Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Updated Preview

When we got our first look at Ghost Recon back in mid-June, we were highly impressed by almost every aspect of the game's design, from the painstakingly detailed character graphics and vividly realistic motion-capture animations to the highly convincing AI routines created for both friendlies and enemies. But because the development team was intent on completing the game's 19 levels so beta testing could begin, we didn't get a chance to get our hands dirty tackling any of the game's missions.

This game paints a realistic picture of light-infantry combat.

So when Red Storm invited us to make another trek to Morrisville, NC, for a chance to put the game through its paces, we immediately accepted. Before heading out on our first mission--to rescue NATO troops pinned down by gunfire, which is actually the fourth mission in the campaign mode--we first decided to talk with associate producer Robbie Edwards about several design issues that led to some heated (but friendly) debate among the members of the Ghost Recon development team. One was the issue of saved games. As good as Rogue Spear was, probably every fan at one time or another cursed the game because there was no way to save the game during a mission, an annoyance that would certainly be exarcerbated by the larger maps in Ghost Recon. Thankfully, players will be able to not only save-pause and save their progress at any point during a mission but use quicksaves and quickloads as well.

Unfortunately, you won't be able to control vehicles--like this APC in the background--in the game.

Another point of contention was the decision to not allow players to control any of the vehicles in the game. While some of the team felt gamers should be able to hop into jeeps or tanks, Edwards said the extra programming that would be required to implement that feature would detract from the game's central focus on modern infantry combat. In fact, you can't even destroy vehicles in Ghost Recon, save for tanks or APCs. That's something of a disappointment given some of the high-powered weapons at your disposal, but again Edwards says the decision was made because the company has lavished so much attention on the nuts and bolts of combat: weapons physics, hundreds of character animations, and eye-popping graphical effects that make you feel as if you're really in the middle of a bloody firefight.

One decision that hasn't been made yet is which matching services will support the game's multiplayer mode. Ghost Recon owners will of course be able to set up dedicated servers, but beyond that the company is being strangely silent as far as services such as Mplayer or Microsoft's Zone. Considering how hugely popular Rogue Spear and Rainbow Six are on The Zone, though, it's probably a safe bet that Ghost Recon will join those games on the service. (The beta build we played had selections for Mplayer and The Zone, but Edwards noted those were only placeholders.)