First of the new modes to come up was, in our eyes, the most interesting addition to the roster. Team Leader is a twist on the usual VIP modes only this time, your squad leader is far more important to the game than just for simply reaching the extraction point or being capped in the process. You see, one player on each team is randomly assigned the status of leader when the round begins. While your leader is still breathing, your team benefits from respawns when his underlings should be picked off. Drop the opposing leader and the reinforcements dry up, making it a simple task of sending out your team’s henchmen to round up the stragglers. And should both leaders fall, the remaining soldiers find themselves in a survival match with the last team with any members standing picking up the win.

As well as wiping out the opposing team, victory can also be obtained by successfully guiding your leader to a designated extraction point. Each team’s exit can be seen by both forces, raising many strategic options – all rush the leader home, set up an ambush for the other lot or split your force and try a bit of both. To add another interesting level to proceedings, the two team leaders can see each other on the HUD which is where this mode’s emphasis on communication really arises. The leaders can see when their opposite number is making a break for it or even loitering at the exit point in wait, meaning that the leader constantly has to keep his team in the loop. Skilled teams will be able to set cunning traps in this manner, using the leader to bait the other team to a choke point on the map where they can all be gunned down by the ambushers that lie in wait. Similarly, a dummy run by the leader towards the foe’s exit could buy his team enough time to get set up along your escape route and allow him to get away untouched. It’s a mode with untold potential and one that we really look forward to trying out at greater length.

Before we address the second of the two new modes we tested, this is probably as good a time as any to highlight the additions to the basic mechanics of the game and how they affect multiplayer. The sprint, for starters, proved far more useful that we thought it would. While it may be a brief burst of speed, the extra few seconds gained in approaching an objective could prove invaluable, although as players learn the maps, we wouldn’t be surprised to see sprinting used less recklessly as you’re defenceless while running. It also allows for quick speed mix-ups when running across open terrain in fear of snipers – the occasional oddly-timed tap makes it that much harder for enemies to line up headshots at distance and could just save your life. It also has the slightly more obvious benefit of enabling quick getaways when you’re caught short, be it when reloading, outnumber/outpositioned/outgunned or in any other disadvantageous situation that starts with the word ‘out’. And even some that don’t, probably.

Far more crucial is the new bullet penetration system, especially with the new maps we saw having been designed with this somewhat terrifying element in mind. While your standard pistol and SMG rounds won’t puncture anything thicker than fabric or flimsy wooden panels, those packing shotguns or sniper rifles are able to punch through far tougher scenery. Grab a 12-gauge and take up position behind a door you think the enemy will use, for instance, and the second it swings open you can unload several shots through the panels for an all-but guaranteed kill. Similarly, there’s very little safety to be found when a skilled sniper has you pinned down – the high-caliber rounds will puncture all but the hardiest pieces of cover, making it more crucial than ever to keep your location a secret for as long as possible. But of course this works both ways and while speculative shots through wooden objects will occasionally score an easy kill, they’re also a sure fire way of alerting any nearby foes to your whereabouts.

Back now to the new modes then, with the second of these being a familiar affair to anyone that has put more than a few minutes into any of the Counter Strike games. Demolition mode, just as in the series that sprung up as a result of some clever Half Life mods, sees one team trying to bomb one of two locations on the map while the defending squad must either neutralise the attacking force before the bomb can be planted or defuse it once it is to pick up the win. Only a few slight changes set this mode apart from its Counter Strike counterpart, one of which being the fact that the bomb starts off on the ground with the attacking team rather than in the possession of a random member of the team. This gives the team the option to entrust the important device to a reliable player, especially crucial given that when the bomb goes down – either as a result of having been planted or having been dropped when the carrier died – everyone gets to know where it is and raging firefights ensue at its location. This makes matters particularly tense, with the attackers knowing full well that losing control of the bomb in an ungainly spot could cost them the round.

So we’ve established that both new modes add excellent variety to an already respectable set of multiplayer options but by customising these further, there’s even more scope for extended play. Respawns in most modes can be set to off, unlimited or even a set amount – Demolition with one ‘life’ each plays out far more like the Counter Strike mode while even the more hectic game modes can be toned down by each player only having several respawns to work with. Gung-ho tactics go out of the window in these situations and the real tactical play for which the series became a household name comes to the fore, making for some incredibly nail-biting showdowns. Not for the weak of heart, certainly – knowing your teams hopes lie on you alone against several heavily armed rivals really gets the adrenaline pumping and there are few more affecting multiplayer experiences out there.

Maps too were absolutely excellent, never so big as to be daunting with smaller teams but perfectly sized to cater for the full quota at the same time. Multiple routes run to objectives and bottlenecks quickly became apparent in each game mode. Total Conquest on the new Villa map proved a perfect example of this, with one team quickly realising that an upstairs bathroom that housed one satellite uplink point also had a good view over the balcony where a second sits. Get two guys in here and you’ve more or less got two control points sewn up until the other team can clear you out, freeing up the rest of your team to storm the third on the floor below and hang onto it to pick up the win. Convention Centre was a far larger and more complex map, with all kinds of corridors and food courts connecting huge arena-type areas where large scale conflict is almost inevitable. CQB Training, meanwhile, was a far more traditional Rainbow map, harking back to the days of 3 and Black Arrow with narrow wooden corridors and multiple levels of elevation just waiting for you to exploit them with the new bullet penetration. Taking out a nuisance sniper through the floor beneath him is a great feeling and once again, this really makes you keep moving if you want to stay alive.

So as you’ve probably guessed by now, we were pretty taken with what we saw of Rainbow Six Vegas 2. A selection of new guns (unlocked by earning points in the various ACES disciplines – for headshots, close range kills, clever use of your tactical tools and so forth) will further please fans of the series, as surely will the fact that this is effectively Vegas with all its dials firmly cranked up. With the game due out at the end of next month, we’re expecting to get our hands on a more final version – single player and all – any day now. Naturally, we’ll be sure to throw oodles of screenshots, movies and opinions your way just as soon as Ubi Soft is happy to let us do so but in the meantime, we’ll leave you in the more than capable hands of this trailer, a developer diary and the latest batch of press shots. Enjoy.