Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon

The Good
Ghost Recon is a lot like a cross between Novalogic's Delta Force series and Sierra's SWAT 3, you have to sneak around and pick your moments to act while trying to achieve your objectives. After completing a mission each soldier who participated is awarded 2 points to improve their stats(which start off very low) and completing some missions will unlock 1 of 12 specialists, these specialists usually have better/different weapons and much better stats. The levels are all very impressive, trees sway in the breeze, rebel camps have camp fires and washing hanging on clothes lines while another level has heavy rain, mud caked roads and fields, destroyed buildings and artillery that lights up the distant sky. Issuing orders is incredibly simple - just point and click on an overlaid map and the soldiers will either respond or you will get an annoying buzzer sound indicating it's not possible (no explanation will be given though).

The Bad
Overall the game is far too short, it's only a completely linear 15 mission campaign, the missions don't take too long to complete, usually about 5 minutes but will take longer if you try to make it through the game without losing any soldiers. It suffers from 'Delta Force Syndrome', you can complete each mission by taking your time, sneaking around the perimeter sniping everyone. Each soldier has a fixed kit selection with a fixed primary weapon and a variation of secondary equipment (more ammo, field glasses or a sidearm) so instead of giving your best demolitions soldier a satchel charge to blow up a bridge, you have to pick the demolitions soldier who has satchel charges in their kit selection. This also falls apart when the action starts, if this soldier is killed the mission automatically fails. Also, if you run out of ammunition you can't pick up an enemies or a fallen team mates weapon, this soldier then becomes useless. The specialists you unlock are far superior to any other soldiers that once you have unlocked two of them (usually after two missions) you don't need to use any other soldiers. The AI of team mates can be stupid at times, if you switch control to another team your previously selected team will often change posture which can lead to them being spotted and killed, plus they never even try to find any cover what so ever, they prefer to sit in the open rather than crawl into some nearby ground cover. Team members with an automatic weapon will often stand up while the rest of the team is crouch or prone and fire off 40% of their magazine in one burst, needless to say these team members tend to die first. The path finding is very bad, often team members will get stuck behind objects or just plain lost and you are forced to either go back and get them or change control to said team member and 'rescue' them. The enemies aren't much better, they will often stand upright in the open, firing bursts at you. They often stand perfectly still looking at a door way or a gap in some rocks, waiting for you to come to them only for you to come round behind them or shoot them in the arm the juts out. Often you will see the barrel of a gun or even an arm or leg clip through a wall or door giving away the position of an enemy, you then take your high powered rifle and fire a few rounds in the rough direction of the person attached to it only to find out your bullets don't penetrate anything but glass, this is truly bizarre considering how much effort went into making this game realistic. The sound/enemy detector is a nice feature but despite being a little crude (only places sounds in 90 degree zones) it makes the game too simple as it effectively tells the position of all the enemies. Issuing orders is all done in real time and is completely mouse driven which means no keyboard short cuts to speed up the process. Orders are only incredibly simple: move here, look in this general direction, only fire if fired on, fire at will or suppress any suspected enemies. These orders are far too simple for a so called 'tactical shooter'. Only one order can be issued to a team at any one time which means you have to either wait for them to finish the first order, or over ride it with a new one. You can't give more than one team the same order at the same time which means even longer that you are open to hostile fire.

The Bottom Line
Fun for the few hours it will take to finish it. Fans of Rainbow 6 might not like how it has been dumbed down but fans of SWAT 3, Delta Force should really enjoy it. It doesn't have the depth to be a lasting favourite but has some impressive features that will become standard in the future.

The Good
The only thing I liked about this game was the storyline. That's about it. The multiplayer was alright, but the game still sucks.

The Bad
Where do I begin? Even for a 2002 game, the production values were terrible. The graphics for the game are incredibly pixelated; in fact, even the text on the main menu is pixelated! Oh, my god! Every mission is exactly the same. For some games, this wouldn't be a problem, but the missions for this game are boring, and repetitive. Every level goes something like this: shoot enemies, rescue hostage. That's it. No bonuses, or anything. And as for sound, this is how I describe it. Put a cottonball in each ear while shooting a pop gun. THAT is the amount of sound you get in the game. And I hated how you can't see your gun. There's just an aim assist. C'mon! This isn't 1997!

The Bottom Line
The die hard tactical shooter fan may like it a bit, but as for me, it is the worst video game I have ever played. If you like normal FPS games, check out Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Halo, or Metroid Prime. Don't play this game.

The Good
Single Player Game Review

Set in 2008, we learn during Ghost Recon’s opening that Ultranationalists have seized control of the Russian government and have begun a westward expansion in a bid to resurrect the Soviet Union. While the world watches, a U.S. Army Special Forces unit is already in the Baltics supporting local forces in their attempt to oust the Russian expansionists. Under the guise of peacekeeping, this elite team of “swift, silent, and invisible” troops will face overwhelming odds to disable the Russian war machine.

Coming under the “Tom Clancy” license and having similar elements, Ghost Recon naturally invites comparisons to the Rainbow Six series. Both are squad-based shooters with an emphasis on realism, but where Rainbow Six was focused on hostage rescue in buildings, Ghost Recon is combat driven on huge outdoor maps. Ghost Recon’s interface is either a streamlined or dumbed down (depending on your point of view) version of Rainbow Six, limiting the amount of pre-mission planning in an attempt to get the player into the action as soon as possible.

