Rainbow Six Vegas
Developer Interview
With the phenomenal success of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™, Team Rainbow fans have been eagerly awaiting their turn on Xbox 360™. We recently caught up with Maxime Beland (Lead Game Designer) and Jean-Pascal Cambiotti (Lead Multiplayer Game Designer) from Ubisoft Montreal, and they let us know some details about what to expect when Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas hits your console this fall.
Xbox.com: With Las Vegas as the setting, what variety of environments can we expect to see, and can you tell us how the new environments will affect gameplay?
Ubisoft: We are focusing on one location with Las Vegas, which helps the players immerse themselves. But this doesn't mean we have one environment. If you know Vegas, you know how diverse and huge this city is. We really want to focus on tension and freedom through a seamless experience.
Also, we are using more vertical environments that are going to allow us to use our rappelling and fast-roping moves. This is new for the Rainbow Six franchise and it adds a whole new level of realism and tactics.
Everyone has seen Las Vegas,
and the idea of a squad-based
shooter set in and around this
city is just awesome.
Xbox.com: What is the story behind Rainbow Six Vegas? Can you expect to encounter a different sort of threat unique to the setting?
Ubisoft: As Team Rainbow is chasing an international terrorist group, they are redirected to Las Vegas where a terrorist strike is unfolding. A major attack could kill the city's entire population, thus heightening the tension and emphasizing the need to act quickly and decisively. Chaos in the Sin City is just about to start …
Xbox.com: Reports are already surfacing about how your online avatar will evolve over time. Can you talk about how this process works, and what sorts of changes take place over your online career?
Ubisoft: You create an online avatar and fully customize his or her appearance through the character creation and customization process. Evolving your character in Multiplayer occurs by playing ranked online games, acquiring experience points, and unlocking new pieces of equipment.
We've taken great strides to ensure that equipment you unlock won't give you any statistical advantage over other players, so there's always an equal playing field. Regardless of how evolved a character is in his online career, he's only as good as the player controlling him.
Xbox.com: What has the power or functionality of Xbox 360 allowed you to bring to Rainbow Six Vegas that you didn't expect?
Ubisoft: Xbox 360 allows us to really push the boundaries of what you've seen in other online titles. Our goal is to give you the tools you need to have a blast playing with your friends. Xbox 360 has great community features, which we plan to fully take advantage of.
Xbox.com: Are there any concrete plans to utilize Xbox Live Marketplace? For example, can we expect any episodic downloadable content?
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