Rainbow Six: Vegas puts players in the shoes of two anti-terror soldiers searching for their abducted teammates across five Las Vegas missions. The gameplay is more action-oriented, with a focus on individual fighter control rather than squad leadership. Players take on roles such as Brian Armstrong or Shawn Rivers, each with unique abilities.
The game still incorporates familiar features like the snake-cam and enemy tracking, allowing for tactical gameplay despite the solo focus. Cover mechanics are present, with automatic ducking behind cover when approaching walls, switching to third-person view in doing so. Health and ammo pick-ups are not available during levels.
As players progress through the game, they unlock bonus content like concept art and the Terrorist Hunt mode, which offers a replay on single-player maps with an additional terrorist-killing objective.