Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

The U.S. president has joined the Canadian prime minister and the Mexican president to sign the NAJSA (North American Joint Security Agreement), a policy to control illegal immigration and the movement of drugs and terrorists in the hemisphere. (What timing in lieu of the current political situation with Mexico.) During the public signing of the document, Mexican soldiers attack the three leaders. The Ghosts are ordered to meet up with Secret Service agents protecting the U.S. president and ensure his safety until he is extracted. While the U.S. president is en route to the airport, the Ghosts secure the Mexican president. Thanks to the Ghosts actions, the Mexican president will "green light" U.S. intervention on Mexican soil in order to bring back democracy. Unfortunately, the U.S. president never reached the Airport and is now in enemy hands…

In order to complete your missions, you will need to command and coordinate your movements with your teammates. The command system allows you to create many tactical combinations, giving you total and accurate control over the movement and actions of your teammates. Each action is simple in itself but when combined with other actions can create many different strategies. When a soldier or drone is selected you can actually get a view what that unit can see by using your HUD display or by pulling up a full screen view  This provides a great way to execute recon of enemy units to plan your attack. There are many ways to order commands to your ghosts, but my favorite is moving from point to point covering and each other. This can be very effective. You can also toggle a cross-com display that you can issue orders and have your Ghosts execute them individually or all at once. Both provide a dynamic game play experience.

GRAW has done a phenomenal job on the AI in this title. I cannot think of another title within this genre that has AI acting as one would expect in shooter titles. In my experience (and some may disagree) I did not see one team or enemy player in the single-player missions that were running into walls or staring off into space while taking on a barrage of bullets. Team and enemy units reacted to the changing environment by responding to and providing cover fire, taking defensive positions, and getting out of harms way. The realism here is probably the best I have encountered in any shooter.

Multiplayer for the PC is fun but very limited. The most players in a game are only 16, and only two types of games were supported at time of review. The co-op mode is just that. You can team up with others to play some of the single-player maps. The person that hosts the game is the team leader. Domination is a game that is based on controlling zones on the map. Each team starts at one end of the map in the first zone it controls. Zones are connected by supply lines and are captured by occupying the zone for a period of time. Those players used to playing Battlefield games will find some similarity. Both LAN and Internet games are supported, but GameSpy supports the Internet games.

Realistic jaw-dropping graphics come at powerhouse prices. Game requirements ask for at least a 2-gig Pentium or equivalent, (2.8 recommended) a gig of RAM, and a 128-meg video card. If you posses such a system, you can enjoy some fluid eye candy that is really impressive. Those close to such system specs can still play but will have to tone down some options to play with minimal crashes or lock ups. I found that going into dxdiag from the run menu in Windows and turning down audio acceleration down a notch, gave me less problems. Be sure to read the Read Me file for other suggestions.

Shooter fans will sing praises for this exciting addition to the gaming world despite its few shortcomings. I would say it is one of the few games worth the MSRP $50.00 price tag.

Gameplay: 9.0
The command interface is user friendly though I would have liked a more thorough training simulation to utilize the more advanced commands. The Team and enemy AI has to be some of the best I have seen in quite sometime in any combat game that I have played. The Missions are dynamic so you can decide the best way to handle a group of bad guys, either hit them head on, outflank them and hit them the sides. The maps are quite large enough to give you plenty of options, but don’t stay too far from the main conflict or you might become a deserter.

Graphics: 9.0
Visually impressive! Great graphics are beginning to come at a high price. System requirements are just short of powerhouse, but turning down some graphic and sound options will help the game run more smoothly without loosing much realism. Just may not look quite as pretty.                   

Sound: 9.0
The sound effects were great. Gunfire, tanks, jets, helicopters, jets flying overhead, etc. all sounded great. The voice-overs were convincing and the storyline believable. Nicely done!

Difficulty: Medium
Even the easiest setting is a challenge. Fumbling through the interface did not take long at all as most any gamer can effectively play in no time. Learning some of the more advanced commands take a bit of getting used to. That is if you are new to the GR line of games.

Concept: 8.0
A squad-based shooter is not exactly ground breaking, but at a time when Mexico is currently headline news the timing could not be better. The Mexican urban maps are very realistic and the artificial intelligence is so well done I can actually say that for once I was not screaming at my PC as if it would help.

Multiplayer: 7.5
At time of review online play was under maintenance from time to time. Once successfully logged in the games are fun but yet limited to just a two different varieties of games. I was not too fond of the tactical-points system to buy better weapons. When you are a newbie in the arena, those professional players have your blood spilling on the pavement rather quickly. Now you’re stuck with the most basic weapons to choose from. Makes it a bit difficult to ever get an upper hand in online play. GameSpy has not been to reliable this past week and is yet another reason why I wish developers would just support their own Multiplayer games.

Overall: 8.8
Shooter fans will be sure to find this a very intensifying enjoyable experience. If you have a monster of a machine to game on, this title will be sure to please.