The ballistic shield is an exciting addition
HEXUS: Rainbow 6: Vegas will use a True Skill Rating system to ensure players are matched up online against similar ranks, does that apply to teams as well?
J.P: We don’t use the Halo-type party grouping system and actually Microsoft doesn’t allow rank matches to take place with friends or allow you to send invitations to ranked games. Microsoft want ranked matches to be really competitive, so you play against other people and everyone is of the same skill level with the same rating. When you join a ranked matched with similar build players, you won’t be able to invite your friends. It’s not a limitation in the game but it’s something that Microsoft is imposing on all games that use the true skill rating system.
HEXUS: How does EXP and levelling up work? Is it purely online or through the single player as well?
J.P: The advancement system works only in MP, whether you play ranked or player matches you’ll gain points which go towards levelling up. When you get a new level your rank changes, so you start off as private second class and you have a handful of customisation options available to you; for example you have a baseball cap, eyeglasses, different coloured camos and a handful of body armour. As you rank up you get promoted and unlock different weapons, different camos and different styles of body armour, so the more you play the more un-lockable items you’ll gain.
Click for larger imageHEXUS: One of our favourite new features to use in multiplayer is the ballistic shield, how is this implemented into multiplayer mode?
J.P: The ballistic shield will never break as it repels bullets. Internally we had quite a bit of debate whether we should implement it in MP or not and we decided to try it out. Through balancing and doing a bit of tweaking we’ve ended up with something we are really comfortable with and something that is cool for the player to use it. When you use the shield you need to use the cover button and can only use the pistol with your right hand. Your movement speed immediately drops and you are still vulnerable from the side; you can hit the arm from the front and the legs, and although it’s a shield that stops projectiles, explosives will still take him out.
HEXUS: How far will we be able to customise the games in multiplayer?
J.P: It’s customisable to a very high degree. You can decide if you want to restrict a certain type of gun, or an explosive and can lock up items. You can restrict items that you feel are too powerful or you don’t think fit into that map, or game that you want to host. For example, if you’re trying to have a match where everyone is using close quarter weapons, you don’t want someone to go in there with a heavy machine gun or sniper rifle, so you can just switch them off in the main menu.
HEXUS: Are there any extra weapons are available in MP?
J.P: The weapons sets are the same in both modes, but the gadgets are different. MP has some unique gadgets such as the radio jammer which blocks the GPS and blocks other player’s mini-map and tactical map so they are blinded if they are trying to get back to their team or are looking for an objective marker. You have gas masks and tear gas and a deployable motion sensor, it’s like a sticky sensor with a laser trip wire. It’s not an explosive, but when you walk through it, it beeps so the person who deployed it will know your location. For example, in Calypso Casino, in attack and defend mode. you have a briefcase inside the vault that the team is trying to get to and you can set up these motion sensors and scatter them around the vault; as soon as they enter the area you’ll know for sure.
