User Review : Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Ups

• Single Player{Graphics{Simple Intuitive Interface

Downs

• Differences between MP and SP

A great addition to any gamer's single player tactical action game library

Hey there, this is Muff1nB4k3r and this is my review for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. (GRAW 2) The version I'm reviewing is the PS3 version, however Xbox 360 owners should still be able to grasp an idea of how the game is overall aside to the few differences that may be present in the Xbox 360 version of the game rather than the Playstation 3 version.

Story:
The game takes place along the US-Mexican Border for the game, expect urban environments, slightly open areas ( farm or bran type scenario)with frequent differences in the types of terrain you will experience, there is however no bright colourful things, ala Drakes Fortune or Viva Pinata. This is to provide the gritty backdrop for the events that take place for the GHOSTS that you command.

Gameplay:

Singleplayer:

Enjoyable to say the least, this game will satiate any tactical thinking gamer's thirst for tactical squad combat. The user interface (Cross-com) is an extremely brilliant way of commanding simple actions, and being context sensitive to your teams loadout and what your crosshairs are pointed at is simple and allows you to rapidly adapt to the ever changing battlefield. Sending your squad to another cover spot , having them fall back is simple and at the touch of a button.

Example: Antitank team member/Sniper
-Cursor points at far off target/vehicle
-CrossCom displays option for the specialist to do his/her thing
-Press corresponding d-pad button (up/down)
- Target Down

Single player will the be the star attraction for this game, replay value is increased with Achievements (points in Xbox 360 version/In game achievements for PS3)

Graphics:
Single player - Great visuals, amazing attention to detail for Scott Mitchell's suit, as well as beautiful effects from explosions and various other facets of the game such as smoke, gun effects.

(There have been hiccups in framerate when there are huge explosions, I mean the absolutely huge ones, not the grenades or Anti-tank rockets, but does not take away from overall experience)

Multiplayer - not so much

Multiplayer:

Is really just a ghost (pun not intended) of the singleplayer, with dramatically scaled back details on just about everything. It was enjoyable for me (25+ hours SP ~5 or less hours MP) for the brief time I was on PSN, the things that lacked in multiplayer showed me what made GRAW 2 single player so enjoyable, the constant knowledge of what is happening to your teamates is reduced by what you see in the crosscom, with the images being seen like little pieces of crap. Details on your character look possibly half as nice as when you're playing the singeplayer and Ubisoft Servers are a lag fest. Multiplayer is a no no.
Local Splitscreen is just as bad as you cannot even have a 3rd person view, but a 1st person view (no gun, no iron sights, nothing...)

Score

9.2

Graphics

Singleplayer experience is brilliant Controls and work on relfex once you're used to the control scheme Story is alright, PS3 only owners may miss a bit of the story, but it will become rather clear by the end if not the very beginning (You either get the story, or you don't)

8.8

Sound

Multiplayer dropped this as well as the random hiccups in frame rate, otherwise it would be a clear 9.2

8.8

Gameplay

Brilliant, if you have a sound system, you're ready to experience the sounds, explosions, and yells from the battlefield!

8.0

Fun Factor

Multiplayer screws with the fun... =(

5.0

Online

This was crappy assed, and to be honest, the only way one would play this was if they simply had nothing else to play, wanted lag, and wanted some crap multiplayer add-on to a great game

Overall

8.9

[Milky]

I hated GRAW 2 but it may be time I should try it again.

[xplosneer]

Or if they had to play T games and wanted a FPS.

[Muff1nB4k3r]

I think I've refined what I meant in multiplayer in my reply to post #4

Cheers

[LJWooly]

Gotta agree with just about everything you wrote, mate. Great UR :)

[Dr Pepper]

Hmmm...

Got to disagree with you on the majority of your review. The multiplayer is the only thing that has stayed partially true to the GR series (and I wonder if you have played the older versions, because then you would know/understand about how the first-person perspective is presented). It is the only time you get to hide in a forest to snipe, actually coordinate with your team (unlike the joke AI you are put with in the single-player), and play tons of modes in the most/most varied maps I have seen in a game. Co-op with tons of people is just plain fun and I find it to be way more enjoyable than the single player.

Speaking of coordinating, what is this about not knowing what your team is doing? I am constantly checking my cross-com (hardly any other game offers something like that), my map (and the players are highlighted on you screen as well), and communicating on the mic to know what's happening with my team members. So, it is basically the best game to know what is going on around you (imo).

Graw2 is also a game that I get the least amount of lag on (compared to Halo 3, CoD4, etc.), but I have the 360 version, so that might be the difference.

Anyways, this is just my opinion/experience, and you are free to have yours.

[Muff1nB4k3r]

I have played the previous installments, but as this review was solely based on GRAW2 I decided not to base it on the original Ghost Recon games which I played on ps2.

While multiplayer can be fun at times (I do enjoy the realism of almost one shot kills depending on what gun it is and what not)
Usually the games I enter end up being fragfests of grenade launchers which may have led to the lag I experienced and possible bias because it can be pretty annoying when few games on PSN happen to be just plain team deathmatches with out explosives.

And while Multiplayer is enjoyable, I wanted to point out to people that may have played games such as COD4 which is an fps mind, but expect more or less the same quality of what they see or experience on and offline; this is not the case, what they expect or what they get from the single-player experience is not necessarily what they will get from the multiplayer experience.

As for planning co-op and etc, it can be mighty fun if you can co-ordinate online (I have yet to find big problems with the AI in the single player) But, most of the users I met on PSN don't have a mike... which is unfortunate.

Thanks for giving me an outlet to refine my review!

Cheers Dr Pepper!

Muff1nB4k3r

[Dr Pepper]

Hmm, I read what I wrote again and I'm sorry if I appeared too harsh. But anyways, I know what you mean about the fragfests, which is why I now just go into matches that have explosives turned off (and if they aren't, people usually just ask for it to be enabled) which are pretty easy to find.

And co-op is less fun when nobody is using a mic (even on live when everyone gets one for free) so it makes working together somewhat difficult. But usually I am put with a group that like to talk so I dont have to deal with those situations too much.

And the reason the modes are so different (single and multiplayer) is probably because they were split between to studios (Red Storm took hold of the multiplayer project), because there are definitely differences between the two (visuals being one of them).

[xplosneer]

Thanks for your reply. BTW:I noticed the visuals as well and it was one of the main problems. It's weird-some maps like The gorge one and the one with the river on both sides, are very good looking with very few jaggies, but if you go to the one where there's a fountain on top of a hill both sides have to go up(mostly orange-ish buildings)there are jaggies everywhere. Very inconsistant.