The once and future King of Clancy games!
Once I had this baby on my harddrive it was only removed ONCE and that was to fix an "arm-tremors" glitch that seemed to afflict my Ghost team members. It went right back on my PC along with the 10 GB worth of attained MOD's that the great GR community have come up with over these last 5 years!
We all know the backstory and premise of this game by now. In the year 2008 WW3 begins with a newly ultra-nationalistic Russian Federation invading Belarus, Ukraine, the 'Stans (Kazak, Uzbek, et al) and next is the Republic of Georgia where the US sends the fictional SF team known as "The Ghosts". Their mission is to take the edge off the Russian armored thrust and take out various targets spread out over a 15 mission campaign. The end has you even fighting it out in the Russian capital, Moscow.
Gameplay is outstanding, calling up your soldiers in small fire teams you can move practically anywhere on the map you choose to go. The maps are both indoor and outdoor (mostly both) and you have to fight it out in some bad "Deathground" (AKA Urban ops or MOUT) especially in the city maps. I will say this is what is lacking in the subsequent GR game for the XBOX- GR2. That game was mostly just on rails and never had the complexity and emotion that this game packed.
The US soldiers are mostly dead on renders of actual US Army. Though the fact is by 2008 the real soldiers will not look too much like these guys did. The cammo and gear was mostly circa 1999-2001 (right when the game was developed more or less) From the goggles on their K-pots to the Camelback logo on their hydration system these soldiers looked BAD ASS. Not alot of games can get the "Fritz" helmet just right but this game does!
I've heavily modded my version of this game by now: New skins, new CHr models, augmented sound effects for weapons etc, and different game modes too made this game STILL kick buut to play! The original version was no slouch either. The enemy AI can surprise you and they are readily known as the "Olympic class marksmen" even though they might be from 3rd world militias! ha ha
The main point of this game is RECON like the name says! Sometimes you would have to keep silent and still otherwise the enemy is alerted and you are dead. GR2 was nothing like that, and it appears GRAW 360 is more of the same. Playing as a sniper was tremendous fun and it was cool to be hidden in a bush while an enemy soldier just walks right past you. Well not right NEXT to you but you get the point!
All in all, I could go on about this classic but I think I have written enough, if you have never bought this great PC game BUY IT NOW! And throw in the Desert Siege and Island Thunder expansions plus the great mods available from sites like "ghostrecon.net" and you will have a flippin' BLAST!!!
"Moving out!"