Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars

Hi everyone. I am interested to hear your opinions on what you would like to see improved or added for a sequel to GRSW - if we ever get the chance to make it. Try to prioritize your suggestions - what are the 2 or 3 most important things for you? (of course we would like to do everything, but time and resources would be limited).

I think the AI needs to be more opportunistic. It does not pounce on obvious mistakes the way Intelligent Systems' AIs do. On many occasions, I have seen the AI ignore command points, or neglect to pile on to a vulnerable ghost. I don't expect the AI to play well, given processing power and time constraints, but these outright game-ending blunders ought to be punished.

It needs to be easier to figure out which squares are safe and which aren't. As mentioned in some reviews, the line-of-site can be non-intuitive at times. Yes, you can check the line-of-site, but only where the units are at the moment. To determine what squares are safe, you need to also calculate the line site at every square a unit can attack from. Maybe, allow selecting a square with 'y' after selecting a unit could show line-of-site from that square. Another related issue is that I'd like to be able to control characters with enemy line-of-site or movement highlighted, instead of having to cancel it first. In a sense, this is related to the first issue, because I wouldn't have made those blunders if it were easier to check these things.

As for lower priority requests, I'd like to see more done with the PEC points. At the moment they don't really do anything. If they were hidden, it wouldn't change anything. A more Fire Emblem-esque team (ie, multiple units of the same class; choose the team before every mission) would be more interesting, I think? I'm not sure how that would work in the Ghost Recon context. It wouldn't hurt for the story/dialogue to be less silly, but that's not something I really care about. Oh yeah, and it'd be better if skipping story elements were always bound to the same button; right now, usually 'b' is best, but sometimes you need to hit 'a'.

I will say that I actually liked the way leveling was handled here, since I am more of a fan of the tactics side of these sorts of games than the "RPG" elements. In games where there is more depth (eg, Disgaea), I feel obligated to spend copious amounts of time micromanaging the unfun bits just to keep up in the fun bits. I also like that you can always go back and play each mission (unlike in FE), as well as the way mission objectives are sometimes added mid-level. The skirmish missions are great fun; I think the balance between skirmish and campaign was good.

One thing that would be really helpful is to be able to see all squares that a particular enemy can attack. Attempting to work out which squares an enemy can attack by selecting the enemy, figuring out which squares they can attack from, and then checking the line of sight from those squares gets really tedious.

Another thing would be to not require pressing R to switch between weapons. Rather, when I move a character to a square where both weapons could be used, options for both weapons should pop up on the menu. This is especially important for units that have non-attacking secondary weapons. eg, if I move Saffron next to one of my units, and she's also in range of an enemy, both "Attack" and "Heal" options should appear on the menu.
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Belief or disbelief rests with you.

Really enjoying the game, but I'd like to see it take a few more things from the Advance Wars and Fire Emblem series.'

Level editor is my biggest wish. It's what's added the most replay value to a game like Advance Wars for me. I know it must be much harder to pull of with the different topographic heights, but it could make a big difference.

As others have mentioned, a more Fire Emblem style level up system would be welcome. I didn't mind the character interaction I got from Shadow Wars, but I'd gladly trade it in for more and a bigger variety of characters (even a store to buy specialized equipment for each squad member.)

I agree with my fellow posters in that it is difficult to know which squares are dangerous or not. Look at how Fire Emblem: Dragon Sword shows you where all enemy can attack at any one time and then how you can click on a character to see his individual line of sight and attack range.

Lastly, I'd like to see more done with the stealth. I'd like to be able to move members of my team through cover and trees and have the opposing force not be able to notice them. If they're not actively aware of my squad, have the enemies on guard patrol or on some set pattern I can tie into my strategy. Then when the shooting begins and the enemy is aware of my presence, have them react accordingly (it'd be both more realistic and give you a unique edge over the other great strategy games I mentioned before.)

The core gameplay experience is wonderful and I wouldn't change any of it. For me, the smaller things hindering this game from being "great" instead of merely "good."

1.) Add more music tracks. This game has a wonderful soundtrack but there's just not enough. For the first 10 or so hours, I heard only one song. Again, great song but it started to bug me.

2.) Story presentation was terrible. Slide show presentations at the beginning of chapters instead of cutscenes. Amateur dialogue. Lack of voice acting.

3.) Perhaps retool the gameplay mechanics to some degree so certain characters will remain useful. Duke and Richter seem to lose their effectiveness after a certain point, because Banshee and Mint are so overpowered.
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Go and buy a new PS3 game and a new 360 game and I challenge you to smell them and tell me which is best. -- Gietzy