Introduction

Lately we’ve been coming across a lot of titles that you just know are going to be great even before you’ve actually tried the game out. When the words Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter drip from Ubisoft’s mouth it was difficult to not even be the least bit excited. Although many would have embraced the idea of having this one as a launch title, it seems as if Ubi used the extra development time to produce what is arguably the best entry in the Ghost Recon series ever.

What’s Going Down in Mexico City?

A summit between leaders of the US, Canada, and Mexico is being held in Mexico City, and naturally terrorists saw this as a grand opportunity to wreak some havoc. When the Mexican rebels attack, the Canadian Prime Minister is killed while the US and Mexican presidents go missing. Now, it's up to the team of Ghosts led by you, Scott Mitchell, to locate the two VIPs before any harm can be done. As you might’ve guessed, you need to battle your way around Mexico City against rebels who know a thing or two about tactics to say the least. Throughout the entire campaign, you have to find the perfect balance between stealth and brute force in order to outgun and outmaneuver your foes.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Visuals

Looking at the screenshots or watching a few of the gameplay videos is more than enough proof for you to see why GR:AW is possibly the best looking game to hit the 360. Straight off the bat the high level of character detail is clear; every last pouch and frag grenade on a Ghost’s camouflage outfit bobbles around when you walk, and the characters have a lot of facial expressions and smoother movements compared to previous iterations. During the sporadic helicopter fly-by scenes in-between levels you fly over one of many locations throughout Mexico City, every last building has been carefully crafted to create a truly authentic look. Although it doesn’t seem like much, you can really appreciate the level of detail when you’re flying thousands of feet above a city expanding as far as they eye can see. While everything looks small from so high up, as the helicopter slowly heads toward the ground you can see the world around you to come to life, and it’s just awesome to see the walls rise up around you instead of being placed into some random location after viewing a cut scene.

To go hand in hand, the audio effects are top notch for the most part as well. When you’re under heavy fire, it’s amazing to hear all of the bullets ricocheting off walls and piercing your enemies while random explosions are popping up all over the place. After walking in a seemingly empty street, don’t be surprised if an incoming hail of bullets is followed by screaming Ghosts frantically shouting orders and crying for help. The sound effects are spot on, making it loads of fun to fire a machine gun for no combative reason whatsoever. In addition, you can expect to hear epic instrumental pieces along the way, and oddly enough some rock tunes that feel as if they’re straight out of Vietnam also make an appearance as well. Although in the chaos of battle it’s hard to hear what your commanders and teammates are trying to say, playing GR: AW on the right setup is nothing short of cinematic brilliance.

We Are the Ghosts

One of my all-time gripes with tactical shooters is that learning the controls can be a real hassle to the point where it’ll ruin your gameplay experience for the whole campaign. Luckily, we’re greeted here with a fairly substantial tutorial level that introduces all of the innovative gameplay enhancements in Advanced Warfighter. First, learning how to use any obstacle as cover is a must because you never have any idea when you might be under attack. By simply walking up to a large enough object your character will turn his back to it, allowing him to peek over the edge without being fully susceptible to incoming fire. At this point, you can either choose to fire while remaining undercover which will lower your accuracy but increase your survival rate or you can bust out the scope and leave yourself open to heavy fire. In addition, Mitchell can crouch or lay down for cover and increased precision, and if you try to go prone while running he will even dive straight for the ground.

Weapons that have a scope can go into zoom mode by pressing down on the left analog stick. Clicking the stick further will increase the zoom until it eventually cycles back out to the normal view. Holding down the left trigger will have Mitchell hold his breath, which will reduce reticule movement significantly and therefore making it easy to pull off headshots from a few hundred meters away. He can hold his breath for a long time so it’s not too hard to pull off a few quick kills if your foes are in a close area, but once they disperse you will need to zoom out due to the otherwise limited movement. Gunners with out scopes shouldn’t worry either because they have can also focus in on enemies, which allows them to sacrifice precision for mobility.

