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| Game: |
Tom Clancys Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike |
| Genre: |
Shooters |
| Developer: |
Red Storm Entertainment |
| Publisher: |
Ubisoft |
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| Related Links: |
Coming Soon. |
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Tom Clancys Ghost Recon 2 Summit Strike Preview: |
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Hands On Preview:
The original Ghost Recon on Xbox was a breath of fresh air to me as it combined tense realistic game play with a team element and of course the antics with friends, strangers over Xbox Live. Ubisoft and Red Storm (the publisher and developer) supported the title extremely well for both co-op and verses players who were hooked up to the Live service. The subsequent release of the mini sequel Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, which offered an entirely new campaign and more maps was a great inclusion for the series and although PC gamers had already sampled the delights with their two expansion disks it was great that us Xbox owners were getting similar treatment.
Ghost Recon 2 was released in November last year and although “dumbing” down some of the game play features that made the original such a great game for me, was still an excellent shooter and well worthy of the 8.5/10 score. Well 7 months have passed and whilst the verses players have had a load of new content delivered to them via Xbox Live the players who are interested in co-op or single player missions have been left out in the cold, so to speak. However, just like the original Ghost Recon, the developers have decided to release an extra disk (at budget price might I add) to cater for those without Live or those who simply crave more maps both co-op and verses.
The premise is simple for the single player, choose a character class, then weapons from an ever increasing list of cutting edge arms and then alongside your 3 AI partners kick terrorist butt in either 1st or 3rd person viewpoints. The onus is on reality here and you can be killed from a single well placed bullet (and so can your enemy).
If that’s not enough then via System Link, split screen or Xbox Live you can team up with some human buddies and take on the campaign like true heroes. If that’s really not your thing then you can take part in a number of verses game types both single and team based.
New Additions:
The campaign part of the game sees the ghosts taking on the usual terrorist leader with his usual band of loyal followers across the regions of Kazakhstan. In other words, a perfect excuse to unleash the four man teams on plenty of good for nothing terrorists across 11 new maps. The new maps are just as varied as the original and feature a combination of day and night time missions with the full squad and a couple of Lone Wolf missions thrown in for good measure; Lone Wolf is when it’s a single soldier armed with the latest technology against many men. Ok well this is nothing new as the original GR2 had the same thing; the point is that the maps are new and to start the campaign you begin with a couple of snow based levels.
Other familiar modes for the single player make a welcome return and these include fire-fight which pits the team or solo verses terrorists where there are no objectives other than to wipe them all out. Recon which requires the player to reach zones on the map undetected and then reach an extraction zone, points are deducted if you kill enemies (Scout being the same but with re-spawns enabled). Defend which sees the team hold a position on the map whilst being overrun by swarms of enemies (Garrison being the same thing but with re-spawns). Then we have a brand new addition to the single player game in the form of Heli-Hunt which as the name implies, its either you being the hunter or the hunted as you are chased across the map by helicopters. The aim here is to destroy each wave whilst getting to the many ammo crates that litter the map (very fun but hard as) nails. There are up to 25 maps here to mess around with. All these modes can be played on or offline with or without friends although some maps and modes will not allow for AI backup. It seems the AI only appears on maps that are part of the campaign which is a shame.
New Weapons:
The Ghost Recon games have always allowed for plenty of weapons amongst the classes that you choose prior to each mission (Rifleman, Marksman, Gunner, and Grenadier) and Summit strike is no exception. For those unable to download the content from Xbox live will be please to hear that some silenced weapons are now available as standard (which gives a tactical edge). Other inclusions are the wide number of special forces developed SCAR weapons which certainly pack a punch for all the classes. The Lone Wolf operative also gets a new French developed Felin FV2 (based on the Famas rifle) which includes the awesome gun camera.
Multiplayer:
For many, the Ghost Recon series really shines in the multi-player modes either co-op or verses. Well all the modes make a return as well as the inclusion of some new ones. Armour Strike is interesting as it pits two teams against each other with the aim of laser targeting 3 opposing team vehicles for the win. Either way there are enough game types; assassination, domination, SAR, siege, thief, recovery, sharpshooter, hamburger hill, last man standing to keep players happy and with the 25 odd maps on offer including the maps that were released as Downloadable Content, Summit strike will please fans. There are also a number of player skins to choose from to give gamers that personal touch when they are out on the killing fields.
The Game:
Playing Summit Strike is pretty much the same experience as playing the original and is an obvious nod to fans. The single player portion feels just right although some very dodgy AI still rears its ugly head on occasion and some equally frustrating moments with tanks appearing from no-where in the campaign. Either way fans are going to love the new missions. The multiplayer portion is also more of the same and will keep fans very happy indeed especially those without Xbox Live looking for something new until the big cheese Advanced War fighter is released at the end of the year. Summit Strike will be available next month (August 26th UK and maybe earlier for the USA).
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