It seems Tom Clancy has done about as well with video games as he has with his books. With hits like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and The Hunt for Red October...wait a minute...scratch that. The Hunt for Red October was a pretty heinous game on the NES. Anyway, with the power of modern consoles, Tom Clancy's world of Ghost Recon has really been getting a good run. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm for the PS2 continues that run.
Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm further follows the exploits of the Ghosts, an elite military unit trained in counter-terrorism, as they make the world safe for democracy. The game is actually kind of a two-for-one. Jungle Storm includes the missions of Ghost Recon: Thunder Island as well as the Jungle Storm missions. Thunder Island's missions take place in a post-Castro Cuba while Jungle Storm takes place in Columbia. Can you guess who you're fighting in Columbia? Anyone?...Anyone?...Yes! Drug cartels (a.k.a. narco terrorists). Columbia really does have a PR problem. Bet they wish they could go back to being best known for coffee.
The player controls two fire teams of the Ghosts, each with three men. Anyone who has played the previous Ghost Recon games will pretty much be right at home. If you've been playing a bunch of run-and-gun first person shooters, you're not going to last long. The game nicely balances the need for patient, stealthy approaches with short, sharp fire fights. Keeping out of sight most of the time is the real trick to victory. Luckily a player can instruct his soldiers to crouch or even lie prone to better hide themselves. There is a speed trade off when in a crouch or prone position, but speed is seldom what wins the day. Careful planning, deliberate execution and on-the-spot adaptability go a lot further in winning a Ghost Recon mission.
In controlling the two fire teams, the player will personally lead one three-man team while issuing orders to the other. Movement orders for the second team are given with waypoints while combat orders take the form of general instructions to assault, recon, hold or lay down suppressing fire. At any time the player may also take personal command of any one of the soldiers in his team. Missions in GR: Jungle Storm include assaults on objectives, defense of locations, hostage rescues, demolition of equipment - you get the picture. All really are rather fun and offer enough variety not to get old too soon. It seems that you could have always done better on any given mission, so replayability is a definite possibility.
Weapons include a nice array of actual U.S. military hardware from the venerable M-16 rifle to rocket launchers for taking out those pesky armored vehicles. Each has a pretty good firing effect and fairly faithfully reproduces the specs of its real-life counterpart. (I was a little disappointed in the M-203 rifle-mounted grenade launcher. While in the Army it was my favorite weapon to fire, and this game not do justice to the skills it took to use it well.) Add to the weapons a neat toy like night vision and you've got some butt-kickin' folks to command. Soldiers in your team can be individually fitted out with a weapons load to give your striking team just the right blend of firepower for the mission.
Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm for the PS2 represents a nice step forward on the platform. PS2ers who have been jealous of the online play offered by the Xbox will rejoice to find they now have online capabilities - if they have a broadband connection. It maxes out at half of the Xbox's 16 players, but it is online play. The play modes are nicely varied and include cooperative, multiple deathmatch variations, capture-the-flag, site control and tag. They're not always called by those names, but we'll use the more generic terms here.
Another nice, new feature is the ability to give voice commands to members of your team with the PS2's USB headset. And to top that feature off, the voice recognition actually works pretty darned nicely. Soldiers do what you tell them to.
Graphics aren't going to win any awards. The terrain is pretty plain and the character models only so-so. Sound is also nothing to write home about, but does an adequate job. Controls behave very well. All those Dual Shock buttons come in really handy. In short order most players will be professionally handling weapons and giving orders to their team members.
While Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm for the PS2 may not quite live up to the standards set for the franchise by the Xbox offerings, it is a good game that fans are really going to enjoy - especially those who give it a spin in its online, multiplayer modes. Some may find it a little sub-par in presentation, but it still is a very entertaining outing for the Ghosts.
