The orginal "thinkin man's shooter" formula is all there, now you just have to think harder and shoot a lot faster.
User Rating: 9 | Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 XBOX
You may or may not have noticed I've been absent a lot these few months in terms of writing stuff out. I have taken a complete break from strategy gaming after totally burning myself out. My desire to play games that make you think, however, was not totally cast aside. True to its predecessor, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2, by Red Storm, contains all the punch and action required by drooling Quakeheads, yet maintains it's maturity and accuracy to modern military detail that is required by those of us that finished elementary school. I admit I was very worried at first when I watched the intro cutscene play, then the opening movie that led into the story. The opening movies the original had been swapped from the quiet, stoic quick plot teasers to the glossy Jerry Bruckheimer style mini-movies, meaning it was as intelligent as Bad Boys or Armageddon and required about as much thought. Red Storm, however, drew the line there, and as soon as the acutal gameplay got going, I was launched back into the hard core, keep yer head down, shoot or get shot, and keep yer cool under fire type of gameplay that made the orginal GR a bestseller. One shot can still kill, and a sniper can be more deadly than a grenadier. When Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 was ported from PC (Rainbow Six: Raven Shield) to the XBox, Ubisoft dropped what maturity and player options it could for loud noises, big explosions, and scripted actions. Scripted actions was the biggest thing as all the original PC missions were changed and instead of plotting multiple entries into a building the player was led through linear hallways while timed AI tangos jumped out at him. GR2 has implemented much of that gameplay but not to the annoying degree of hand-holding as RS3. Gone are the original GR huge square maps where you could decide what objectives to take in what order and have free roam over entry and exit points. All is not linear, however, as the maps are still massive, just oblong. This causes the player to trip invisible cues for the AI to send in attack helicopters that open fire on you or drop off reinforcements who are suddenly flanking you. If the maps were 100% open, these events would either not be possible or would be triggered inappropriately for the action. There is no realism sacrificed and the options of how you approach remain open, so gameplay is enhanced rather than hindered. The missions themselves are the usual gamut of taking out a tank column, planting explosives, or supporting a friendly team. The positive mixture of scripted events, however, raises the bar from fun to frantic. No longer does the enemy just saunter into your crosshairs while you secure a location. Ground troops now fly toward you at a dead run, screaming as they go. Their aim is no good at that pace but you have to shoot fast and stay calm or half the army will be standing over you in no time. Add to that the arial gunship that is pummeling you with .50cal fire overhead and your missions can go to pieces real quick. Once you complete an objective, you are advised of the next one several meters away, and you have to fight through the sentry enemies to get there only to be pounded on by an approaching tank or truckload of heavy-gunners. Other times you have to completely switch gears and slow down to watch for snipers in the trees or listen to hidden guards the town. There is more gameplay in one mission of GR2 than two or three of the original. The enemy AI is the most intelligent and aggressive beast I've seen so far in gaming. Some tangos will charge you with full-auto, and others will lie and wait in the flowing grass for that easy headshot. They practice contact and cover and I have yet to see them fail to respond when someone within eyeshot of them gets taken down. They respond to sounds as well as open fire and will flank to where they think you are while their buddies keep you pinned with grazing fire. Your own team AI has a few problems. For some reason my guys have a habit of stepping in front of me or even pushing on me to take cover. Not just real professional. Also, you can no longer make them hold one spot while you go off solo. The team refuses to let you go too far off before they follow you. That is more realistic, there is no John Wayne in modern combat, but since you only control one team now instead of two, it can be annoying when you want to hit both ends of a field or courtyard. Most annoying is the other allied AI you pick up in certain missions. While your teammates are programmed to follow you, the others just follow scripted points on the map and will happily step in front of your blazing machine gun if you stop for cover rather than push forward. The graphics are incredible. The second map has a river that I would swear the water effect is video rather than CGI. Each individual bullet makes a splash as well as leaves bullet holes in almost every solid surface it hits. Individual blades of grass blow in the wind and the ever-famous Ghost Recon trees that gently sway still make you think twice about whether you're just shooting at shadows. The choppers that fly overhead can be shot at and taken down with heavy calibre weaponry or small rockets, even though the heap that falls from the sky for some reason is very compact on impact. New for this series is the "rag-doll" physics for the soldiers. Now, when you snap that sniper that's been giving you so much trouble, you can watch his body go limp, bounce off his perch, and fall several stories before getting painfully caught up in the fence below. Even better is the spectacular reaction to grenades and explosives as arms and legs flail in mid-air before the body slaps into the water or a nearby rock. The bodies do disappear after several seconds but the processing load on the vegetation alone has to be so great that non-essential graphics had to be cut somewhere. The biggest problem I have with the game is the team construct. In the original GR, you pick your teams (plural) and you carry them with you through the campaign. The teams gain experience with each mission and you have a truly elite unit by the end. As stated above, this time you have only one team of four troops (including yourself) and you can no longer set up long range cover or have a team covering your back in one position while you move the other. What you can do with your solitary team, however, is give commands on the fly for them to flank, suppress, or perform special functions without switching to a map. Telling my team to man mounted guns then telling them to take down a chopper, then watching it happen, was a pretty big thrill. You have access to all the latest used and conceptual weaponry without turning the game into Halo or Doom. The M60 and M249 SAW have been replaced by the MK46 and M2408 because they were replaced in real life. The former OICW uber-concept-weapon is now the M29 with a camera on the barrel so you can literally hold your gun out and shoot around corners. If you watched the Discovery Channel you'd know this system IS a reality, but Red Storm does a spectacular job of keeping this from being just another BFG (shooter phrase, look it up) by limiting its motion and peripheral vision. Multiplayer completely changes the game into a wild experience with several different modes of VS and Co-op play. I've been running the missions with friends on XBox Live and still Red Storm has maintained that if you work together instead of shoot like an idiot, you'll get more out of this game. I was disappointed when I first loaded Ghost Recon 2 because, with the linear maps and limited team, they strayed from the original formula. After several hours of play, however, I realize that the only thing they did to Ghost Recon was make it bigger, louder, and more intense. The orginal "thinkin man's shooter" formula is all there, now you just have to think harder and shoot a lot faster. Bravo to Red Storm for Ghost Recon 2. If Ubisoft would learn from them, the Rainbow Six series would be in better hands indeed.
