Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

"A meritorious tactical shooter for the Xbox 360"

Before the Xbox 360 launched, one of the most anticipated titles for Microsoft's console was Ghost Recon 3, better known as Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (which will henceforth be referred to as “GRAW”). Unfortunately, before the system launched, Ubisoft announced that the game would be delayed. Fast forward to March 2006, GRAW is released to spectacular sales, amazing critical acclaim (90% at Game Rankings!), and in the end, became worthy of the title of “Game of the Year”. As for me? After buying this game alongside my Xbox 360, playing it for the past 30 days, and finally starting to write this review, I honestly believe this game is somewhat overrated, though still a fantastic game overall.

GRAW's gameplay is great, though it gets off to an annoyingly slow and frustrating start. The absolute myriad of controls you need to memorize and execute can be very overwhelming, just getting used to the control system is a pain in the ass. It'll take you upwards of an hour just to get used to it, however, once you're akin to the controls, you'll be able to maneuver and control Mitchell (the games main character) with surprising ease. The controls are very fluid, and manage to make you feel like an actual soldier lugging around heavy equipment. Though the game itself is just a standard “take cover and shoot” military game, GRAW manages to take this seemingly outdated form of gameplay, slaps on the great controls and tactical elements, and makes it into one hell of a time. Sneaking around shooting bad guys is just that damn fun. Another gameplay feature is the ability to command vehicles indirectly. Unfortunately, you can't actually jump into a tank and blow the hell out of everything, though you can tell the driver to do that anyway. Commanding these vehicles is actually pretty easy. To move the vehicle forward, backward, and to hold it's position, simply point the crosshair at the vehicle until the HUD highlights it, and press up or down. To blow the **** out of everything, point at a hostile and press up on the d-pad. Controlling choppers is slightly different, though essentially the same. Instead of aiming at the vehicle to move it, you have to aim at a given spot, and press up, don't worry, the chopper will almost always go the distance you want it to go. If you want to be more precise, simply press select and use the map to tell the helicopter where to go. Another neat feature it the addition of ammo drops, which are vending machines…that carry weapons, ammo, and can somehow heal you…hmm. Anyway, they are very simple to use: walk up to one, press Y, and select the weapon of your choice. You also now have the ability to heal downed teammates. You can tell if a Ghost is in danger if an annoying beep starts. To heal him, walk up to him and press Y. Aside from a few more neat additions, it's just your basic Ghost Recon (albeit a very good Ghost Recon). The final question is…just how hard is this game? How difficult is it? The answer? It's difficult, alright. Don't be surprised if you find yourself repeatedly dying in the same area for half an hour. You constantly have to rework your strategy, the path you take, how you'll dispose of enemies, etc., you prepare to get frustrated. Even if you get better at the game, you can be sure that that the game's difficulty will be tagging along right behind you increasing skill, you'll die just as much as you in the first level, sadly. Unfortunately, there is no “easy” mode (though I doubt you'd want to show that you're a wussy by actually picking that option), though for the real hardcore Ghost Recon fans, there is the extremely hard…uh…Hard mode. This mode is reportedly so difficult (I've never actually bothered to try), most players can't get past the chopper segment in the second level, so good luck, Ghosts.

The story is pretty boring. It starts out with the introduction of a plan called “NAJSA”: the North American Joint Security Agreement, a plan in which the Canada, the United States, and Mexico hope to stop illegal immigration and the transportation of illegal drugs. However, the plan goes to hell when 50 U.S. tanks (given as a gift to Mexico) are stolen by a terrorist group. The Canadian Prime Minister is murdered and the United States President has gone missing. Along come the bad-ass futuristic soldiers who've come to bring an end to this mess. Your mission? You, Captain Scott Mitchell, and your team, have 48 hours to save the Mexican President, locate the United States President, and neutralize the terrorist leader. After you start the game, not much else happens except the standard betrayal, and other overused blah-blah-blah. It's okay, but still fairly boring and cliched.

