"Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2"
After introducing a new title to the "Ghost Recon" series, Ubisoft decided to release its sequel on next generation platforms. The Xbox 360 version was released earlier this spring along with the PC version.
"Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2" takes place in the year 2014 and picks up directly from the previous title, with its opening scene mentioning past events from the old game.
The storyline follows that of a Mexican army rebellion, which has spread to the U.S. and Mexican border. You are sent in to quell the opposition and stop the rebels from reaching U.S. soil.
Here you play as U.S Army Captain Scott Mitchell leading "The Ghosts," an elite group of soldiers who are part of the U.S. Army's Special Forces Command. For the most part, you have three other soldiers of different specialties helping you on missions, but some missions you are sent in alone.
"GRAW 2" features a lot of new cutting-edge military technology. It might as well be a running advertisement for the Army's new multi-billion dollar Future Combat Systems project. Everything from systems similar to Land Warrior and UAVs are all featured. The entire battlefield is digitized with the use of the Integrated Warfighter System.
Like "Rainbow Six Vegas," you can seek cover and hide behind a number of objects such as walls, cars, and other solid structures. Similarly, you can peer over and pop a few shots at oncoming enemies. When navigating through cities you are aided by a HUD marker, which highlights current objectives and lets you know where to go. You also get the aid of some Unmanned Aerial Vehicles to give gamers an overhead view of the battlefield.
The Cross-Com feature is pretty interesting to have on the battlefield. It's a small screen in the top left display and gives the users a whole host of command and control options such as controlling the UAVs and your squad. By holding on the R2 button, you can see the view from you teammate's helmet cam.
It's very beneficial because on certain instances such as a training mission, the objective is to get your teammates to neutralize the enemies not you. So you're put in almost a command and control role in some sequences. It also frees you up to accomplish other objectives during a mission.
"GRAW 2" is very impressive graphically, and earns high marks in my book. The developers cut no corners when it came to utilizing the PlayStation 3's full graphics potential. "GRAW 2" is graphically superior to the original "Ghost Recon" games for the PS2. The cutting-edge physics and particle systems show some very realistic explosions, smoke, and environment destruction during gameplay. In sequences you can see rocks falling of a cliff in a very realistic fashion. There is a ton of detail on soldier's uniforms and in the surrounding environment.
Overall, once you get the hang of it, the game is fairly easy to beat so more experienced "Ghost Recon" players should increase the difficulty setting. Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2" is definitely a step up in the series. It plays great and is a fun third person shooter.
For more screenshots of Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2," available now.
Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2" is rated "T" for Teen (Content suitable for ages 13 or older) and is available for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, PC, and, PlayStation Portable gaming systems.