The original Ghost Recon for the 360 was one of the games to break the 2006 winter drought for the console. For many people the original game was the reason to upgrade to a new Xbox 360. Sales for the game were very impressive so the release of GRAW 2 was expected; however the big question was how could Ubisoft make this a game worth buying for full price and not just an add-on pack.
In the new game, you still play the role of Scott Mitchell (the hero of the first game). The story line is rather quaint: Mexico is in a Civil War and you need to stop it from coming over the border to the USA. Pretty simple, huh?
When you first start the game, I highly recommend the tutorial. Even if you played the original, a refresher course is always important, not to mention the 5 achievements worth 45 points.
Graphically, the game looks great; landscapes and vehicles are well detailed, special attention was paid to lighting and weather as well. If there’s any sort of drawback, it’s probably that the graphics haven’t been significantly upgraded from the original game. Of course, those graphics were superb, but those expecting more may be disappointed as Ubisoft set the bar so high with the last game.
The game’s basic controls are the same as last year, but there are some additions – the biggest control difference is the ability to see your teammate’s positions through their helmet camera. This makes it much easier to send move commands – before, if you were going to send your teammates further away from you, and you wanted to go from cover to cover, it was very difficult to order them to a far away location – the control scheme didn’t work well. With this new control system, it is much easier to give a subsequent move order to your teammates.
Actual gameplay is similar to the original. The single player campaign is fun and challenging at times but limited in depth – approximately 10 hours or so of gameplay – and I wouldn’t call myself an awesome player. If you’re new to the series, you should know this isn’t a typical first person run and gun shooting game. You’ll have to plan out strategy and direct a team to help you out. It’s not that difficult to do, and I much prefer this type of game to say, Brothers In Arms, which seemed to me to be a bit more strategy heavy. There’s still plenty of action here, you just have to figure out ahead of time what to do – including taking cover and being patient.
Luckily your enjoyment of the game won’t end on the single player campaign. There is quite a bit of depth and replay value here. First, there’s multiplayer on Xbox Live, which supports up to 16 players. Gameplay was fluid with little lag and interestingly enough I found the quality of players while online much better than in other games – people seem to want to act as a team here and it was a refreshing change – either that or I just was lucky with my online experience. Online players can team up and form clans – you can manage your own clan, invite new members to the clan and then have clan battles. This is a great new feature and should be implemented in all games!
Online isn’t the only form of multiplayer – there’s also system link support and same console multiplayer – including co-op. Co-Op is always a blast when you’re attempting to achieve the same goal and there are plenty of co-op missions available. One of my favorite modes is the helicopter hunting mode—although it can be difficult, there is great feeling of achievement when taking a helicopter out of the sky with a subsequent explosion. You can either play a campaign or a specific ‘custom’ mode. You can also play a competitive split screen game if you’re so inclined. Gamerscore fans will also be pleased to know there are 43 achievements available – but more than half of which (22) are for multiplayer modes. It definitely pays to go online with this game.