This is easily, the first graphically impressive game on the 360. Though we now have eye-openers such as Gears of War and Motor Storm, at the time, nothing but Oblivion came close to the pure graphical level as GRAW. The visuals are just…beautiful. The shadowing is realistic, the character models look great, and the environments are beautiful…which brings me to my next point. The way Mexico City is rendered is just gorgeous. Even with the lack of any pedestrians, it manages to feel like a living breathing city. The shadowing, as I mentioned, is very realistic. When you walk into the shade, you actually see the shadows that were on the ground “crawl” onto your back, it's absolutely beautiful. Of course, the most important part of having beautiful graphics is not the polygon count, but the art style. Many “low-poly” games managed to look absolutely wondrous with the lack of polygons, thanks to an outstanding art style: games like Shadow of the Colossus, Final Fantasy X, Okami, and more recently, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. GRAW, in a sense, follows in the footsteps of these great games, by letting us know that there's more to the visuals than just a high-polygon count. The style just sets up GRAW's atmosphere perfectly. The character models glow with a luminous light, the towns are filled with beautiful shades of blue and orange (the game's most notable colors), the tanks metal shines beautifully, the game is just…that damn beautiful. Unfortunately, the game's visuals do have its problems. The biggest problem is the strong contrast in certain areas…or should I say levels? It's horrendous, and at times it hurt my eyes. The gap between dark and light contrast in this game is so large, don't be surprised if your eyes grow sore just trying to see what the hell is in front of you. Fortunately, the existence of night-vision goggles helps to alleviate this problem. Another thing I have a problem with is the character's face…the best way to describe them is that they remind me of fish. Mitchell's face is BUTT-UGLY. The detail in the faces is very last-gen, and since your back is on a wall nearly half the time, expect to see faces in all their ugly glory. You may also notice a few graphical glitches here and there. For example, sometimes, when you try to crawl up a ramp, your character will somehow “slide” up another invisible ramp, and float in this creepy manner, he looks like a crucified Jesus Christ, except he can move wherever ever the hell he wants. Another graphical annoyance is sometimes, where you try to aim more precisely, after doing so, the characters head will no longer raise itself (as if he were aiming through the scope the whole time), and the gun stays in it's raised position when running. There is a gun in the game that allows you to shoot around corners without having to expose your body to hostiles, and as you can suspect, it isn't without its graphical glitches. Sometimes, when trying to aim with that gun, your gun will won't even point towards the place your aiming, the characters head looks away as well and becomes stiff, and yet, for some reason, the bullets magically fly out of the side of the gun. A very frequent graphical glitch occurs when killed. Once you fall down your head becomes limp, like if most of it had been cut of with a sword, and it falls through the ground, making it appear as if your head had been shot off or something.

As for the HUD, it's very nice. The interface is very modern and sophisticated, and looks like something straight out of a movie. It's pretty simple to use, too. On the top left, you may notice a map. Actually, it's also used as a way to send commands to teammates, vehicles, and the ciphers. Probably the most useful feature of the map is the ability to see through the eyes of your peers. If you direct your teammates to regroup with you, move to any part of the area, or whatever, the map will instantaneously cut to a video feed of your teammates, then you'll view them running towards the area you directed them towards that area. To the right of the screen, the multi-media function of the HUD will pop up from time to time. Throughout the game, you'll be watching newscasts (for updates on the situation), receiving video briefs from your partners, and using it as (somewhat of) a walkie-talkie. However, probably the most useful feature of the multi-media function is the ability to see through the eyes of your peers. If you direct your teammates to regroup with you, move to any part of the area, or whatever, the map will instantaneously cut to a video feed of your teammates, then you'll view them running towards the area you directed them towards that area. Of course, it wouldn't be a shooter without an ammo count, and of course it's there completely intact. You may also notice that this game is presented in 16:9 letterbox format. The bars give this game a much more sophisticated look, but as always, there are a few people who won't be very fond of this, so be warned if you own a 4:3 television (like 90% of gamers, including myself).

