Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Review PS3

Ah Ghost Recon, the series with the longest name I have seen in a while. I have played most of the Ghost Recon games since Island Thunder on the PC, and it is my preferred series from Tom Clancy. The game centers around political unrest in Mexico in the year 2014 following the events of the original GRAW. This new iteration introduces an improved cross-com and improved AI (The AI in the first GRAW was notoriously ineffective).  The game spans numerous locations such as canyons, cityscapes, small towns, deserts, etc.

Graphic and sound:

The graphics in GRAW 2 are not much different than the first installment. They look good, but the characters seem stiff and unrealistic at times compared to other tactical games such as Call of Duty. The Ghost Recon series never had highly detailed characters and GRAW 2 is no exception. The buildings and objects look realistic, but the characters up close look lifeless. Levels which incorporate large bodies of water also look unrealistic and behave unnatural when there is interaction from the player. Luckily, the gameplay makes up for the lack of graphical detail in the game. The sound effects for the weapons are spot on and the voices are clear. I wish they would get rid of the talking heads in the briefing though as it bores most players.

Gameplay and controls:

The game is a tactical shooter like its predecessors and involves strategically placing fellow soldiers in optimum positions to annihilate the enemy soldiers using commands and viewing the battlefield through a remote controlled drone to survey possible ambush spots and where the enemy is located. There is a single player campaign and numerous multiplayer modes. The single player mode is a fairly good length, but extremely easy even on hard mode. I think they need to fine tune the difficulty in the next installment to at least remove the drone and have the AI alert others to your presence. Multiplayer consists of 3 game modes and 7 game types. The 3 game modes are solo (every man for himself), team (teams of players against each other), and co-op (players working together against the AI). The 7 game types are territory, objective, elimination, campaign, exfiltration, team battle, and team mission. Territory is about dominating and capturing enemy positions. Objective is about achieving goals such as destroying an ammo dump. Elimination is about killing everyone on the opposing side. Campaign is a co-op only mode that allows players to compete against the AI in a story driven mission. Exfiltration is a co-op only mode that has players escorting AI officers to an extraction point. Team battle is similar to territory, but with AI support. Team mission is about achieving goals as the team advances across the map. All the game types can be customized to user needs. Also, there is an option to create clans in GRAW 2 and create public or private matches.

Overall thoughts:

Overall, GRAW 2 is a vast improvement in AI over the first one. This time around, your teammates will rarely get stuck in an area that you have sent them to using the cross-com or the map. The multiplayer modes are loads of fun especially if you get a group of friends together or a clan match going. My only complaint is that the single player mode was extremely easy even on the hardest settings, but honestly, I play GRAW 2 for the multiplayer, not the single player campaign. Here’s looking forward to the next GRAW in fiscal year 2009-2010.