Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

Moby ID: 9768
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The Ghosts are an elite team of U.S. Army Green Berets, sent to Cuba as part of a UN peacekeeping force to destroy the rebel forces and their mercenary leaders and secure the elections for a free Cuba.

Ghost Recon: Island Thunder includes a complete single and multiplayer challenge, featuring Xbox Live multiplayer support and future downloadable content.

Spellings

  • Š—Š¾Š»Š¾Ń‚Š°Ń ŠŗŠ¾Š»Š»ŠµŠŗцŠøя хŠøтŠ¾Š² Š¢Š¾Š¼Š° ŠšŠ»ŃŠ½ŃŠø. Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder - Russian spelling
  • å¹½ēµč”ŒåŠØļ¼šēŸ³ē “å¤©ęƒŠ - Simplified Chinese spelling

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135 People (127 developers, 8 thanks) · View all

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Critics

Average score: 80% (based on 33 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 16 ratings with 1 reviews)

Cuba Libre (or Whatever Happened to Hyman Roth?)

The Good
Island Thunder, the second and final expansion pack for Ghost Recon, is set in Post-Castro Cuba. In the four years since Castroā€™s death (the game is set in 2010), Cuba has made considerable progress towards becoming a democratic society. The island is now on the verge of having its first free elections and the Ghosts have been called in to ensure the process runs smoothly. Of course, one of the political factions (the FDG- ā€œFidel Did Goodā€?) would prefer if the process didnā€™t run smoothly and is prepared to use voter intimidation, terrorism, and drug money to see that their candidate takes the prize.

On its surface, Island Thunder doesnā€™t seem different from Desert Siege or even the original Ghost Recon. Whatever patches it contains probably tweaks the engine and the AI, but there arenā€™t any drastic changes here from the previous outings. However, Island Thunder has the most cohesive story, the best maps, and the most challenging gameplay of the series.

At eight levels, Island Thunder is the same length as Desert Siege, but it benefits from having access to more diverse scenery and a wider range of weather effectsā€”Eritrea not getting too many tropical storms. Mission objectives include the typical rescuing downed pilots and securing key areas, to multitask ones like an urban mission which involves defending a polling center against an attack while freeing hostages around the city and assaulting the FDG headquarters.

I complained in my review of Ghost Recon about the extreme level of scripting and spawning present. Island Thunder is much more sophisticated when it comes to scripting (except for one part), using it to support the enemy AI rather than to make up for it. While the enemies this time around appear to be using old Russian weaponry, including the venerable but reliable AK-47, they are also crack shots and arenā€™t afraid to lob grenades. Vehicles play a larger role, with many more jeeps loaded with gunmen that pull up and open fire.

Visually Island Thunder isnā€™t an improvement over its predecessors, but for the first time, the sound made an impression on me. One rocky level has wind that howls around you and another level puts you in the middle of a fierce storm (Cuba has interesting weather patterns). Weapon effects have always sounded functional, but I was shocked this time around when I stumbled into an enemy and heard both my weapon firing and the sound of the bullets thudding into him.

Soldier and kit selection, as well as the secondary mission objectives which unlock specialists, remain the same.

The Bad
If I have one complaint unique to this expansion pack, it involves the last level. Itā€™s no spoiler to say that most Tom Clancy games eventually involve containing one main bad guy. Having his capture hinge on scripted events rather than the playerā€™s direct action seems a misstep. Still I had fun stalking him until the required event occurred. Alsoā€”If anyone can tell me why a small building blows up (for no apparent reason, from no apparent cause, to no apparent effect) during the Righteous Archer mission, Iā€™d love to know.

The Bottom Line
There was a time that a game set in 2010 would be sci-fi themed. Island Thunder isnā€™t even sci-fi tinged. As speculative fiction it says more about society than technology. I highly recommend Island Thunder to fans of Ghost Recon, itā€™s easily my favorite of the GR games and I can easily understand why it was expanded to the standalone Jungle Storm for the PS2.

Windows · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

Trivia

PlayStation 2 version

Unlike for Windows and Xbox, the contents of Island Thunder were not released separately for the PlayStation 2. Instead, it was released as part of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm.

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Game added by AdminBB.

Xbox added by Kartanym.

Additional contributors: MAT, Kartanym, Unicorn Lynx, Klaster_1, Plok.

Game added July 25, 2003. Last modified November 20, 2024.