Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter was one of the Xbox 360's
main selling points out of the starting gate and the breakthrough game
for the Ghost Recon series. Always a great series, but seriously
lacking in some ways, Advanced Warfighter started from the ground up
and, at the time, became the best in the franchise. Advanced Warfighter
is still a wonderful experience to be had, but its some-what
overwhelming difficulty and lack of long-time online players may drive
newer players away.
As I've stated before, Advanced Warfighter can at times be an extremely
difficult and frustrating game. AW pushes the envelope in realism, but
it's so realistic that it's exceptionally hard to evade incoming enemy
fire. You are usually outnumbered, with allies or not, and most enemies
are armed with either assault rifles or high-powered machine guns, so
dodging bullets relies on either luck, or how much cover you're under.
In Advanced Warfighter, you control Captain Scott Mitchell, a hardened
veteran of war and leader of a squad of "Ghosts", a special operations
team. Captain Mitchell can hide behind most types of reliable cover,
including walls, trees, sandbags; anything that looks remotely like a
square can usually be taken as cover.
To help ease down on the difficulty of the game, there is a feature in
the game called the CrossCam. The CrossCam shows you what allies you
are in control of, and what they're currently looking at. Through the
CrossCam, you can issue basic commands to your allies, like "Move" or
"Fire", and it's pretty easy to use. The CrossCam can sometimes be a
hassle to use, however, as your allies will occasionally not follow
your commands (especially when ordering Armor Strikes). However, its
positives far outweigh its small negatives, and it is a welcome
addition to the series.
As always, Captain Mitchell is usually commanding a team of allies.
These allies can range from a squad of Ghosts, to more powerful
vehicles like tanks or helicopters. These allies all have their
advantages and disadvantages, but when it comes to taking down the
enemy, these guys are extremely helpful. Seeing as how you'll be
dodging bullets for most of the game, you can order your squad of
Ghosts to help you out in a multitude of ways, and each has a different
function (like "Anti-Tank" or "Rifleman"). A useful tactic when facing
a large opposition of enemies is to order your squad of Ghosts to
direct the majority of enemy fire while you sneak around the side to
easily flank them. It's great gameplay tactics which bring out the
realism of the game.
To help you take down your enemies is a massive array of weaponry to
choose from. Captain Mitchell can carry three types of weapons: a
primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and a handful of grenades. In the
single-player campaign, you're choice of weapons in limited, but in the
multiplayer mode, you're allowed to choose from dozens of different
weapons. There are only two types of pistols and one type of grenades,
but there is a very large selection of primary weapons. These weapons
can range from assault rifles to sniper rifles, or even grenade
launchers and RPG's. This new selection of weapons helps you create
even more strategies, and really makes both the multiplayer and online
modes shine.
In essence, the plot of AW is pretty basic. It's basically a bunch of
traitorous Mexican soldiers began a rebellion while the Mexican
President, the American President, and the Canadian Prime Minister were
signing a treaty. You're tasked with recovering both the Mexican and
American presidents, and then taking out the leader of the resistance.
Most of the story is predictable, and the ending is one of the most
disappointing sequences I've ever witnessed. Because I don't want to
spoil the ending for you, all I will say is that it is exactly what you
expected it to be, no more no less. To such a difficult game with such
a great amount of realism, the ending is just...horrible. I really
expected more from it but was left disappointed.
In better news, the game looks amazing. Ubisoft did a really great job
on this game, and it clearly shows. Mexico City looks and feels just
like a real city (albeit there are no civilians in the game). They also
put a really cool bullet stream behind bullets, so you can see the
smoke trail from the bullets as it whizzes through the air. It's
extremely helpful, as it can usually tell you where enemy fire is
coming from if you don't see it directly. However, Ubisoft left this
addition out of the multiplayer and online components of the game, so
any tactical advantage you got from watching the bullets fly don't work
here.
The sound in Advanced Warfighter was just done perfectly. The realism
really shows more clearly in the sound. Every gun you use has a
different sound effect to it, which in turn helps make identifying what
gun you're enemy is using easier. When close to a blast radius, either
it being from a nearby grenade explosion or a vehicle exploding next to
you, your HUD will start to get fuzzy and shake around, while all of
the sound will be drained from you. After a few seconds of fighting
deaf, the sounds of the battlefield will slowly come back to you, and
you can resume fighting as usual. Speaking of the sounds of the
battlefield, since you are fighting Mexican rebels, they will yell to
each other battle commands in Spanish, and if you know a little
Spanish, you will know exactly what they're trying to do to kill you.
The same voices of the Mexican rebels do tend to be used frequently and
you will hear the same phrase used many times, but it's not extremely
noticeable, and you shouldn't mind it too much.
Advanced Warfighter will last you for a very long time. There is of
course the long and difficult single-player campaign, but there are
also multiplayer and online modes as well. Advanced Warfighter delivers
an outstanding multiplayer mode, in which you and up to three other
buddies can take out up to 50 computer-controlled rebels. There are
three different modes of play to choose from, but they are largely
uninteresting and the main focus was clearly put around the Elimination
mode, in which you must take out the enemy force. As I've stated
before, all of the weapons not available in the single-player campaign
are available here. With the new weapons comes new tactics, as one of
your friends can carry a grenade launcher, while another can carry a
sniper rifle, etc. There are also several different maps to choose
from, all having great advantages and disadvantages. For example, one
level is on a boat at sea, while enduring a thunder storm. There are
close fighting spots for you to take out the enemy, but with the heavy
rain coming down and the boat rocking back and force, you're bullets
may droop down and miss you're target directly, so perhaps a heavier,
yet more powerful and more accurate rifle is needed. It's great
gameplay tactics like this that makes playing AW's multiplayer a blast
to play, and it will keep you addicted and focused for some time to
come.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is clearly one of the
most tactical and realistic games out there today. However, with its
heavy sense of realism comes a heavy sense of difficulty, and you will
find yourself playing the same, long parts over and over again. Besides
its difficulty, Advanced Warfighter is a great game overall, and with
its outstanding multiplayer and online features, it's a game that will
last you for a long time, and justifies its price tag.
