To begin, I have to state that I’ve not played Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter on the Xbox 360 yet and so when confronted by the Xbox version was able to tackle the game from a fresh point of view free from any influence. However I have played all of the other Ghost Recon games and can say that the style and pace of the game play is something that I enjoy very much. Well it’s been quite a while since Ghost Recon appeared on Xbox and since then us gamers have seen three more titles in the series and now Advanced Warfighter.

As you are probably aware Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) takes place in the future with the theatre being the urban wastes of a war torn Mexico City. Whilst I am not going to go into details of the plot here, again it’s the US team of Ghosts who are sent into the region to deal with any problems that happen on the ground; whilst several other political battles are taking place within the Mexican and US governments. What this translates to is the player being thrust into various hot spots, with the aim of taking out well armed rebels and completing key objectives. This is familiar territory for anyone who has played a Ghost Recon game before; however GRAW introduces some new elements to the game play that perhaps some will love and others will simply hate.

Game Play

GRAW is primarily a first person shooter which means you get to see the action through the eyes of lead protagonist, Captain Scott Mitchell. For the first time in the series on Xbox, players are now able to see the gun model on screen like you do in other similar games such as Rainbow Six 3 or Halo. There are some lengthy loading screens to endure but thankfully they also plot the course of your helicopter ride into a hot spot as well as fill you in on various mission details which are presented by using a small box out which gives a direct video link to the person who is talking. These moments certainly break up the action and also give an insight into the bigger political picture, especially as news footage is often presented.

The premise of all the Ghost Recon games up until now has been on semi realism whereby players methodically and tactically make their way around mostly large open outdoor maps with a small team, completing objectives and killing whoever gets in the way. Players aren’t given recharging shields or unlimited health supplies. Bullets can kill in one hit and any injuries sustained will greatly affect performance such as accuracy and speed. Well forget all of that because GRAW changes things and pretty much rewrites the Ghost Recon book.

Players are only given access to one other team mate named Ramirez, who you can order to any location in the near vicinity of your character and hold position or he can follow you around keeping an eye on your back so to speak. Ramirez is able to enter two rules of engagement whereby he can either be in recon mode, which means he’ll only fire when fired upon or he can be in assault mode which means he takes on a new guise and goes all Rambo by running into the thick of it trying to kill every enemy in sight and this includes armoured vehicles as well. The squad mechanics are a far cry from the original game which supported two fire-teams of three soldiers. Ghost Recon 2 narrowed this down to four soldiers and now GRAW narrows this down further with just the two soldiers. The squad element mostly works well enough, although at times the AI of Ramirez leaves a little to be desired as he rushes off in an attempt to take on an entire army single handed or refuses to stay in the ordered position.

The way in which GRAW’s single player campaign is set up means that players undertake missions with some variety which include escorting tanks, defending specific areas, providing support for other units and some infiltration. These are cleverly designed and are compelling enough to provide some excellent stand offs with your opponents who come at you with all sorts of weapons and vehicles, including tanks! Events can quickly escalate during the course of a mission and so additional points of interest happen on the fly giving you more objectives to take care of if you wish. At times the game play does seems to rush you along especially if you are the type of player who likes to take his or her time when moving around levels. Again, this nods to a more arcade direction GRAW has taken in my opinion which will no doubt upset fans of the series. Sadly during the single player campaign, players are unable to choose their class of soldier or even change their weapons load out as this is selected for you. I guess the reason for this is to give the player a taste of all the weapons available. That said and in a rather unrealistic manner, players are equipped with a primary rifle, sniper rifle or anti tank, pistol and grenades or C4 explosive. In other words a hell of a lot of kit that in reality would make movement in the hot Mexican sun more of an enemy than rebels armed to the teeth. Players are able to choose their weapons load out when replaying missions outside of the campaign mode and players are not able to choose what weaponry team mate Ramirez can carry. There are some nice, varied weapons available to mess around with but I can’t help but feel that the loss of the classes, points the game play towards the arcade school more than anything; which is something veteran Ghost Recon fans will not approve of.

During actual combat with the enemies, players are able to crouch or stand up whilst moving from cover to cover. Sadly the prone position is not available although to think about it, going prone is probably more suited to grassy hills rather than concrete streets. What is a neat inclusion, albeit pushing the game further into the realms of fantasy is the option to sprint for short periods which if used correctly can give a distinct advantage during battles, especially if you need to quickly dart behind cover or rush to a gun emplacement. The enemy AI is reasonable during combat and will take cover, flush you out with grenades and generally close in on you; however their situational awareness is rather lacking. At one point I tossed a grenade near a group of enemies who were obviously too engrossed in their conversation about tequila worms to notice a grenade exploding literally feet away from them. Sometimes the enemies are alerted easily and at other times it doesn’t work at all which is a shame but is something that has plagued many games. The gun shooting component of GRAW also feels inconsistent where more often than not, perfectly well controlled shots will miss close range targets entirely or simply have no effect on them at all. This is frustrating because all previous games have made a point of controlling accuracy by shooting in bursts or single shots. The same can be said for some longer ranged sniper shots which can be perfectly on target but completely miss.

