Ghost Recon 2 review

After the excessive detachment from reality that was Halo 2, us fans of more realistic shooters are about to be satiated by Tom Clancy’s latest outing for the Ghosts, the esteemed colleagues of Ding Chavez and the Rainbow Six team. There have been a few different Ghost Recon titles on Xbox and PC (and PS2 for that matter), but this is the first true sequel to team-based shooter that was, frankly, looking and feeling very aged.

Ch-ch-changes…

The original Xbox Ghost Recon title was an almost exact conversion of the 2001 PC game. It was dumbed-down ever so slightly to help joypad users, but the changes were mainly functional for the map and equipment interface. The game remained a remarkably accurate conversion of the PC title and in many ways improved things by removing some over-complicated menus.

Last year’s release of Rainbow Six 3 on the Xbox however saw dramatic differences between the PC version and its console counterpart. Gone were all the planning stages and second team and instead what remained was a linear action game with practically no squad management. Fans of the PC version were distraught at these changes and at this stage I feel it’s only fair to let you know that Ghost Recon 2 has followed the same deviation.

Instead of controlling two squads of four, you’re now a lone team. You cannot change team members or alter the equipment your team carry into the field. There is zero planning before or even during a mission. Sometimes you’ll even be alone in the field, with no backup available.

Lastly, instead of all the missions being based around stealthy operations, some have you acting like nothing more than common infantry. The Ghost Team seems to have lost some staff and altered into a bit of a jack-of-all-trades squad. Incredibly, despite it’s almost complete departure from everything the first game was, it’s still a great sequel and deserves a place on your shelves.

Back to reality

Perhaps the biggest change for the better is in the presentation and graphics engine. GR2 features some very swish menus and the introductions to the missions are amongst the best I’ve seen on any titles. The back-story to the game is literally that: back-story.

The cut scenes are taken from a documentary called Modern Heroes and features post-war interviews with the team. Effectively they’re telling the story of how a conflict with North Korea was resolved. As they recall the events of each mission and these moments are used as mission briefings and to explain the plot. It's a great and original way of setting up each mission.

Once you’re thrown into the action, by way of a short set of tutorials, you’re hit by how lush the environments are. Trees no longer look like cardboard cutouts and the grass, which is nice and thick, sways realistically in the breeze.

There’s a lot more substance to background elements and together with the reasonable draw distances, you’re placed into very tangible locations. The environments vary from forests to fields by way of city blocks and even trenches.

You really do get the feeling that you’ve been placed into the middle of a warzone and the level of immersion is on a par with that of Pandemic’s impressive Full Spectrum Warrior. If you’ve got a 5.1 sound system, get it pumped up for additional effect. Every environment features high quality ambient sound as well as some nice meaty effects for the main weapons and explosions. Disappointingly, Ubisoft still seems to refuse to admit that widescreen TVs exist.

On the outside now

There’s a big change in the way that GR2 comes across in the fact that the default camera view is now third-person. It can be altered back to the more traditional first-person aspect, but I’ve actually found myself sticking it out in the new view.

It may lower the sense of tension when you’re crawling through bushes and tall grasses. But the game is much harder than any Tom Clancy game that’s gone before and you’ll find yourself thankful of the increased field of vision that the set-back camera provides.

Instead of trying to keep tabs on two teams, you’re now left to command up to three extra members and instead of doing this via the map, you’re given a cut-down version of Rainbow Six’s directional pad command sheet. Holding down the Y button will bring up a very basic set of commands (suppress, flank left/right and hold) whilst white and black will let your team know whether to regroup or hold fire.

This simplifies control in the environment but makes some missions a LOT harder than they would have been had you been able to co-ordinate synchronised attacks. In reducing the number of teams in Rainbow Six, you were still awarded the luxury of splitting up members and using the Zulu command, but not so in GR2.

One man army

Like the Xbox version of Rainbow Six, solo missions feature in GR2. These Lone Wolf missions use a very tasty new all-in-one automatic rifle that incorporates a grenade launcher, a laser target designator and a camera.

What use is the camera? Well if you enter camera mode, it allows you to stand behind a corner and reach round with just the gun, making sure you can use any cover to its fullest. You’ve obviously still got to watch your flanks as you’ve got no backup, but this gun adds a new element to this type of shooter.

The campaign mission isn’t all GR2 has to offer. In order to create some replay value, you can run through any completed mission in a number of ways. Quick mission lets you replay a mission complete with its campaign objectives. Recon and firefight have made the transition from the earlier games and all new is Lone Wolf, where you try to complete your choice of scenario all on your lonesome. These are nice additions and do extend the replayability, especially as the terrorist AI is reasonably good and the locations of any enemies alters slightly with each play.

With a little help from your friends

Of course a squad based shooter wouldn’t be anything without the ability to play through with others and GR2 doesn’t let down in that respect. Live play is fully supported, as is split screen play for up to four people.

As nice as it is to be able to competing against like-minded folk online, playing GR2 missions co-operatively is one of the crowning achievements of Live in my opinion.

The changes made could have easily spelt a disaster in the GR series, but they’ve been skilfully handled and form the basis of a good, solid shooter that’s entertaining and tough without being overly difficult.

There are a few tiny niggles, like the almost complete absence of any sort of physics model and the half-hearted way in which voice support was implemented. But for the most part this is a very clear that Ubisoft isn't simply resting on its laurels and instead is trying to push genres out to new levels – the changes they’ve made add up to a very competent cross-genre title that will appeal to many.