Multi-player is a completely different story, for who knows what reason. The best way to describe the art style of the multi-player is that it looks like Ghost Recon 2.5: basically your standard Ghost Recon game with a higher polygon-count. Though the graphical style is, of course, better in some areas, as always, it's worse in others. First the good: the contrast is much better. You will rarely find yourself having to squint or turn on the night-vision goggles to have to see anything in this gameplay mode, it looks much better. Another plus, is that textures have gone through a noticeable upgrade from the main game. Though the main game's textures were nice, they definitely aren't as sharp as the textures found in multi-player. You'll definitely notice the difference as you play. The shadows are very nice as well, much softer than the ones found in the campaign (this probably explains why the contrast is a big improvement in multi-player). The water is absolutely beautiful, and are definite eye-openers. The lighting on the water is extremely realistic, the way it moves and flows is as well, you won't see any of that two-layer water crap here. The grass is very nice as well, because it looks like actual grass that flows with the wind, rather than some generic texture that's supposed to pass off as grass. One of the levels that definitely stand out from the rest visually is called “Dry Docks”, an absolutely wonderful level. The rain falls, and the splashes they make are so beautiful (I'm starting to think that I need a thesaurus…), it's orgasmic. The moon shines beautifully on the fallen water, and the storage…err…thingies glow in a momentous way…it's just absolutely gorgeous. As for the character models, they unfortunately don't look much better (the overall model may actually look worse), but the faces are much better. Now for the negatives: there's quite a few. My first complaint is that this game, as I mentioned, looks nothing like GRAW. The artstyle is fairly boring compared to what the campaign offered. The multiplayer is also not presented in 16:9 letterbox, and the camera no longer “shakes” along with your character. Unlike in the main game, in which as you begin to run, the soldier holds his gun to his stomach and just runs normally (best way I could describe it), the models in multi-player also are constantly holding their gun in a defensive stance, so they look like walking statues. Remember the beautiful water and rain effects I mentioned before? Well guess, what, it's all pre-rendered! When you walk into a pond, you'll here the splash of water, but where the hell is the actual splash? Even the huge puddles rain don't splash if you step on them. Also, the softer shadowing also means generic shadowing; walking into it will just darken your character a bit, like in every other game out there, unfortunately.

The sound of this game is very good. As your making you're making your way through town, you'll here the sound traffic from a distance, and it's done extremely well, you actually feel like you're moving through a living, breathing city. Unfortunately, as I mentioned before, there are no moving cars or pedestrians to accommodate the sound of this game. Other sounds are also fairly impressive. The gun-fire sounds great, the Mexican rebels shout offensive phrases to you in Spanish (though I wish they had more to say, they have like 5 phrases), and the when tanks shoot, you bet your ears are gonna hurt. The tanks sound very realistic, as they roam through the city, and the soundtrack is decent. Voice acting is pretty decent as well.

Unfortunately, play time and replayability are the game's two weakest points. Starting with play time: it's far too short, the campaign can easily be completed within 8 hours, leaving something to be desired. There are around 12 missions (not including "Training"), and most of them can easily be completed within 30 minutes, the more difficult missions around an hour. The replayability is a bit better, but only by a hair: expect the game to last you a minimum of two weeks. The problem with that statement however, is that I unfortunately lack a subscription to Xbox Live (though I play against bots in "Instant Action" modes, giving me a bit more credibility), and as far as I know, Xbox Live adds a great deal replay value to games with heavy online multiplayer support.

My final recommendation? If you have Xbox Live, I'd assume that this game would be a great buy, but for the 50% of you who don't? Chances are you're better off renting it. With the games low replay value, it's a risky buy, though you won't be disappointed, especially since at the time of this writing, the game is $40. If given as a gift, keep it, a great game for free is definitely worth it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 01/02/07, Updated 09/13/07

Game Release: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (US, 03/09/06)