Gaming Target - Xbox: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2

Written by Troy Matsumiya on October 12, 2004

Final Glimpse: When there's some terrorists in your neighborhood, who you gonna call?

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon was one of those love-it-or-hate-it games: many loved it for its deadly realism, deliberate slow pace, and emphasis on squad tactics and teamwork. Others hated it for the exact same reasons, with unseen enemies picking you off with uncanny accuracy, the questionable AI of your squadmates, and multiplayer Xbox Live matches degrading into boring sniper Уcamp-a-thonsФ.

No matter where you sit on the Ghost Recon fence, one thing is for certain: Ghost Recon 2 won't be the same game we all know and love (or hate). Publisher Ubisoft and developer Red Storm have taken many of the criticisms to heart, and have made major wholesale changes to address those issues and hopefully widen the franchise's appeal.

The first and most noticeable change is how the game looks. Like Rainbow Six and Splinter Cell, Ubisoft's other Tom Clancy games, GR2 looks gorgeous Ц a word never used when describing the first GR. In fact, comparing the two versions is quite dramatic, and highlights how truly butt-ugly the original was Ц yet amazingly, GR2 uses the exact same proprietary graphics engine (albeit highly modified).

Animations have been dramatically improved as well. Red Storm motion-captured actual Marines moving, rolling, shooting, reloading and so on to add a very authentic look and feel to the game. And because gamers love ragdoll physics, the Havoc 2 physics engine is fully utilized to not only delight us with explosion-propelled bodies flying through the air, but to realistically animate other objects as well. For example, a bridge you have to demolish will collapse differently depending on where you place your explosives.

Your view will change as well. In the original, all you saw onscreen was your aiming reticule; some gamers hated that you couldn't see your weapon, but the view was clean, uncluttered and utilitarian, the perfect set up for a game that required sharp eyes to stay alive. Purists may be shocked to learn that the default view is now a third-person over-the-shoulder perspective that not only gives you a wider view of your surroundings, but shows off the beautiful authentic details and animations of your character and weapon models. Rest assured, though, that you can switch to the classic reticule-only first person view if you wish.

To go with the new view are several new abilities, including a gun-mounted camera that lets you hold out your weapon while keeping your body behind cover, allowing you to safely shoot around corners or over low obstacles you're laying prone behind. You can also lean around corners like in Rainbow Six 3, and no longer have to worry about being caught on low obstacles thanks to the ability to climb over anything around knee high.

Perhaps the biggest change deals with the structure of your squad. Unlike the original, where you controlled two three-person squads, you now have only one four-person squad like in Rainbow Six 3. Your pool of selectable Ghosts has been whittled down as well, with only eight specialists to choose from, about a third of the original. Needless to say, this changes the tactics available to you; while you used to be able to perform cool flanking maneuvers or overwhelm the enemy with a powerful united front, you will now have to move more carefully and strategically with your smaller squad. Fortunately, you will have a limited ability to split them up, making your squad much more flexible than in Rainbow Six 3.

Thankfully, the clunky command interface of the original has been replaced with a point-and-click design similar to Rainbow Six 3. Point your reticule to where you want your squad to go, pick the command from a menu, and away they go. Those of you with headsets will no doubt be eager to bark voice commands, much like (surprise!) Rainbow Six 3.

Your squadmates should show a lot more intelligence than the original, thanks to a much-needed improved AI. Unfortunately for you, enemy AI has also been improved, and the one-shot, one-kill health system still applies. You (and the enemy) can target specific body parts as well, such as the limbs, torso and head, with the level of damage registering accordingly.

And just who is your enemy this time around? Having saved Russia in the original, the Ghosts are sent to the jungles of North Korea in 2014 to take down a rogue general who decides to pick a fight with China. China asks for help, and this is where you and the Ghosts come in (yeah, the story is totally improbable, but storylines have never been a strong point in any Tom Clancy game; ironic, considering they are influenced by Clancy's novels). The Xbox and PC versions will be the same, but in an unusual twist, the PS2 and GameCube versions will be completely different; in fact, they will be prequels, with events occurring four years prior to the Xbox and PC versions. The gameplay between the different versions will essentially be the same, but the missions, levels and story will not. Even development of each game is different, with Red Storm handling the Xbox and PC versions, while Ubisoft Shanghai develops the PS2 version using the Unreal engine. In another head-scratching twist, the Xbox and PS2 versions will launch simultaneously, with the GameCube following a month later (maybe), and the PC version launching in early 2005. Confused yet? Fortunately, each version will be УstandaloneФ so you don't need to play one in order to understand the other.

Regardless of which version you choose, you will encounter the same types of single player objectives, including rescuing hostages, blowing up structures, being a sneaky stealthy sniper, and even a Уdefend the fortФ mission where you have to hold off waves of trigger-happy bad guys. One unique addition is the Lone Wolf mode where you play the single player missions alone. You could do this in the original too (all you had to do is choose one Ghost rather than six), but were limited to the standard weapons kit. In Lone Wolf, you will be equipped with the state-of-the-art Future Force Warrior equipment like the XM8 assault rifle with the aforementioned gun camera, an advanced dial-in airburst grenade launcher, a 6x scope, and a target designator used to direct air strikes. That's right Ц if you feel too lazy to take out the bad guys yourself, you can call your friends in the skies to blow the crap out of them.

Multiplayer is where the real fun will be, however. GR2 will support four-player split screen offline, and if you connect to another Xbox via System Link, you can enjoy eight-player action. Up to 16 players will be supported over Xbox Live and thankfully, the despised Уpress to talkФ feature has been eliminated. GR2 will also support the new Xbox Live 3.0 features as well, making it a great game for competitive matches.

Multiplayer game modes include standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Cooperative, along with Last Man Standing and a quasi-Capture the Flag mode where you have to capture zones marked by flags (similar to Star Wars Battlefront); control all the zones and you win. There is also a new version of Cat and Mouse called Seek and Destroy, where one player is the УmouseФ and everyone else is a УcatФ trying to kill him. Unlike the original Cat and Mouse where the mouse was armed only with a pistol, the new mouse will be armed with full Lone Wolf gear while the other players have standard kits. The mouse will need the upgraded weaponry, since he will have a big marker over his head telling everyone where he is. Some maps were even specifically designed for Seek and Destroy to take full advantage of the Lone Wolf gear.