GRAW introduces the soldier of future concept which means Captain Mitchell is equipped with all the latest combat gadgets. This includes the cross com which is a heads up display (HUD) that basically gives Mitchell a tactical view of his surroundings. This means that enemy targets and friendlies are highlighted when spotted as well as objective locations which shows their distance as well. Mitchell is also able to view the viewpoints from additional support units as well as what team mate Ramirez is looking at. What works well is if Ramirez is sent ahead to recon as he is able to spot targets which then show up as red triangles. Sadly being able to see Ramirez’s viewpoint on your heads up display is what I would say gimmicky because the size of the box is simply way too small to make out any detail within the image and also the low frame rate and resolution hinder its effectiveness. Like using the map perhaps it would have been clever to be able to enlarge the box temporarily to get a bigger image. It also doesn’t help that Ramirez generally does not look in the direction you want him too when positioning him on a corner. It would have been nice to perhaps be able to issue some simple command here for him to do this.



Graphics

GRAW has some well realised urban environments masked in some fog when you get a wider viewpoint. Whilst the city streets are devoid of civilian activity, (which is a given considering the situation) there’s enough atmosphere generated to cut the air with a knife. You get smoke billowing from destroyed vehicles, bullet holes in objects, partially destroyed structures and more, which all help convey the feeling of being in a war zone as opposed to an empty city playground. Sadly GRAW is not without its issues and in my opinion I feel the development team were perhaps a little too ambitious adding in the support view window. There were certain times during the single player campaign where the frame rate became almost unplayable when confronted by several enemies and although I’m no technical genius its felt obvious to me that having the support view window contributed to the problem.

The inclusion of some rag doll physics is a welcome addition to the series as previous games employed some rather uninspiring death animations. It also appears that enemy animation has been improved somewhat which help make your opponents look more realistic and goes towards making a more immersive experience.

Sound

The sound is pretty decent and although the city is pretty quiet bar the odd ambient sound effect here and there it doesn’t feel aurally empty. Mitchell’s movement can be heard in the form of footsteps as can the enemies chatter and footsteps which add an extra game play element of being able to hear an enemy before you see them. This creates some tense moments especially in some of the tight areas of play featured. The gun sound effects are pretty neat especially some of the sniper rifles which sound meaty enough to take down a herd of elephants or should that be a squadron of tanks? The sound in general is pretty good and I guess is more enjoyable if you are using a cinematic sound system in your home.

The voice acting in the game is of a reasonable standard and with plenty of radio chatter going on at all times means that the voices in your head is something you will have to get used to. It greatly adds to the atmosphere and tension of the game and in my opinion works really well. The inclusion of brief background music during key moments of the action might annoy some players as Ghost Recon has never been about having music playing. Luckily these moments are not too frequent and therefore don’t ruin the atmosphere.

Longevity

The single player campaign can be completed very quickly on the default ghost difficulty but becomes far more challenging when playing on the hardest difficulty setting. Perhaps die-hards might be advised to begin their first play through using this setting to prolong the experience. As mentioned earlier, players are able to replay single missions and choose weapons load outs but with no class system I feel this takes away some replay value. Well for the lone gamer that’s all GRAW has to offer and is a major step backwards compared to previous games. What happened to the fire fight mode where you and AI controlled Ramirez can clear levels filled with randomly placed opponents?

GRAW features a multiplayer component which allows for split screen, system link and of course Xbox Live play. Split screen allows players to tackle the single player missions or campaign together. The adversary modes are reserved for system link and Live play only and feature the usual suspects of game modes (albeit missing a few) with a choice of urban based maps. I was surprised to see a two player Battle mode present here and not being available for offline single players. The multiplayer aspect is definitely a step backwards in terms of adding longevity to the whole experience.

Overall

GRAW is a solid title and pleasurable playing experience which seems to blend the game engine and some game play elements from the Rainbow Six series; such as the leaning around corners or faster paced action with the flavour of Ghost Recon games. In fact at times I felt like I was playing Rainbow Six albeit dressed in out door environments. I’m still unsure whether this is a good or bad thing as I enjoy Rainbow Six games as well. I guess from a Ghost Recon fan viewpoint I could argue that the developers have changed the core game play of each title in the series and GRAW follows that tradition. But as a fan of the series the changes are perhaps not the direction I would expect for a game which bears the Ghost Recon name. The lack of a controllable three man team, not being able to choose character classes, unrealistic hit detection, few outdoor sections in the wilds, faster paced game play, health checkpoints (luckily these are removed from hard difficulty) makes GRAW far removed from the original Ghost Recon to the point of almost being an entirely new game. In fact Ubisoft could have easily called this a new name and it probably would have carved the way for another series for the company.

When looking at GRAW as a new experience with no preconceptions or expectations towards the title then yes you are left with a pretty decent gaming experience which will keep you hooked until the end and obviously cater for that competitive streak with the online play included. I have enjoyed playing GRAW and especially like the urban atmosphere featured, despite this not offering the variety of playing environments as seen in previous titles and despite some of the game’s graphical/game play flaws. Either way I think if Ghost Recon fans can look at the game objectively and focus on what it does best, which is to replicate urban combat in a fun way for gamers; then the experience will be more enjoyable. Yes it is different from previous Ghost Recon games but at the same time it is still a fun game and that is what counts.