An odd condition but amusing enough in its own right. At all other times though, Vegas offers a level of tension quite unlike anything else out there – high praise, indeed.

Dave Shaw