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> Results: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
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There's some kind of irony in a French company and its French development teams creating a great game about being a "Ghost" in the United States Army during a fictional future war in Mexico. Given that these games often tout their level of realism, it makes you wonder what kind of contact the people at Tiwak and UbiSoft Paris had with the US Military? Globalization is certainly evident when you've got folks from a country that was a vocal objector to the war in Iraq making games about the US fighting in other lands.
This strange juxtaposition of international politics and videogame making doesn't affect what's easily one of the finer moments in these early days of the Xbox 360. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter has quickly taken the place of Perfect Dark Zero as online shooter of choice on Microsoft's new console. The game's two developersﾗone for single player and one for multiplayerﾗhave created a military game that emphasizes realism and one-shot kills but still remains excellently playable. Your role on the battlefield gets cut short regularly by a well-placed bullet both on and offline, and this constant danger creates a unique need for finding cover and using it to your advantage.  The single-player missions take place in Mexico during a coup attempt by a US trained Mexican military man. It involves the US and Mexican Presidents, nuclear fears and a whole lot of street fighting with you at the forefront of the battle. The city is a sight to behold. Around every corner is another amazingly realistic looking city block with the sunlight providing some gorgeous lighting at various times during the day. The look of the game is clearly unattainable on prior console hardware. Only this next generation of machines could render something so believable while also being technically brilliant. Graphics don't tell the whole story though. As good as it looks, there are some problems. Notable are the various bugs in both single and multiplayer play. Your Xbox 360 may lock up while playing online forcing a hard reset of the system. In single-player, there are weird glitches where much of the geometry of the level disappears and only certain objects remain visible. Many of these aren't things you can reproduce easily or will occur at the same place each time, but they are annoying, unexpected and definitely detract from the experience. The AI isn't so hot either. Computer players often walk into the line of fire and generally don't perform like trained soldiers. They require serious babysitting by you. That's understandable given the need to make you the "star" of the game, but conflicts with the idea that this is the best the military can offer in conflict. Some of the missions are fabulously designed with great gunfights and a lot of options for tackling them. There's nothing overly ambitious, and the last couple are somewhat anti-climactic, but there's plenty of entertainment throughout. Shooting mechanics are great with lots of weaponry to try out, good control and a better cover system than in Perfect Dark Zero. The game is played from the third-person view most of the time though you can use the scope on various rifles to get more precise shots. A neat feature in the sighted view is the ability to hold your breath to steady the gun.  This game will be around a long, long time for multiplayer. In addition to many cool competitive modes and ranked matches, you can team up with some friends to tackle cooperative missions specifically designed for multiplayer. The 360's headset makes this a fantastic experience of teamwork and cooperation. It's even exciting to watch your buddies keep pressing forward if you take a bullet before them. Multiplayer's controls are slightly different from single-player given that it was done by a different developer (with a different game engine even!) But it's also the best experience the game offers overall because of the enormous group of players you can both take on and team up with daily. While the single-player game has its share of problems, it's still worth playing through. The story takes some clichéd turns, especially toward the end, but it still satisfies. Multiplayer is easily the highlight and something you want to play again and again. The maps are well-designed and the player community is huge. Sneaking around Mexico as a US soldier never looked this good before. Who would have thought we'd have the French to thank for it? 
The usual Xbox Live caveats apply here. While the game is ok violence-wise for most teens, the online language and behavior is all over the map depending who you play with or against. That said, the nature of cooperative play does tend to foster better player behavior in general and even in random team games people are better behaved because the game rewards thinking instead of running and gunning. When you're a single bullet away from waiting and watching while the match ends, you want to survive and need to concentrate on the task at hand instead of spouting expletives.
Kids with an interest in the military can get a little something out of this game. The single-player AI won't help them learn about small unit tactics, but playing online you are definitely rewarded for covering people as they move forward and having them do the same for you. The violence level is about the same as most of today's World War II shooters which means the blood is kept to a minimum and people simply crumple to the ground when shot. It's notable that the people look a lot more like people now than ever before, so that's beginning to be somewhat of a concern, but if your kids are already playing Call of Duty, Halo 2 or Medal of Honor or any of the other Clancy games for that matter, then Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter is ok for them, too. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Browse Amazon.com's selection of "ghost recon" themed games Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter |
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