Ghost Recon (XBX)
By Susie Vee

PLATFORM: XBX

PUBLISHER: Ubi Soft

DEVELOPER: Red Storm

GENRE: Squad Shooter

ESRB: Mature

SCORE:

We’ll be the first to say that the whole Tom Clancy game empire has historically been something we’ve never really gone for. Lord knows, we really tried to play Rainbow Six a few times, but after a while, all those waypoint lines just got too much to deal with. Especially when we’d miss one by inches and spent the rest of the mission dragging a virtual line around behind us. And don’t get us started on teammate AI. We’ve met brighter bulbs at a grade school janitors convention.

Ghost Recon had a good reputation on the PC, but it’s daunting learning curve kept us from giving it a whirl. But, to our amazement, the Xbox version is surprisingly accessible, as long as you have a little patience.

Much like almost every other Tom Clancy game, you lead a squad of Special-Forces-type soldiers on a variety of missions. The gameplay is a mix of combat and stealth, and the stated aim is to keep everything as realistic as possible. So that means, one bullet, you’re down.

With your six-man team, divided into two squads, you can control any character you want, and switch at any time. You’ll be thrown into a location, usually outdoors, and have to protect someone, rescue hostages, kill a bunch of enemy soldiers or something of that nature.

Gone is the tedious mission-planning screen from Rainbow Six. Instead, you can pull up the map and plot waypoint for your team at any point – usually to get them from point A to point B, then you’ll plot another waypoint for the next leg of your mission.

It’s a fairly easy to use system, but it doesn’t give you that much control over your troops. There’s no way to give them simple commands, like “go over there and shoot that specific guy.” Generally, the whole squad travels together at all times.

Your AI teammates are, especially in the beginning, basically going to carry your worthless ass. You’ll be crouched in the woods, looking for enemy soldiers and seeing nothing, when one of your AI team members will shout out “tango spotted!” Then you hear a few quick shots, then “tango down!” The whole time, you’ll have no idea what’s going on.

After a few missions, you’ll get the hang of moving slowing and spotting enemies, and that’s where the game gets fun. The AI operates on a very high level, so when you get the feeling you’re actually working with the team, and not just following along, the game becomes very immersive.

There’s a lot of tension to most missions, since one misstep can botch the whole thing. After a soldier is dead, that’s it, he’s gone for the rest of the game. Finishing missions can open up new troops for your roster, but it’s best to try to keep everyone alive, so they can build up their skills.

The controls take a little getting used to, as almost every button is used, but you’ll find it gives you s a lot of options for how you move your character. Graphics are great, with good foliage and nice animations for all the characters.

Ghost Recon is also one of the first Xbox Live games. Similar in a lot of ways to SOCOM for the PS2, Ghost Recon will hopefully attract a more mature crowd interested in the realism and deliberate pace (after all, run-n-gunners can always get Unreal Championship).

SOCOM’s two main flaws were the lo-res graphics that made online play challenging at best, and the large number of traditional shooter players in the game, owning to the lack of any other online FPS for the PS2. Ghost Recon seems to correct both of those problems.

We tried a few online games, and found that the Xbox live system works fairly well. But there’s no handholding for online newbies, and the manual barely covers the different types of games you can play online, or how to set up your character. We have high hopes for the online component, but we’ll have to give it some time to see how it develops.

While the single player game is amusing, like most military themed games, it’s got no real female characters. A nice touch, however, is the inclusion of female models for online play. Now if the US Army were really that modern, we’d be on to something.

If you like slow deliberate shooters, where you’ll spend a good deal of time crawling around the forest, the Ghost Recon is for you. If you’re looking for fast-paced action and exploding heads, then this game may try your patience.