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Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is an installment in the Rainbow Six series. It is a tactical first person shooter video game and the sequel to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas. It was announced by Ubisoft on November 20, 2007. The game was released for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on March 18, 2008 in North America and March 20, 2008 in Europe, except in Germany, where the game was delayed. The Microsoft Windows version, however, was delayed until April 15, 2008. It was released in Japan on April 24, 2008 for the Xbox 360 and on May 29, 2008 for the PlayStation 3.

A world-exclusive first-look of the game appeared in the January, 2008 edition of the Official Xbox Magazine. It was announced that Logan Keller, the lead character from the previous game, had been removed in favor of having the player create his or her own character to play through the campaign. The player assumes the role of Bishop, a member of the Rainbow squad with a great deal more experience who has a deeper involvement in the story.

The game, billed as "part sequel, part prequel", has events that run both before and concurrently to the story of Logan Keller and continue after where the first game concluded. In addition to the ability to customize a character in multiplayer, the player can now customize Bishop, Vegas 2's protagonist. In single-player, the developers claim to have vastly improved teammate AI, so that now teammates cover each other as they advance. There are also several new commands, for example, the ability of a teammate to throw a grenade at a specific point. It is also possible to give commands to one's AI teammates using the Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 headset, or a PC microphone.

Single-player

Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 includes a single player campaign/storyline mode as well as a variation of the Terrorist Hunt mode included in previous games, which involves repeated encounters with enemy AI terrorists in a non-linear map.

Terrorist Hunt mode may be played "Lone Wolf" (alone) or with a pair of computer controlled allies that may be issued environment-based contextual commands.

Both the campaign and Terrorist Hunt game modes support cooperative multiplayer.

Present in all game modes is a multi-dimensional advancement system.

Multiplayer

The multiplayer in Vegas 2 has been expanded to include more than 10 new close-quarters maps, two new adversarial modes, a newer and different rewards system, and according to Ubisoft, improved online matchmaking. Another feature for multiplayer is that using an Xbox Live Vision camera or a PlayStation Eye, the player could take a picture of his/her face and make him/herself the playable character. A camera can also be used in the PC version as well to create a playable character.

Ubisoft released downloadable content for Vegas 2, a Fan pack that includes three maps from the Rainbow Six Vegas and new XP ranks.

Co-op

Previous Rainbow Six games up to Lockdown supported eight human players on the PC in co-op mode, while Vegas reduced co-op to four. Although Terrorist Hunt mode retains the four human player limit (online only), the story mode in Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 has reduced co-op from four players to two players, with the second player assuming the position of Knight, Bishop's teammate.
Advancement system

The experience point (XP) system is different from that in Rainbow Six: Vegas in that every kill achieved awards the player XP. XP gains result in promotions which reward the player with new equipment, such as body armor.

Players also receive bonuses from the ACES combat system, a separate but related advancement system from the XP system. ACES advancement is based on the methods used to kill opponents, and weaponry unlocked differs depending on which tactics are used.

Experience can be gained by the player in any game mode, single player or multiplayer, and advancement is shared amongst all modes. Equipment unlocked in one mode is usable in all other modes.