Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Written by Glenn Wigmore  on March 17, 2006

Review: Certainly, this game is the "killer app" it looked to be back at E3Е

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Most missions require you to rescue VIPs, meet up with other groups of soldiers, or take out strategic targets. Your objectives will update on the fly and the action only really stops when you need to change weapons and soldiers (when you come upon a supply truck). All of this fluid pacing really credits GRAW, as the experience of warfare is up in your face and relentless. This being said, there are many moments where you'll get to admire your surroundings and the game still leans more towards the methodical side of the ledger. A cool set of sequences worth mentioning are the helicopter gunner sections; in these instances, you will have to operate the turret that is on the side of the helicopter and take out enemy troops (and sometimes enemy choppers). These sequences play spectacularly because of the insane visual fidelity and the great sense of power delivered by the gun Ц be warned: the enemy can hit you reasonably well so shoot them quick.

Not all is perfect with the single-player campaign, though, but most complaints are only minor quibbles. The AI of VIPs and even your squad members isn't always the brightest, and they will sometimes take strange routes to destinations or find themselves stuck behind telephone poles. The enemy AI is better than it was in previous installments of the series, but it does not exhibit the ferocity of Halo 2 or Call of Duty 2's adversaries. A final gripe is that while the environments look amazing, they lack any real humanity since there, well, isn't any. The absence of any local population is a bit odd (some could be explained by the violence and such), and you do kind of wonder where the hell everyone took off toЕ some of their cars still remain, I guess. With the amount of polygons this game is pushing out it is hard to blame Ubisoft, but it would've be nice to seem some hostages, stragglers or street people hanging around Ц heck, even the odd dog or cat for accuracy's sake.

The single-player portion should last you from eight to ten hours, but you can also toggle the difficulty up to hard for an added challenge. Additionally, there are many achievements to be unlocked throughout the campaign, but most are retrieved from completing the missions straight up.

One of the best reasons to own GRAW (even though the single-player experience is still heavily engrossing) comes from its extremely comprehensive, optimized, and entertaining multiplayer component. The solo campaign contains its own time-consuming experience, but digging into the online portion really displays the lengths the developers at Ubisoft went to in order to ensure that it met expectation. Truly, it was a very wise move to delay this game a few months in order to polish the graphics and ensure technical problems did not come into play.

The multiplayer is quite similar to other Ghost Recon games at first glance; however, upon closer inspection, the sheer depth of modes and the quality in which they are executed is certainly noteworthy. Graphically, the multiplayer portion is not quite as jaw dropping as the offline portion, but it remains impressive and fast moving, nonetheless.

The real standout for online play is easily the co-operative campaign. This mode is great for several reasons, not the least of which is 16-player support. This four-mission campaign starts out somewhat slow, but then it sprawls into much bigger scenarios that require the proper balance of planning, firepower, and teamwork. This mode strikes a similar level of enjoyment to that of the Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory co-op; Ubisoft obviously understands the building blocks to fun online gameplay. However, co-operative gameplay doesn't end there; you and your buddies can play firefight or siege matches that allow your team to be pitted against a squad of unruly AI soldiers. The computer-controlled soldiers do pretty well as adversaries, and even though their density can be set to whatever is preferred, the default setting remains fairly challenging.

The adversarial elements of online play are also quite fun, and they return in both team and solo formats. The amount of options for this set of modes is extremely deep, plus you can even create some of your own custom variants ala Halo 2. The use of the УdroneФ in team-based affairs is great fun since you can fish out your opponents in hard-to-reach places and they will be illuminated on your Cross-Com HUD. In these player-versus-player situations, it is notable how the action has changed since previous Ghost Recon games, as the speed of play is much smoother and you can even run and gun a bit more now Ц somewhat arcade in feel, but not too far of a departure from previous iterations.

Not to be overlooked in the online portion is the absence of lag and the well-designed lobby interface. Matches play smoothly and you're more likely to have your box lock up on you (this did happen after a five-hour session) than experience crippling or even moderately bothersome lag Ц commendable work by Ubisoft. The lobby is quite simple in its implementation, but very functional and informative in how it is presented. As a host, the options for gametypes, modifiers, and room settings are easy to change Ц also helpful is the ability of in-room players to view all the options (this wasn't as fully realized before) in order to make suggestions for upcoming matches. The player readouts are clear and so are the displays for team counts, rank, status, and so on. The lobby is easily one of the most functional seen in a Live-enabled game.

The multiplayer for GRAW is only half of the package, but it delivers in so many ways that it is worth checking out based solely on its own merits. Fun is to be had when you go online with this one.

So there you go: GRAW delivers an experience that is truly memorable because it innovates in presentation, control, visuals, and because it presents a solo and multiplayer package that is compelling on both fronts. There were many hesitations about delaying this game for several months, and some wondered if this would even help get the game out of the rut it found itself in at X05 Ц happily it was Уmission accomplished.Ф Go pick up Ghost Recon Advanced Warfigher if you're a fan of tactical/military shooters or if you just want a great-looking, great playing game to show your buds Ц and hey, it's got great local and online multiplayer support so you can't go wrong there.