Another great game from Tom Clancy

Author's Rating:

Pros: Graphics, sound, gameplay, realistic, xbox live.

Cons: controls can be a bit weird, sometimes it's difficult.

The Bottom Line: 
Great game, and only $20! Play it alone, play it with buddies, just PLAY IT!

Author's Review
I like Ghost Recon. I think that it's another wonderful Tom Clancy game, which is no surprise considering the other games that Clancy has made recently. Ghost Recon is comparable to other Clancy games in every way. It's a lot like Rainbow 6, but it's different enough to keep things interesting. Ghost Recon is squad-based first person shooter.

****CONTROLS****
By squad-based, I mean that you have a squad, and you control what they do. However, controlling them can be a bit difficult. Controlling your squad often involves pressing more than one button at a time, and not that I'm not capable of doing that, but sometimes it gets a little confusing. As in every Clancy game, the controls are incredibly intricate. Every button performs at least one action, some buttons perform two! When you're not sending your squad somewhere, controls are simple and assuming, and luckily there's a great training session that you can take that will go through the steps of sending your squad to different areas. It's pretty in depth, and if you do what it tells you, you'll have it figured out in no time. You can squat, lay down or stand up. You can switch weapons and switch between men in your squad. You have night vision, zooms on all your rifles, and you can usually change the mode of your rifle from single shot to burst mode. This is a lot of stuff to control! Also, during online play, the controls get REAL hairy because you have to hold down the white button to talk to your team mates. This is not so much of a problem when you're sitting in a corner waiting for an ambush, but when you're in active firefight, sparing a finger to reach WAY up to the white button to call for help is a little bit of a pain. This is easily overlooked, however, because of everything else in the game.

****XBOX LIVE****
Speaking of online play, it's amazing in this game. There's a number of different ways to play, including co-op mission and firefight, or you can play against another online team in a game like last man standing or capture-the-flag type games. This makes the game's re-play-ability (if that's a word) huge. Talking to your troops makes you feel so...cool, for lack of a better word, like you're really right there in the middle of the action. The online experience is very neat, and the only thing that I wish was different was maybe a different button to push to talk or no button at all. Typically in Live play you don't have a squad to control, which is fine with me. It's almost as if you still have a squad, but they control themselves because of all the other online players. The game would get pretty crowded if everyone playing had their own squad.

****CAMPAIGN****
For a game with such an expansive XBL lineup, the campaign mode is excellent also, in single player or co-op mode. That's right, you can play co-op in the comfort of your own living room, no live account required. The split screen makes things interesting, because you can split up your team or back each other up. If you don't have any buddies to play with, single player mode is just as immersive and delicate. You can be anyone, anywhere, with any weapons. You and your crew out to save the world...isn't that the basic plot in most Clancy games?

****PLOT****
Speaking of plot, this game has the perfect amount of it. In games like this, I find that an actual "plot" is a nuisance, but individual plots for each individual mission is a must, and in this game they're pretty good. Most of the time the missions involve stuff like rescuing random people, blowing up bridges, escorting troops, etc. There is a great variety and the missions won't repeat themselves or get boring. You and your squad are some sort of military based specialty team (once again, doesn't that sound like every Clancy game?) designated for specific actions in battles, usually in other countries, but specifically in Russia. I will tell you that this game is VERY realistic. Unlike in other games, you can't get shot 15 times and still live. Usually in this game, one shot and you're dead, sometimes it may take two or three depending on where you're being shot at. It doesn't take much though, just like in real life. And there's no medpacks, healing abilities or health available - just like real war.

****MAPS****
The maps are great, too. Most of them are in an outdoors environment, making for lots of things to hide behind, in, and around. You really have to scope out your surroundings, because the bad guy is wearing camouflage just like you are which makes them hard to see. Of course, luckily for you, you have things like night vision to assist you, plus most of your weapons have an extensive zoom on them. That makes for some great head shots. Sometimes the maps are so big that it's easy for the enemy to hide and pick your team off one by one. I advise save your game often, and keep your eyes on your radar at the bottom. It will show you where the bad guys are. The maps that you play in campaign mode are the same maps that you will have choices from during online play. The maps are the same, but often the enemies are in different places, plus you can choose from different types of games. Mission mode gives you an actual mission that you must complete, and Firefight mode just means that you have to kill all the enemies within a given area. You have several other options like whether or not to be timed, and how many times you can respawn on XBL, which is another great thing about re-play-ability.

****GRAPHICS****
The graphics in this game aren't surpassed by any other that I have played. Trees are detailed, even from far away. Shadows and lights in different areas move with the wind in the trees, and enemies and other squad-members alike have different faces and temperaments. Graphics are just as good as they are in any other Clancy game, which is always pretty darn good. Very few hang ups or glitches at all.

****SOUND****
The sound is one of my favorite things about this game. If you have a good sound system, crank it up on this game. Because there's no music to cloud your ears, you can hear every detail of the forest/swamp/jungle/building/city that you are in. You can hear the enemy, and the direction that their sound is coming from. You can hear birds chirping in the trees, and you can hear the sound of your boots crunching snow or gravel. Your team members will talk to you from time to time, and the voice acting is simple, but good. They'll let you know when they see an enemy, or when they've killed one, or when one of your squad is wounded or down. They also relay information to you such as their location and when they arrive at wherever you tell them to go. The best part is the sound that you gun makes when you fire it.

****WEAPONS****
Speaking of your gun, you have SO many weapon choices in this game. You thought you had weapon choices in Rainbow? Well, check out these guns. You get to pick out what kind of weapons you want, and you get to pick out what kind of weapons each member of your team gets. This is mainly because you can swap between members, you can be anyone in your squad that you wish to be. Want to snipe a few? Be the sniper. Want to blow some stuff up? Be the demolitionist. Want to shoot random bursts of ammo in every direction? Support is the man for you. The expansive choices of people and weapons to choose from are just another thing that makes this game so much fun.

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Overall, I would say that this game is well worth the $50 I paid for it, so it is DEFINATELY worth the $20 that it costs these days. Go pick up this game if you're into this sort of thing, because it's great for a lot of different game plays. I will also recommend the other Ghost Recon games, but I don't own them yet. I'll review them when I get them to let you know!