Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Multiplayer Hands-On

By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpotPosted Jan 25, 2006 12:48 pm PT

Red Storm's next-gen tactical shooter is shaping up to be a fine addition to Xbox Live. We blast through a handful of maps and game types.

Online Recon

Advanced Warfighter will bring the Ghost Recon series' trademark tactical online play to the Xbox 360 in March.

In the video game yearbook of 2006, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter may go down as "most improved." The game was originally planned for release alongside the Xbox 360's November launch, but its ship date was delayed so that the North Carolina-based team at Red Storm could further exploit the potential of Microsoft's new hardware. Now, Advanced Warfighter is slated to see shelves in March. We spent a few rounds with the game's new-and-improved multiplayer, and it seems apparent from both the gameplay and the graphics that this extra time in development was time well spent.

To get this out of the way...this is still the same multiplayer Ghost Recon you know and presumably love. Associate producer Prince Arrington tells us that with a fan base as loyal and vocal as that of Ghost Recon, you don't want to mess with the core formula that everyone's used to. In light of the series' legions of fans, you can expect to see the same basic shooting action and controls, including the controversial third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective--but relax, there's an option to drop to classic first-person for the purists. You can also expect all the same game types, from standard elimination and capture the flag to territory-control modes like hamburger hill.

So if all this stuff is returning from the previous games, what's so new about Advanced Warfighter? Thankfully, it's not just Ghost Recon 2 with prettier graphics (though it does have those). Arrington says Red Storm's methodology in designing the new game's multiplayer component was to retain what fans loved about the past games' action, while also listening closely to their suggestions about how to improve it. Their most overwhelming suggestion? "Set our game types free." Players have reportedly enjoyed the action past games in the series have offered, but they just want to be free to tweak that action to suit their own tastes. With that in mind, Red Storm has made customization the highest priority in Advanced Warfighter's multiplayer mode.

Right from the get-go, you'll be able to tweak a number of aspects of your online experience. The multiplayer is once again class-based, and you'll be able to set up a custom appearance for each of the four classes, such as rifleman and marksman. Customizations include different faces (some featuring camouflage); a number of different uniforms; and a huge assortment of headgear, from various hats and helmets to even licensed eyewear like Oakley sunglasses. You'll even be able to apply these different headset presets to each character class in the game.

The sizable maps in the multiplayer mode cover a wide range of terrain styles and layouts. We're expecting a lot of variety in the lineup.

Beyond the cosmetics of character customization, Advanced Warfighter server operators will now be able to control just about every aspect of the games they're running. You can set fully customized kit restrictions that will disallow certain weapons, for instance, or control the sorts of camo that players can wear. Everything from night vision to spawn points to even camera control is available for tweaking when you create a new multiplayer game, so you'll potentially never play the same online game twice. In fact, Red Storm says there are hundreds of possible game combinations.

You can even tear into the rules of the game types themselves if you start to get bored. In capture the flag, you can actually turn the flag into an armed officer, requiring you to escort this character to the goal--which sounds like it will play a lot like the VIP mode in Counter-Strike. In a hamburger hill match, you can turn on the helicopter option, which will make a roving chopper come onto the scene and fight with your team whenever you control the contested territory. So while the game types you're used to from past Ghost Recons will be making their return, they've all gotten mechanical upgrades that should keep them feeling nice and fresh.

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