Like its predecessor Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Vegas is a more action-driven tactical shooter. You play as Logan Keller who is the leader of a Rainbow Six squad. Controlling two team-members, you have to take on terrorists who attempt to get the city of Las Vegas under their control.

The missions are all connected with one another through the storyline. You always have different goals like rescuing a hostage or disarming a bomb. To do so, you have access to different kinds of weapons from pistols to Assault Rifles and Gadgets like C4 or Tear Gas. You order your men around by aiming at something and then choosing from a list of options called "Rules of Engagement", available in a circle menu much like in Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. They will then do they best to fulfill your order without risking their own lives by taking cover as often as possible.

Instead of a health indicator and medi-packs scattered around the map, your vision blurs when you get a hit. If you take too many, you die but if you take cover and wait a while, you recover and can once again take on the terrorists.