Managing your arsenal is also vital to mission success. Most main weapons have both primary and secondary functions which can easily be switched by the press of a button. Whether you want to add a silencer or a rocket launcher attachment is up to you, but you’ll usually find a scenario to use every gadget in. Occasionaly some type of support ATV will pop up during a mission that allows you to choose new weapons accessory kits along with different teammates too. Depending on the current situation, close range and long range combats can be selected along with various add-ons like smoke and frag grenades. You can switch to grenades at any time by pressing ‘B’ and in doing so the crosshair turns into a meter that fills up depending on how long you hold down the fire trigger. It takes a while to properly learn how to judge distances, but once you get a basic understanding it can make for a good ambush attack.

The HUD is either good or bad depending on how you look at it. People who don’t mind a little on-screen clutter will love the small window that shows your teammates and their combat status along with health indicators all along the left column. Whenever another officer has orders for you a different window will pop up in the upper right corner which will display the person talking. As always, your ammo status, crosshair, and arrow indicators pointing to off screen teammates are present. While the HUD certainly has a futuristic look, it does feel just a little bit overcrowded at times. Considering the effect the HUD-less setup had on King Kong, it would’ve been cool to see other games try to implement a more lifelike setup. The first person view also leaves a lot to be desired mostly because you can’t see the weapon in your hands. Lastly, having enemies light up by a bright red halo can also take away from the surprise element, but on the other hand it would be near impossible to spot them otherwise. It’s difficult to satisfy everybody’s needs in this respect, and although I personally would’ve liked a little less clutter this doesn’t have much of an impact on how enjoyable the game is.

Taking place in Mexico City, you can expect the battles to escalate extremely quickly in this urban setting. GR: AW does an absolutely amazing job at immersing the gaming into the experience for a number of reasons. First of all, even on the easiest difficulty setting a few quick bursts could mean the difference between life and death, which will naturally force gamers to be a little more careful when wandering the streets. When you know the game could be over at any second one should naturally be a little more cautious. To add on, there are plenty of leadership commands that also make this feel like more than just a game. Whether you’re ordering your troops to hold fire in recon mode or if you want an ATV to blast through an enemy roadblock, using the futuristic 3D wire frame map to boss people around is great. For the most part, though, this game is awesome anytime battle breaks out. Once the first shots are fired, it’s easy to be overwhelmed with an adrenaline rush. The initial panic will have you sprinting around for cover while your teammates struggle to follow even the simplest commands. Once one of them gets gunned down in the middle of battlefield, you can attempt to quickly rush out and heal them yourself before they perish, but in doing so you risk your own death from which you can’t be revived from. There’s never a dull moment throughout the entire campaign, which is something most games simply can’t brag about.

Let’s Take it Online

Not only does the single player campaign make GR: AW worth every penny, but the in-depth online modes are also loads of fun. As expected, typical deathmatch and capture the flag modes are included over a range of 10 distinctly different maps that support a variety of gameplay types. As a result, gamers who like close ranged combat will be able to enjoy a firefight on the same battlefield as the long ranged shooters. This certainly leads for hours upon hours of online gaming, but Ubi decided to go ahead and even include cooperative modes both online and locally. With support for up to 16 players, there are four specially designed cooperative missions that can be played with friends instead of the mediocre computer AI. As if this wasn’t enough incentive for gamers to play online, one of the achievements challenges people to play multiplayer for 8 eight hours straight, which is just one more reason for you to get your game on.

Conclusion

If you own an Xbox 360 and have even the slightest interest in tactical shooters, then there’s absolutely no excuse for you to not go and get this game right away. Although the computer AI does have its weak points from time to time and the semi-cluttered HUD might be a turn off for some, the sheer awesomeness of the actual combat is simply undeniable. Once you manage to get past the somewhat steep learning curve, the rest of the game is filled with intense action presented at a near cinematic quality.

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