Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas is a game that reconciled the tactical shooter with a console controller without turning it into ordinary action. The story sends an anti-terrorist unit into a Las Vegas overrun by gunmen, and players shoot their way through casinos, hotel floors, rooftops and sewers. The key innovation was a cover system that lets the character stick to a corner, peek out from safety and fire blind, or slide a camera under a door before opening the room. Combined with simple commands for two squadmates who can advance on order, secure a corner or throw a grenade, this created a system that even a player without a keyboard and microphone could master.

The game still keeps its edge: a couple of hits mean the end, enemies attack from two sides, and an improvised rush without preparation almost always ends badly. Before entering a room it pays to scout the situation, split up targets, and only then move in. Besides the campaign, which can also be played co-op, the game offered the now-legendary Terrorist Hunt mode, where a group of players fights through a map full of enemies, plus a competitive multiplayer with a custom character whose gear and looks unlocked across all modes.

The first Rainbow Six Vegas was very well received and became one of the reasons it was worth paying for Xbox Live in the early years of the Xbox 360. Its influence reaches further than expected: linking character progression between campaign and multiplayer, and above all the Terrorist Hunt format, survived in the series all the way to today. Today the darker, rougher graphics show their age, and the camera occasionally fights the cover system, but the feel of a slow, deliberate advance through a house full of enemies still works. It's a reminder of a time when a tactical shooter didn't have to be a simulator to be demanding. The atmosphere is helped further by the contrast between the glittering neon of the casinos and the darkness of the backstage corridors where most of the firefights take place. Vegas isn't just scenery here for effect, but an environment whose mirrors, elevators and open floors change the tactics of every single room.