To start this review, I'm going to give you a brief summary of what this game is and how it plays. As you may know, Ghost Recon games are 3rd person shooters that take place in a relatively close future setting. This allows players to use a mixture of guns and technology abilities. This particular game is a free to play game that can be played through Steam (and I'll get more in depth on how the free to play system works) that focuses on teamwork and taking cover. If you try to run and gun, you'll be killed very quickly since it only takes a few shots to empty a health bar.
First, I'd like to explain the free to play model so we can take a look at the rest of the game as a whole. There are (like most F2P games) an in-game currency, and a currency that runs off of real money. Most things can be bought with the in-game currency which makes the model easier to accept. So how steep are the transactions? Once you open the game, you'll notice that you start with 10,000 in-game credits. Every time you level up, you also get 1,000 credits in addition to the credits you get from simply playing the game. Within a few hours of playing, I was up to 16,000 credits and was able to purchase the best scope for the first sniper rifle which cost 5,000 credits. So the microtransactions aren't ridiculous, but they can get annoying at times. For example, it is around 160 credits for 5 grenades. I'd much rather see them priced at 6,000, but have them permanently unlocked (1 grenade per spawn). Lastly, like League of Legends, skins can only be purchased with real money (Ghost Coins). However, the game is not like League of Legends for one reason: it is possible to pay your way to the top of the scoreboard. This does still require skill, but that goes with many games. League of Legends on the other hand only uses real money for visual pleasure and nothing more (all upgrades are bought with the in-game currency). The reason I use this as an example is because LoL is a very popular F2P game, and people are starting to compare the two models. I want it to be clear that there are some differences, and that TC:GRP's model isn't quite as refined as LoL's.
To start, TC:GHP has a great combat system. You can slide, dive, look over cover, and can go prone on the fly. As I mentioned earlier, the game encourages teamwork and to use it's cover system. While in cover, you can aim much better and have less recoil while firing. Your health also increases while in cover so it's very essential when confronting a large number of enemy players. Outside of cover, your gun will sway and make it much more difficult to land a successful shot. If you do hit an enemy, the amount of damage is given to you so you know exactly how many more shots you need to land. As many games do recent years, the game tracks where you shots land and make head-shots and chest-shots much more damaging than leg and arm-shots. When you die, the game shows off an awesome feature as well. There is an outline of a body and it displays where every incoming shot landed, how much damage each shot did to you, who fired each shot, and which shot was the one that killed you. It's an awesome feature that's enjoyable to see while waiting to respawn (which leads me to my next topic). Respawn times are less than 5 seconds long and the game also allows you to respawn once the time is up. While respawning, you can change your weapons and abilities, but you cannot change your class. This makes pre-game communication important. There are 3 classes in the game: Support, Assault, and Recon and you can also see which class each teammate is just in case they aren't too talkative. Each class gets a unique ability set and also gets class specific weapons. All weapons can be heavily customized and can be tested in a firing range. You can also customize your class' armors and outfits.
TC:GHP's HUD allows the game to stand out against other 3rd-person shooters. If you have played other GH games (and many other Tom Clancy games as well), you'll already know that HUD's are presented very uniquely. In TC:GHP, one of my personal favorite additions is its use of lines. Lines come out of your character and connect you to teammates and squadmates (teammates are connected with a blue line, squadmates are connected with a green line). These lines allow you to know exactly where you will be covered from if you want to advance closer to the enemy. The map on the bottom left of the screen can be "maximized" which, of course, makes the map bigger, and also changes the perspective from a top-down view to a 3D view. Kills are presented on the top of the screen in a large window that can sometimes get in the way, but it's rare to get a kills over and over in quick succession. After your first kill, the game will also start notifying you of your kill streak. My only complaint dealing with the HUD is that the ammo/weapons displayed at the bottom left is sometimes difficult to see.
TC:GHP does many things right but has a few hiccups here and there. One of these hiccups is the interface outside of a match. The matchmaking screen can be imposing. I have still not found a way to exit matchmaking after a match. Before the first match starts, there is an X that cancels the search for games, but once you join a game, it doesn't appear that you can easily back out of a lobby and go back to the home screen. I'm sure there is a way to do this, but either way it's not presented clearly (maybe it's too obvious that I'm missing it).
Overall, TC:GHP isn't perfect, but it's fun, free, and pretty solid. The F2P model can be tweaked a bit to turn cautious gamers into trying it out and also to quiet down some hate surrounding the microtransactions. To be completely honest though, most weapons modifications can be unlocked pretty easily. I say this because even though guns might be a time investment, the weapons the game starts you with are good enough to get by. So I give this game 8 (great) because there is a slight pay to win model, however it doesn't take away from the game in a major way. The game is enjoyable and a blast to play. I originally was going to give it a 7, but as I wrote this review I found myself wanting to get back into a game many times. It probably deserves a 7.5, but the amount of effort present in the game so far is enough for me to round up and not down (5 rounds up anyways!)
Good: Great combat and cover system. Customizable weapons and armor. Detailed and helpful HUD. Weapons feel like weapons. Small details are charming and manage to make statements. It's free!
Bad: Some microtransactions can benefit investors in-game. Confusing matchmaking screen. Ammo can be hard to see easily and seems out of place with the rest of the HUD that is projected around the character.
Any comments or questions? Post one or PM me and I'll get back to you!