Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

"This is the real deal."

Well, I want to start off by saying, if you like Metal Gear Solid, Halo, Medal of Honor, or anything of the like, this game will probably not be for you. This is the real deal, one well placed shot, and you're gone. One misplaced shot, and the enemy won't magically fall down. No futuristic weapons, no respawning.

Gameplay- 9/10
The gameplay is as realistic as it gets. Usually you expect that if you die, you come back at the checkpoint, right? Wrong. You can save whenever you want, but the game won't give you any curve. Oh yeah, and you know how sometimes characters die in story mode (campaign here)? Well usually they come back, right? Yes, but here, no. Once they die, they're gone. They won't come back. Don't cry over it, and don't say your XBOX is out to get you. They're dead. If they are wounded, you can have them rest out one battle, and they're good as new! But let them die, and they're gone for the entire campaign. Oh yeah, and also the more missions you do, the higher your rank gets (From Private First Class to General). Which is a neat little bonus, gives you something to work for.

Graphics- 8/10
The graphics are purely awesome. The only suffering is explosions. They seriously needed to work on these, I mean, I can see a bunch of moving orange polygons in almost any game I want. I want to see the fire in the background. I want to have the flames sort of reflect off my character. But you can't have it all I guess, the bushes seem to be solid too. You have to go around on the outer side of it. But meh, it's worth the awesome way the characters look.

Music/Sound- 8/10
There is no music except during the menus. I have those downloaded though. I enjoyed the music. Now the sounds, whew where can I begin? Well you move over leaves, you hear the crackle. You move over gravel, you hear the rocks under your feet. You run in the rain, you hear the rain fall and the rain hit you. The sounds from the explosions rock too.

Storyline- 10/10
I like this storyline. Here I'll sum it up really quick since I'm probably sounding boring right now. An army invades Russia, and they want the old communist empire to rise again. You get sent in here as the 'tip of the spear' per say. It's up to you and your team to prevent all out world war. Pretty neat, huh?

Overall- 9/10
I enjoyed this game thoroughly and I still am. Of course, I enjoy wartime games. If I had to pick a game to sort of tie to this game..I'd have to say Medal of Honor. But of course, that's the spur of the moment. Wolfenstein isn't anything like it, but most like to try to put the two together. They're not.

Rent or Buy-
I'd have to say this as a buy. This game is on XBOX Live, which I have yet to mention. But that adds a whole dimension onto the gameplay. And it's a great one player game. All in all, this one will keep you playing for a while. Everything from weapons, to rank, to getting good enough to own all in online mode.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/18/03, Updated 06/18/03