Clancy brings Next Gen to the X360

For the longest time, I’ve shyed away from playing any of Tom Clancy’s video games. From Rainbow Six up til now I’ve always envisioned his games as difficult, complex, and too realistic. Well, I was right but what is so wrong with a game having those qualities and still be a fun experience!

I was lucky enough to get an Xbox 360 without having to put one on reserve or wait in line and as I looked through the 1st quarter 㤎 line up of released games, I didn’t see much I really wanted to play. Then I caught wind of Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. Watching demos I witness a visual quality unparalleled in console gaming. Not only that, the concept of the game was appealing. In this edition of Clancy’s top secret knowledge, he reveals the technology of our military’s near future. Each soldier is outfitted with a state of the art on field information system, called the Cross-Com, that has the capability to identify foes and friendlies thru a helmet vid. The Cross-com will give you vids from your squadmates’ visuals, vids from support forces, communication vids from news feeds, and mission objectives. The result is never feeling lost or not knowing what to do next. In addition to this you try out some next gen rifles and utilize a recon bot that can be sent out to identify enemy locations (very useful).

From a gaming perspective, the controls are a tad bit stiff for a shooter as you traverse the game in a third person view. Taking cover and learning to shoot accurately down your sights is paramount depending on your selection of weapons. This is due to the commendable AI and constant ‘hairy’ situations you and your squad will find yourselves in. As you traverse Mexico City versus Mexican rebels, you’ll go through rescue and escort, neutralize location, recon, solo infiltration, and all out assault missions that will require you to shed your usual Halo 2 rush and destroy tactics. And don’t underestimate your opponent, they’ll throw choppers, tanks, APCs, snipers galore, and countless troops at you from various directions and at the most inopportune moments. And thankfully, Mexico City is a ghost town, so don’t worry about collateral damage!

Unfortunately, the AI of your squad-mates is sub-par (apparently this is a common them amongst most Clancy games). The number of orders you can give them has been limited to advance, regroup, assault mode, recon mode, and ‘attack this target’. Unfortunately you’ll have situations where everyone is under cover and you’ll call for them to attack a target and they’ll do so by running out into the open and then standing still despite the intensity of the return fire. Also, you’ll find a little difficulty in the response of support forces. Also, just like the welfare of your squad, you’ll have to constantly check on welfare of your chopper support in certain situations or you’ll lose them. You’ll also find yourself cursing the extraction chopper at times for managing to land just behind an area filled with hostiles (while no one mans the devastating mini-guns mounted on it). But thankfully, you’ll get multiple chances to wreck havoc with the mini-guns yourself (quite fun).

And again I must praise Ubisoft for the absolute gorgeous visual quality of this game. The environments sing to your visual senses in a way unseen by most X360 games to date. The animation is fluid, explosions glorious (and plentiful), and they show how difficult it is sometimes to visualize the enemy if you don’t do proper recon. Occasionally you’ll curse your enemy while they jam your helmet vid feed. On those missions you’ll have to rely solely on your own visual acuity, stealth, accuracy, and heat vision goggles. And to compliment the visuals, you’ll have above average audio that sets the mood as you hear your enemies chatter, firefights in the distance, grand explosions, etc.

Also, the multiplayer feature of Ghost Recon is up to expectation. The maps tend to be a bit big for small parties but the larger battles (which can hold 16 players). You also have the option for online cooperative play. There are around 4 ‘campaign’ or story based missions where you and your friend can go through a number of objectives together as a two man squad. You can also set up a map and go at a number of ‘bots’ or computer controlled foes. Be careful though, just like in the single player game, all it takes is one or two good shots to kill someone and there is no radar. Cunning snipers can rack up, but only if they stay on the move. And there are plenty of various modes like ‘Deathmatch’, ‘Defending Territory’, or ‘Capture the flag’. This mode alone keeps the replayability of the title high.

All in all, G.R.A.W. is one of the best early releases for the Xbox 360 and is a definite must have for strategic shooter fans.