It's practically waving a flag of disappointment to disabled gamers
Tom Clancy and I have a gaming history together but it's been punctured by mindless games that I didn't have to use my brain for such as Saints Row 2 and Halo. Tom Clancy and I had a unique aiming relationship. In the Splinter Cell stage of the relationship back on the original Xbox I was pleased. Splinter Cell catered to both my visual limitations and my physical limitations at the same time by providing nice high contrast menus, nicely lit environments, clear crosshairs, and very customizable control mapping regimes. As splinter cell began to grow out of my credit card reach I stared longingly as he moved onto richer, better able-bodied gamers even though I went the extra mile and guided Sam through puzzles different ways, forcing the game to adapt to my quick wit and even flashier witticisms as I cackled at the AI. The splinter cell series kept up this adaptation, even adding in new ones causing me to become a lifelong fan until a twist turned me off Tom Clancy's games completely.
Suddenly, there was a new series dominating the Tom Clancy name. Rainbow 6. A first person shooter that suddenly took every adaptation that I enjoyed and didn't even bother to make the menus navigable without putting my eye through unnecessary, straining, manual labor.
When I saw Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Vegas as the number one demo in the Xbox marketplace this week I figured that perhaps this game would bring back the adaptable love that the splinter cell series had.
Ubisoft, the developers of this game, must have tracked me down via GPS one day and telepathically reached inside of my head to see into my future when I'd try this demo then raced back to the lab in order to make the much needed changes to make this game almost impossible to play unless you possess telekinetic powers and a pair of bionic eyes. This one didn't give my one good eye unnecessary manual labor. Instead, it gave my cornea a hemorrhage when trying to read the small wavy text on the menus. As a golden practice before starting a demo or a game I dash over to the controls option to see what remapping options are available. The only remapping options were in manipulating the joysticks. The good thing was that buttons did more than one thing. I could work with that. After viewing the options I squinted my way to the main menu where I chose to start the demo. The difficulties that popped up were normal and realistic. I could hear the game snarling at me already as I tentatively selected the normal option. Already I knew that this demo was going to be challenging. There isn't much linear leeway in two types of difficulty levels, after all.
Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Vegas puts you in control of a tactical forces squad. In this demo my two-squad mates and I were to enter a warehouse where a journalist was captured. The adventure started with me dropping down to a rooftop followed by my team, and then the gameplay began. When I had control over my character I soon realized that playing this demo was going to be really hard. Not Resident Evil 2 hard where I had to draw my own map of areas and where I found objects using an actual compass but it was going to be really taxing on my cerebral palsy infected limbs. The control scheme was that of Halo where the left analog stick was used to move and the right was used to look. This didn't present an issue by itself but combined with other controls manipulating the required multiple buttons made Chinese Water Torture seem like a welcomed gift from my prayers. Since Tom Clancy's Rainbow 6: Vegas is a tactical first person shooter your mates will follow you until you direct them somewhere. The game presented white splotches of text tutorials at the very top of the screen, with no audio overlay, leaving me to just ignore them. My squad mates traipsed around the empty roof with me as I mashed buttons at random to try and figure out what did what and when did it do it. The control map in the options menu didn't give me context it just said "this button does this AND that!"
Once I bumbled through the controls it was time for me to find this missing journalist. I could see the warehouse on the other side of a long loading bay that I had to get to. I decided to try my wits and use the tactical mechanic approach and send my troops to the edge of the roof where they'd pick off members. I thought that my plan was utterly brilliant until they blatantly shouted "engaging enemy!" sure enough return fire peppered us, causing me to duck behind the small wall and pop up again tossing grenades like candy. Since the enemies were very hard to visually see down there I decided to try and sneak down the roof and pick them off. One major drawback in this other brilliant plan was the lack of a clear crosshair. I guessed at where my gun was aiming half the time because the crosshair wasn't big enough for me to see, which, in turn, left me missing a guy by inches only to pinpoint me and blow me to the ground with a few shots.
One huge downside about the tactical part of this tactical first person shooter is that your squad can only do basic commands. You also can't micromanage everything. So I found real little use for them other than as stupid decoy to use because I couldn't see well enough to aim the dim crosshair.
Half way through the level, which is the demo by the way, I was inside of the warehouse, halfway to the objective and my mates were following me as if I knew the secret to marriage as they hugged my Hine quarters as we crept forward. Suddenly, my screen flashed yellow, indicating I had been hit but there wasn't an indicator where, exactly, I'd been hit or even the direction of the bullet. Using my wits I decided I'd duck for cover. My team stood, guns blazing, out in the open. I tried to instruct one man to go one side of the room behind some boxes and the other to go on the opposite side of the room to try and make a flank. When my two gofers sprinted to one location I knew that I was done. Sure enough, my minions were killed, leaving me to surrender and be killed because, again, I couldn't tell where the guy was aiming from. I assumed Ubisoft hated me as a disabled gamer because my quick witted tactical measures were denied, by way of my team just not doing anything when I tried to do something smart like flank the area.
For someone with my situational pinch micromanagement could have added an accessibility gateway that I could figure out how to use. Since basic squad control seemed to be the only thing shoved in my face as the enemies peppered me with bullets I had no choice but to pout. The enemy AI is very tough. It's "boot camp no mercy tough." This made me all the more proud when I finally made it all the way through the level, saved the journalist and endured a fading out cut scene by using my chimps to move inch by inch through the map while I cleverly did things my chimps seemed incapable of doing unless I told them to like duck behind cover sneak, and toss grenades.
It was as if the micro-managing concept was turned on its head and competent squad AI is tossed aside, making you feel like a cheap babysitter.
Ever since the beginning this demo was hellishly difficult as a disabled gamer. The level design is such that it will be impossible to tell who the bad guys are or even where you're aiming at if you're visually impaired or legally blind. The incompetent AI of your squad will leave you frustrated because you have to manage the string of buttons to first move yourself then get them to move then shoot then take cover then follow you then make them move to a point ahead. When I have to use 11% of my brain, not the usual 5% to figure out how to, first, make my chimps be the best fall guys and then clean up the mess they didn't get this isn't a feature that makes me want to buy the game, at all.
Stuck down with small text with no audio feedback, a multi button squad system, crosshairs that actually made me guess if I was aiming the gun ahead of me or down at my feet, and squad AI that literally made my stomach churn, this game shoed me that video game developers can really hate disabled people if they really want to. I wouldn't recommend any gamer, disabled or not, purchase this game. Instead of using 11% of your brain to outwit your own team you should go download any splinter cell game, or demo. That will ensure that you're having fun and will only require the use of your critical thinking skills, chalking some brain usage to 15%. Still though, fewer hemorrhages will happen.