Ghost Recon 2 (XBox)

Having been an ardent fan of the original Ghost Recon, I was stoked to hear of a sequel coming out, but was wary of the advertised changes being made. Upon its release, I eagerly checked the reviews for this game on ign.com - they usually do a pretty good job. And while the PS2 version was butchered in its review, the XBox version won some pretty high praise - enough for me to go check it out with my newfound Christmas money.

First off, as was rumored, Ubisoft has made some sweeping changes to the game. And I can't say they're necessarily for the better. The default view is a third-person, over-the-shoulder view, instead of the traditional first-person view. The rationale for this is that it gives you a better sense of cover, as hiding behind objects like trees and rocks while the insanely tough AI, with its x-ray vision, blasts away at you. Also, the new Army rifle system, which is to feature a gun camera allowing you to shoot around corners, supposedly benefits from this view. I personally found the first-person to not only be more realistic, but in the case of the advanced XM-8 rifle, this time you actually have a viewfinder to look at as you aim your weapon around the corner. In the third-person, the view doesn't change in the least. Quite frankly, I don't see why they decided they needed a third-person feature just for that gun, as you only use it on a handful of missions and since when you aim around corners you don't get any special viewscreens in that view, why couldn't you aim around corners and blindly fire with any other gun in the game? I really think the third-person was added to show off the outstanding graphics of the game; it's pretty cool to watch your character switch weapons or tools while prone, rolling from side to side to free up whatever gear he needs.

Also flawed is the concept of the "Lone Wolf" missions. Occasionally, you will set off on your own, to highlight the Soldier of the Future weaponry and gear. Really, the only difference is you get the newfangled gun that you can aim around corners - that's it. But you now have the benefit of fighting the all-knowing AI North Korean soldiers on your own, without the assistance of any squadmates who usually are helpful in seeing bad guys just about the same time as the bad guys start shooting at you. Without them, you just get popped. There's also a realism factor to it - the character you play, a Captain (0-3), is the team lead. He's also the guy who gets sent out on his own...generally speaking, if you're going to do dumb shit like that you don't send out your officers who are privy to more information than your noncoms, privates and specialists; the most likely candidate would be a Sergeant (E-5) or Staff Sergeant (E-6). While it may seem that I'm nit-picking here, for a game that has the Tom Clancy name on the box, these are supposed to be the most realistic games possible.

Also unreal is the toughness of the enemy AI. Not only do they know where you are at all times, no matter the lack of visibility; they're also the toughest fuckers to kill. I can't tell you how many times I put 6-7 .45 rounds from my M1911 sidearm into these guys before they finally died; if these were genetically-engineered supersoldiers I might understand that, but come on, this is the North Korean army. Generally speaking Asian men aren't blessed with tremendous physical bulk, and pretty much anybody is going to be done after 3 or 4 .45 rounds go through them. Same goes for all other rifles or machine guns, you'll hose one person down for what seems like an eternity before they fall. And as previously mentioned, they always seem to know where you are - sneaking through the woods, at night, slowly, they will still see you (and start shooting) before you see them - and you have NVGs, while they don't.

The storyline itself for the single-player game is lacking. Instead of using traditional cinematics and a baseline briefing for backstory, Ubisoft instead chose to have a history-channel-esque documentary, to detail small elements of the story at a time. I felt the interface there was cheesy. Characters routinely say some stupid things - for instance, after the final mission, in which you must shoot down a helicopter carrying the rogue North Korean general, who is about to trigger the country's nuclear weaepons, one of your squadmates says "I can't speak for the others, but I, for one, was glad to see the Captain take that chopper down." Yeah, I can't speak for the others, but I, for one, was happy to see global nuclear apocalypse avoided - what a stupid fucking line! So the story leaves you shaking your head at the stupidity of it all, but still wondering why in the hell you're at war deep in North Korea to begin with. Also, one other element - once you're in-game, you'll routinely receive orders from HQ over the radio, directing you further along. Everytime they call, it's the same guy - "Ghosts, it's Command: We need you to do _x_...". Considering it's the same voice, saying the same shit, 4-5 times per mission...it gets very annoying, fast. I mean, who else would be calling me to give me instructions mid-mission? Ghosts, it's command...no shit?!?!? A little variation in voices and script here would have gone a very long way.

It takes forever to switch weapons. Even if you have a combination weapon, such as the M-4/M-203 combo, it still takes 5-10 seconds to switch over to your grenade launcher, and then another 5-10 seconds to use your rifle again. And they're both right there - it's not like another gun is hanging behind your back! So basically, if you ever have to switch weapons in a firefight, you're dead - somebody will pop you before you can complete the switch. And combined with the North Korean bulletproof super-soldiers, you run out of ammo all the time during the game - it's common to have to steal NK weaponry off their dead. But when you have to kill 3 tanks, and they only give you one satchel charge to do it, and send attack helicopters after you, which you have to shoot down before they get you...how in the fuck are you supposed to complete the mission without the "reload ammunition" cheat?

Finally - a neat touch they included were serveral last-stand, hold-the-line missions - where you have to hold a defensive position despite a determined assault. Cool idea, and occaisionally you even get tripod-mounted machine guns to help you. However, the North Koreans send massive artillery barrages after you - if you hunker down in your foxhole to avoid the shrapnel from the mortar and artillery rounds, then NK soldiers, who apparently are artillery-proof, run right through your lines, making you lose the mission since you didn't hold the line; and if you stay on the guns, you and your team get wiped out by the artillery barrage, and still lose. Meanwhile enemy soldiers and armored vehicles roll right through the barrage, like it's raindrops harmlessly deflecting off of them. WTF?!?!?!?

Oh, one last thing - in Ghost Recon 1, you had two squads of three soldiers apiece, whom you could outfit at will pre-mission, and then could hop from person-to-person mid-game. In this game, you have 3, maybe 4 other soldiers with you. You can't outfit them at all pre-mission - just yourself - so there's no way to know if you've already got a machine gunner or demolitions specialist in your team...that was one of the things that made the original so great, but in this one it's apparently taken for granted. So you end up with 3 people carrying antitank rockets and M-16s, instead of a rifleman, and a gunner, and a demolitions guy. Also, you only control one guy - no ability to go from person-to-person. And, again different from the original, you have a very limited set of orders to give to your soldiers - Advance, Form up on me, Flank left, Flank right, Weapons free, and Hold your fire. That's IT. No this team go over here, while this one flanks from the other direction, no making map waypoints like you did in the first one, and no firing options beyond go for it and don't fucking shoot.

Oh - and the game has two difficulty levels - "Normal", and "Hard". I had to cheat to beat the game, even beat the first level, in normal. And all the comments I made about fighting immortal supersoldiers who always know where you are were based off of "normal". Not sure if I have the restraint or patience to attempt the game on "hard".

This game does have merits - the graphics are beautiful, the water and motion effects are perfect, vehicle models are pretty good, sound's alright, etc. Also, I hear this game is a blast on XBox Live, although I haven't tried that yet (but it came with a 2-month free trial card).

However, it's so different and inferior to the original, I don't think it deserves to have the Ghost Recon name attached to it...