A single briefing and 2D mission map precede soldier and kit selection. Where Rainbow Six offered a core group of named heroes and back-up expendable troops, Ghost Recon has two divisions of troops: your standard roster and unlockable specialist units. Beginning with your standard roster, you have a good selection of low level troops: Riflemen, Heavy Weapon Support Units, Snipers, and Demolitionists. Each has four stats: Weapon Skill, Endurance, Stealth, and Leadership ranked on a scale from 1-8. After the successful completion of a mission, surviving troops gain an additional point that you can spend where you decide. If, during a mission, you complete a special secondary objective, you unlock a specialist unit—basically a super version of one of the four classes with higher stats and better weaponry. Since the Tom Clancy games pride themselves on realism, I can only guess that the real Army works like this too.

As an aside (and neither a compliment nor a complaint), you really aren’t penalized for losing troops during missions. You’ll prefer to keep your specialists alive and if you’ve leveled up your regular troops, you probably won’t want to start over with someone green, but you don’t have to worry about running out of soldiers.

Kit selection has been streamlined or gutted down to one of four preset packages for each class. Gone are the armor, cameo, and primary weapon options. All that’s left to decide is whatever secondary equipment the designers have determined your character should have access to—which isn’t consistent among classes (meaning that you might want to bring your specialist Demolitions expert on a mission only to find that he doesn’t have access to the AntiTank weapon).

Then you divide your maximum of six troops into a maximum of three fire teams and go straight into the mission. This is probably the most jarring difference between Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six. In Rainbow Six, countless time was spent in the mission planning mode setting waypoints and go-codes. In Ghost Recon, everything is done in-game. Hitting left space brings up the mission map lets you give orders to your troops in real-time, orders which are either simplified or simplistic.

As far as the missions themselves, this is where the game shines. Ghost Recon has fifteen levels with drastically different maps and game objectives so you won’t get bored here. The first mission involves searching the Baltic mountainside for a local warlord holed up in a cave, other missions involve running cover for a tank column through a bombed out city, rescuing POWs from a camp, and holding off waves of troops and tanks at a UN checkpoint. The game itself can be difficult enough, but you’ll push yourself to complete the optional objectives to unlock the specialists. Also, with the help of a threat indicator (which shows the general direction of enemy troops and gunfire) and in-mission saves, nothing is really that impossible. Finally, after a mission is completed, it can be replayed, played as a kill-em-all, or played as a recon mission.

Graphically, the game is a step up from Rainbow Six, but it wasn’t cutting edge even back when it was released. Character animations look good, from a limping, wounded soldier (with bloody uniform) to enemy troops falling to a prone position when they are under fire. Ghost Recon is also the first Tom Clancy game to have a believable outdoor environment. But it’s still hurting for the lack of dynamic lighting or damageable terrain (i.e. don’t try to shoot out spotlights).

The Bad
I’m definitely in the dumbed down, gutted, simplistic camp. Ghost Recon is a quality game, but I disagree with many of the design choices here especially because the Rainbow Six interface worked very well. To begin with, the limited kits are extremely frustrating. Why can my snipers have grenades but not my riflemen? No one should be getting that close to my snipers. Why are silenced weapons limited to specialists?

I’m actually okay with lack of pre-mission planning using a map and go-codes, because the battlefield is much more fluid than a hostage situation. However, I would have liked go-codes during the in-mission planning. Orders are followed out as soon as they are issued, so coordinating an attack can be difficult—plus while you are issuing orders you are basically a sitting duck. Also, the 2D map is not very useful, especially when there are a few multistory areas.

Team AI is very good (including seeking cover), but if you want to take out a tank, you have to control the demolitionist; they won’t do it on their own. Same with planting charges. All this is too bad, because usually the trickier part is providing cover for the demolitionist. On both the team and enemy AI, the range of detection seems short. I could snipe enemies my AI sniper couldn’t.

While Rainbow Six had an Escort mode for hostages, Ghost Recon doesn’t have an equivalent for their rescue missions. To “rescue” someone, you have to bump into them and then they will follow you. Tired of them following you? Bump into them with someone else. You’ll find this bumping technique also works for the occasional glitches that cause teammates to get stuck on rocks and doorways.

My biggest annoyance with Ghost Recon comes from the over-scripting present in some of the missions. The key to some missions seemed to be learning the script: find out what caused the enemy tank to spawn and do that last, put support troops in the spots where enemies respawn, line up the snipers to take out the truck that shows up after five minutes.

Finally, this game suffers for following some precedents established by its predecessor. Like Rainbow Six, all that is present of the gun carried by the soldier you command is the targeting reticle. While this separated Rainbow Six from other FPSs, now it seems more like an oversight. At least the option to toggle a weapon view should be offered. Likewise, the ability to crawl while prone doesn’t make up for the lack of a jumping or mantling option. Finally, an inventory sharing system during missions would be nice.

The Bottom Line
At 15 missions, Ghost Recon should be a good trudge, but it’s actually kind of short. Storywise, it’s a shallow game with a blink and you’ll miss it storyline which might have seemed plausible or relevant if it hadn’t been released two months after September 11th. But we’re here for the gameplay, which will have you on the edge of your seat.