Title: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
System: Xbox360, PC, PS3, PSP
Players: 1
ESRB: T
Summary:
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 builds off of the events in the first game and places gamers in control of the U.S. military’s elite fighting unit, the Ghosts. In the year 2014, the rising conflict between Mexican loyalists and insurgent rebel forces has thrown Mexico into full-scale civil war. Under the command of Captain Scott Mitchell, the Ghosts are called upon to face an imminent threat to the United States. The fate of two countries now lies in the hands of the Ghosts as they fend off an attack on U.S. soil. Equipped with the most cutting-edge weaponry and technology, the Ghosts must battle on both sides of the border to neutralize the escalating rebel threat.
Review:
Last year, with the first GRAW, the game play was awesome but had its flaws. This years game builds upon that, and is more highly polished. After looking at screencaps and game movies, you have to ask yourself, what is stopping you from buying it? Really!
The game starts off slow, you go through the tutorial, with the Gears of War style camera, over the shoulder. The gameplay is fasted paced when it gets going. The first part of the tutorial get you used to the controls, game mechanics and leading your team. My one big complaint about GRAW 2 was that it is easy. I usually start all games on easy, just to get the hang of it before moving to higher difficulties, but this one, Easy is more like cakewalk. The AI is stupid, they hid out in the open or in windows, their aim is horrible and you could be standing right in front of them and not get hit. So I restarted and put it on the insane difficulty, that has to be more challenging right? Nope. It was still easy. The AI is a little smarter, but there are still things to be said about their choice of hiding places, their aim is better, but still not great.
The achievements in the game are easy to get. Play the game on insane and get the achievements for easy and medium. Then with the quick mission, allowing you to replay levels, you can get achievements… almost handed to you. On easy, with the first mission, your teammate, select the marksman, and go through the whole level, you are up front, finding baddies, have the marksman snipe them. At the end, if done right, you get 3 achievements. Ironman for not getting shot, Team ‘ELITE’ for them getting 50%+ kills and not getting wounded and Predator for starting all the battles. I do wish that Ubisoft would work on the game and make it more challenging. Perhaps in GRAW 3?
While don’t get me wrong, GRAW2 is a nice game, not the graphical marvel that was the first one, but still many small steps and tweaks. Such as the cross-cam, allowing you to see through the eyes of your teammates and or support vehicles, and being able to switch sides for southpaw support. As usual with all Ghost Recon titles, there are the different difficulty levels and shouldn’t take more than 12 hours to complete, if you are one to frequent Xbox Live, then you would want to play it on hard, otherwise it would be to easy, on an already too easy of a game.
For those of you with a gold account, playing online is where most of the meat of the game is. The single player campaign is short and easy, but the online co-op will give you a run for the money, although I can’t really speak because I don’t have a gold account, I am repeating what I have heard others talk about the game.
In closing, the ease of the game is a little disappointing, but there is plenty to do in the game and plenty of replay value, as with most shooters. I wouldn’t say this is a perfect game, but a great one nonetheless. 8/10
