I really wanted to love this game...
I sincerely hoped Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 was one of those.
In case you think I consider GRAW 2 a failure, let me correct you right there - not only is it not a failure, but it kicks both ArmA and Dragon Rising as far as immersiveness and realism are concerned. I never tought I'll say this. But this game actually does a better job of simulationg a real gunfights, with tense one shot-one kill action, then Operation Flashpoint ever did. And it comes close to actually developing an effective command system that makes it easy to issue orders to your A.I. team mates. Almost as good as Brothers In Arms. I played the first mission and I already loved it. And it pains me so much to say that this blockbuster game, made by top developers with top budgets, is broken.
Let me start from the beginning, so you'd have a better understanding of my experience with this game. After the installation, I was treated with a kickass intro sequence that awfully reminds me of a golden age of Michael Bay movies (before he went crazy with CGI and s****y robots). Stuff blows up all over the place as a team of „Ghosts" is fighting their way across the war-torn Mexican town... And you soon learn that some bad terrorists are trying to get their hands on a nuclear weapons, and it's up to you to stop them. Seriously? I mean, is that the best they can come up with in a Tom Clancy game? But OK, I'm not playing a tctical shooter because I want a good story, so who cares...
The first mission is what gave me the good impression about this game. Wonderfully fluid and simple controls, gorgeous graphics and sound effects, almost competent voice acting... Firing a round for the first time almost made me FEEL the recoil and the heat coming from the barrel. And not to mention the feeling of being on the recieving end of the bullet... The gunfights were so intense and realistic I cried tears of joy. Except, well... there isn't a single damn drop of blood in the entire game. None. In a supposedly realistic game. Nor did I ever hear any of the characters cursing or swearing, or using the F-word. Oh how wonderful, freakin' Tom Clancy went PG-13! Sure, it makes sense! I mean, why would anyone curse or use profanities? It's not like they're stressed out from being in a situation where they're constantly in danger of being shot and killed... They're family-friendly soldiers, dammit!
However, great controls and freedom of movement it provides enabled me to pull off shots I didn't even think I was capable of in other video games. One shot and your enemy is sent tumbling to the ground, in a spectacularly animated fashion. A system of checkpoints is there to save your progress, and each time you reload, your enemies will be on different spots, doing different stuff, which makes every mission different. So far so good, right?
Well, here is the first big issue in this game. It's the save game system. Personally, I don't mind playing a game that has checkpoints instead of ruining the experience by letting me quicksave every 3 seconds. But I do mind when those checkpoints are too few and too far apart so it makes it impossible to beat the second mission without using cheat codes. It works fine in the first mission, which is fairly short an you don't have to cover lots of ground. But as soon as I reached the second, well... I think I'm not being unreasonable when I say I'd never beat it if I didn't restart the whole campaign on an easy difficulty setting. Which gives you the ability to quicksave. The game is so murderously punishing, I seriously don't know what the hell were they thinking. Well, if the quicksave system actually worked, it would be great. But it doesn't. Sometimes it lets you save, sometimes it doesn't. Why? I really don't know, haven't figured it out yet. And neither the tutorial nor the manual bothered to explain it. Instead of enjoying the game, I ended up trying to cheat my way through it, by desperately trying to work my way aroud the broken save system.
By the time I reached the third mission, the game broke completely. After a certain checkpoint, I ended up with a task of destroying the enemy tanks with the help of a friendly tank that never showed up. When I tried to restart the mission, hoping that maybe it didn't load properly, I was left in the rain. Literally - I couldn't restart the damn mission, even tough the game allowed me to do that on paper. So the save system is broken, the campaign is broken and the A.I. is broken. Aaaaah, the A.I.... Gotta love it!
As I said, issueing orders is fairly simple. However, your team mates will regularly turn in the opposite direction when you order them to take a certain position. Instead of covering a path where the enemy might come from, they turn to face the wall behind them, thinking that there may be an angry terrorist in the cracks. Or they turn towards the direction you just came from - anywhere except where they actually should, if they weren't complete morons. If only you could order them which direction to turn, it would've solved it. But no, my friend... So when they start screaming „Captain, I'm taking fire!" when a bad guy is shooting them in the back, you can't help but scream „THAT'S BECAUSE YOU'RE A F***ING RETARD!!!!!" I could write more about their brain farts, but then there goes my entire afternoon. The thing I described above wasn't an isolated incident, it happened every damn time!
The enemies are better, but not by much. They use supressive fire, take cover... but sometimes they're so damn accurate it borders on science fiction. They can use machine guns as sniper rifles, which can get really frustrating sometimes. Again, it all could've been avoided if only we had a proper save system. Seriousy, Ubisoft, what decade is this? In a game released in 2008 we get a broken save system and an A.I. that is plain stupid? Bow your head in shame!
However, there are moments when this game truely shines! The missions are by no means linear. And even tough it's not a sandbox game, it gives you a lot of freedom. Moving through an occupied town, clearing street after street with my team watching my back, and killing bad guys I failed to notice - that's when GRAW 2 shows it's full potential. And the only situation where the friendly A.I. is actually competent. But those moments are too few, unfortunately - the game must feel like that ALL THE TIME if they want a hit title.
Keep in mind that I am writing this review based on a 1.05 version of the game. So it's not really straight-from-the-box kind of bugs that somehow made it past the final testing. Needless to say, both your character and his mateys are deprived of any personality. They never talk, they never display any kind of emotion, and all the story is delivered to you via in-between-mission briefings. Not a perfect recipe for immersiveness... When I remember Bad Company 2 and it's likeable, charismatic characters and cinematic cutsceenes, I can't help but cry when I think of all the wasted potential - especially since I expect better from a Tom Clancy game. Also, it's worth to mention the horrible technical issues this game has with widescreen monitors. Seriously, it's embarrasing...
All in all, I really wanted to love this game. Really. But with so many fundamental elements broken, I can only say they should've taken it back to the drawing board after the first beta testing, instead of releasing it.