GRAW 1 is a above average shooter that does have some issues that hold it back. (full review inside)
Id like to put down how I Score games (this is important if you want to understand why my score is so 'low':
1 - Utter rubbish
2 - Utter rubbish
3 - rubbish
4 - average
5 - Good
6 - Pretty good
7 - Great
8 - Greater than 7
9 - Awesome
10 - so great ill never review a game that's this good...period.
This has been on all my reviews, but starting from now, its now at the top so people can understand the system quicker. Now read the review.
GRAW 1 is a Tactical 3rd person shooter from Ubisoft. Its not a new game. However, that doesn't make it a bad game. Like many people seem to think these days.
GRAW 1 puts you in the boots of Scot Mitchell a hard core military type who you learn nearly nothing about in the story line, and you don't really care because the general idea of the game is to move you and your squad/squads into the best location using the most advanced equipment known to man to kill…you guessed it, Mexicans.
Now to the details:
GRAPHICS
The graphics, whilst possibly dated compared to some more recent games, still look pretty good with dynamic lighting effects and real time shadows. However, they over use the lighting, which can sometimes make a target almost invisible. The huge city your fighting in most of the game is nice, but a bit on the bland side. But overall, they are pretty nice.
SOUND
The voice actors do a pretty good job at making the game feel more generic, and bland. Gunshots sound rather pathetic most of the time and the music is forgettable. Sound is overall acceptable, but could have used less generic American stuff.
CONTROLS
At first they are awkward, changing drastically from a standard TPS, however they do grow on you and they work rather well, if slow to respond at times. This is especially notice able when shooting, as it takes a second or so to fire, this may just be my controllers but maybe not. Either way im putting it down for it.
GAMEPLAY
You travel around Mexico city killing rebellious Mexicans using cool gear and equipment accompanied by the most elite units known to man SAS…I mean the Ghosts…You often get to control other units like tanks and less cool infantry like bog standard American or Mexican soldiers who are just not as good as anything else and shouldn't really be there. This is all fine and well but you have no REAL control over anything, its awkward to issue orders to tanks as they are on rails and cant really do anything productive rather than slowly kill things and be mobile cover. One of the best things is the Cross Com (x-com from now on). If you have a UAV satellite drone, you can scout out and area and enemies get highlighted on the map. However, they also get highlighted on the HUD as red diamonds allowing you to locate and eliminate enemies with pinpoint accuracy. This also happens when you place you cursor over an enemy, which also helps. However, this makes the game rather easy in some ways. But you do realise that it would be stupidly hard without it, and the game makes up for it by being stupidly hard to begin with. The game is rather long coming to about 15 hours. The story is rather gripping and intense even if it is like looking at a generic wall that it strangely bland and generic. And the online is rather good, even though it has been replaced.
OVERALL
GRAW 1 is a above average shooter that anyone a fan of the genre should pick up. Considering its only about £8/$16 at a good games shop or online, its well worth the price.
5/10