Review: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2(X360)

Genre: Military Tactical Action Shooter
Rating: Mature - realistic action violence, profanity

Is this a sequel or an expansion pack? So, I picked this up last week after I beat Twilight Princess. For $60, I was expecting a bit more than 4 1/2 hours of gameplay.

Basically, the player takes over the role of a captain in an advanced squad of soldiers in the near future called Ghost squadron. The game takes place along the US-Mexico boarder where tensions are high after what occurred in the first GRAW game. Scott Mitchell is the player character and has control over multiple advanced weapons including attack helicopters, unmanned vehicles, and the other members of his squad. Controlling all of these is just as simple as in the first and the beginning tutorial does a great job of getting you up to date with the controls of the game. If you a vet of GRAW, GRAW2 has few control changes.

The graphics are crisp and clean with bright photo-realism. Character models and environmental details are top notch and have been noticeably cleaned up from GRAW. As a technical marvel this game looks brilliant especially with all of the explosions and vast draw distances.

Audio and sound design are just as perfect as in GRAW. Strong orchestral tracks play during tense situations and really help make the player feel like a badass. Voice acting is predictable with a lot of yelling and soldier boy like talk. “I want it done SOONEST son!’ ‘Get your ass over there Mitchell.” One interesting thing about your squad mates is that they will actively tell you useful information all of the time. So, say you enter a new area and don’t see any enemies yourself. Your teammates may have, and if they did they will yell out the enemies position and numbers. Very nice touch, and something that other games should think about.

Gameplay wise, this is the same game as GRAW except what seems like many hours shorter. You’ll command various vehicles and squads as you experience increasingly difficult and unlikely situations. It’s unfortunate that while your teammates often tell you where enemies are that you as the player will have to take out a vast majority of them. This isn’t because your teammates can’t do it by themselves, but because they are incredibly slow in delivering out death. It’s possible to take down an enemy tank, and 13 soldiers by yourself before your squad mates even kill one enemy. I guess this is more an issue with how you like to play games than with the squad not being able to do a good job. If your patient and take things slow and tactically then I could see your squad doing just as much damage to the enemy as the player, but that isn’t how I play my games. Not that I don’t find tactics fun, but when I have to wait ten minutes for my squad to kill a guy behind cover I really get bored. Why should I wait when I could just run over there myself and take him out? Anyway, if you played GRAW then this game is more of the same great action.

Graphics - 9…incredibly detailed environments jump off the screen with photo realism

Sound - 9…heavy, but great use of powerful orchestral music and fantastic realistic sound effects, voice work is not only helpful it makes you feel like a soldier

Gameplay - 8…more of the same great tactical action, you’ll do most of the heavy lifting, nothing really new to the formula

Value - 7…$60 for a 4 -5 hour game, multiplayer is fun and can suck hours away, but it’s nothing drastically different from the original

Overall - 8…Very Good, but if you don’t like multiplayer… rent it