Don't waste your money!

Author's Rating:

Pros: Pros: Smart enemies (at least reasonably smart compared to most PC AI's) Yes, that's it.

Cons: Cons: Slow loads Poor graphics performance Teammate's AI is mind numbingly stupid Annoying game voices

The Bottom Line: 
Don't buy this game! If someone gives it to you as a gift, regift it to someone else. Save yourself the frustration.

Author's Review
OK, I'm a big fan of most of Tom Clancy's games. I have played all of the Rainbow Six titles, ecept the new one, Lav Vegas. They were all fantastic. I have played the first two Ghost Recon games, and while they weren't as good at Rainbow Six, I still enjoyed them a lot.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is THE worst Tom Clancy game I have played! I would be really upset had I spent the $50 dollars on it myself. Fortunately, I received it as a gift. Please, don't spend your money on this game. You would be better served by cashing your $50 into pennies, welding them all together into a big stick and hitting yourself in the head with it. Yeah, it's that much fun.

Why is this game so bad? Let me break it down:

Let's start with how slow the game is. Level load times are VERY long. Long enough for me to go get a drink and come back and it's still not done. The time for the game itself to load is at least triple what it is for a level to load.

Poor graphics performance makes the game even slower. I have a reasonable system - not a super game machine - but I haven't had any problems with other graphics intense games. I turned all the graphics settings down to low, and even the screen res down to 1024x768 (I like to play at 1600x1200.) This seemed to help, but didn't completely make the game respond like other FPS games I have. The crosshairs of my weapon are sluggish and that gets you killed in a game like this. For reference, I have an AMD 3000 cpu, 2Gb of RAM, and a GeForce 6600GT.

As for game play, that's were it really gets bad. Ghost Recon games have historically had a very limited selection of weapons and equipment to choose from and this one is no different. However, the weapons are mostly unrecognizible. I suppose that is because the game is supposed to be forward-looking and the Ghosts (your team) are supposed to have the cutting edge weapons.

You've got:
a very useless sniper rifle (looks like the M82A1 Barret .50 cal)
a strange small assault rifle that smacks of the FN P90 or HK G11. Is very accurate, but the small caliber requires several hits to take an enemy down.
a light machine gun that looks like M249 SAW.
another strange assualt rifle/sub machine gun - the HK XM8, which may replace the US Army's M16 and M4.
the FN SCAR-h and SCAR-L - which I had never before heard of or seen (and I like to know about these things).
I think I left one of the main weapons out, but it was either useless or unmemorable (probably both)

This is going to turn into a book if I don't cut it short. Suffice to say, that there is NO aspect of the game that is not frustrating. The single most frustrating element of the game is your own team! They can't follow orders (frequently they will ignore what I've told them), the orders you can give are very vague and not specific enough to keep the idiots alive.

Here's an example: in one mission, me and team are all carry an anti-tank rocket. There are two tanks patrolling a courtyard nearby. I give my team orders to attack the first tank. Keep in mind there are probably other enemies in the courtyard besides the tanks. Also the tanks have machine guns on them that fire quickly at me and my team if we're spotted. Also, if you give the tank enough time, he will turn his main 120mm cannon on you. Believe me, you don't want to be staring down the wrong end of that.

So I give the order to attack, and my team ignores me. They acknowledge my command over the radio - Yes sir! - but just stand there. Come on people, it's not hard. You can see the tanks driving back and forth from the side street we're in. Just inch out there with the missile ready, wait for the tank to drive by and blow it to bits. Nope. They can't do it.

I give the command again, and one of them runs out into the open in the courtyard and keeps complaining about taking enemy fire! No kidding! Who'd have thunk it! Tanks that shoot back! So he hides from one tank, leaving his back open to the other tank who mows him down.

I give the command again, and my two remaining teammates rush out into the courtyard and still can't manage to line up a single shot on one tank. They also can't seem to even take cover, and get mowed down. So I take two steps out into the side street, kneel down with my missile, and wait for the tank to drive by. It does, and I blow it up. How hard was that?

Of course, now that my missile has been expended, I don't have ANYTHING that can harm that other tank. I don't have any more teammates, so I'm screwed.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is full of situations like the above. There is no room for improvisation, like running up to the tank, climbing on and stuffing a grenade down it's hatch. There's no resupply, so you can't get more missiles. You're just screwed. You have to restart the level and hope that SOMEDAY your team will magically (probably accidently) destroy the tanks before they die.

Most of the time, your teammates only usefull purpose is to draw the enemy's fire, so that you can take them out. On the good side, when your teammates dies, you can take ONE main weapon magazine from their corpse. Why you can't take all of their ammo is baffling. Why you can't take their missile is even more frustrating.

I also have to mention the enemy's AI. They're a little smarter than your average video game enemy, which is cool. The frustrating part is that they all seem to have Superman's sense of sight. They can spot just your toe from a mile away. Yet, you can run full tilt (not very quiet) up near them and they won't notice or become alert if they can't see you. God help you once they can see you. They're not all crack shots, but they more than make up for poor aim with the ammount of fire they put on you, and the speed with which they lay it down.

Did I mention that the silenced weapons are NOT silent - not even close! I know that real world weapons with silencers are not truly silent. They should be called sound suppressors because they only make the gun quieter. However, they make the gun A LOT quieter. Not in this game. Fire a silenced weapon and every enemy within a 100 yards becomes alert and looks in your direction. If they can see you, they fire on you. Very frustrating.

The enemy can see you real well, but you can't see them. They will be firing at you, and finding them so you can shoot back is difficult at best. If it weren't for the incoming fire indicator, it would be impossible.

The game's graphics are all done in this strange sepia tone that washes out the highlights and colors everything vaguely yellow/brown. This is real annoying. Do the game manufacturer's think that the light from the sun is different in Mexico City than in the rest of the world? Beats me. It detracts from the game experience.

I could go on (and on and on and on) but I won't. I think this gives you enough to know why you shouldn't buy this game. In fact, I will be hard press to lay down my cash for another Tom Clancy game. They've lost my trust.