Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter

Advanced ghost warfighter recon... oh yes.

Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter offers players the opportunity to control Capt. Scott Mitchell across 11 politically and militaristically charged single-player missions, while directing an assigned squad of 'Ghosts' to better his chances of success. Along the way, Mitchell also finds himself tasked with controlling various support vehicles, such as Apache helicopters, Bradley tanks, and recon drones - as well as occasionally operating alone. The game's narrative thread twists tightly around a military coup in Mexico and the resultant kidnapping of both the US and Mexican presidents. Mitchell and company are subsequently dispatched to the (oddly deserted) streets of Mexico City amid the fighting to locate and secure said VIPs while also rooting out and neutralising the source of the coup. Regarding the central story, Ubisoft has admirably managed to keep the game interesting and the player's motivations active while striving to avoid tired plotlines and paint-by-numbers mission structures.

Ever since the emergence of Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia, Ubisoft has effortlessly occupied the throne as undisputed monarchs when it comes to videogame aesthetics, and, in that sense, Advanced Warfighter will only further tighten their grip across the kingdom. The sheer power of the game is visually mind-boggling, and the level of textured detail invested in everything from trashcans and street signs, to sprawling cityscapes and beautifully defined atmospherics truly showcase Ubisoft's crafting as well as the 360's capabilities. Character and vehicle design is almost fanatical in its attentions, and overall animation is both fluid and weighted - which is an aspect many games are found lacking in these days. From the point of view of visual presentation, Advanced Warfighter is everything the gaming community hoped it would be; no one can honestly argue with that.

The same can also be said of the game's aural achievements; the undeniably high production standards set down in previous Ghost Recon series additions are once again in evidence here. Vocal performances (via notably 'non-Hollywood' cast members) are all thoroughly believable and emotive and never jolt against the game's general immersion or promote a sense of disbelief in the player. Musical accompaniment from level to level is comprised of suitably grand militaristic orchestrations and well-paced action themes, without ever leaning too noticeably across the in-game sound effects. And, the sound effects themselves are all authentically sharp and satisfying, especially those instances when surrounded by deafening explosions and the seemingly ceaseless crack of urban-terrain combat gunfire. There's nothing to complain about so far, everything up to this point is glowing where critical opinion is concerned.

Here's the turning point, and it may well grate with some readers. The multi-layered control interface at the player's disposal, which is used to direct Mitchell's squad, support vehicles, and camera-equipped recon drone, is clumsy, ill fitting and difficult to manage - especially when under heavy fire. All the player's tactical instructions are issued through the analogue pad and via a directionally prompting video-link that exists on screen and is fed directly through the view of individual squad members, support vehicles, and the recon drone. That's not to say the interface doesn't work - it does. It works perfectly well if players have precise and lightning-quick reflexes, the eyes of a hawk, and the individual aiming technique of a veteran sniper. However, most do not and this will lead to handling problems. The utilisation of the interface is not the central criticism here, but rather the resulting impact against the overall gameplay. It may come as little surprise to players not especially keen on the squad interface that Advanced Warfighter suddenly becomes a wholly more enjoyable experience on those rare occasions when Mitchell finds himself working alone, or only with his squad, during the game. The original Ghost Recon placed a roster of controllable squad members at the player's disposal throughout the game, and that worked perfectly well in terms of creating increased immersion through dependant AI. In Advanced Warfighter, with its multiple support vehicles and recon drone, it's often an uncomfortable case of more is less, and the constant fiddling during close-quarter urban gunfights pulls attention away from the core gameplay, which is - for want of a better term - to shoot stuff.

Damaging the game yet further are the sporadic moments of ruination committed by the 'assisting' AI. This is most notable when one of Mitchell's squad lies wounded and his closely situated squad mates flatly ignore his plight as he slides ever closer to death's door. This heaps further interface-related pressure upon the player because the wounded soldier must either be personally attended to amid hails of gunfire (and they're usually lying in the open!), or visually sighted so that the medical prompt icon appears and the player can then 'order' the brainless AI squad mates to help. Other AI glitches crop up when commanding the Grenadier soldier to destroy armoured vehicles that sit behind something completely innocuous, like a wire fence, only to have him repeatedly refuse the order until he's been moved into a clear line of sight. Hello...it's a wire fence, not a titanium wall.

Perhaps Advanced Warfighter's biggest point of detraction is its night-vision missions, which can all-but destroy the gameplay flow. Unlike prior Ghost Recon iterations (which have provided clearly defined and seamless night-vision experiences), the night-vision here is a hybrid of both standard night-vision and also thermal vision. And the result is a shambles. Where the use of night-vision is absolutely necessary, it only serves to inflame frustration levels as Mitchell stumbles about blindly without any tangible sense of positioning (other than referring to the pop-up tactical level map). Even though enemies are clearly conveyed as spectral white entities, specific environmental elements (tents, vehicles, buildings, etc.) are all-but lost in a misty sea of indecipherable green until within extremely close proximity. This is perhaps something not common on HDTVs but, for the majority of consumers, pushing up brightness and contrast levels on their regular TVs in order to see where they're going will doubtless cause some degree of annoyance.

Despite its faults, Advanced Warfighter does offer up more than its paltry 11-mission (10 hour) single-player campaign - which will likely become another consumer grievance based on ever-increasing retail prices. The game's Xbox Live component blows the restrictive squad mechanic wide open, and creates a multiplayer-squad gameplay environment that easily transcends the central AI campaign. Though the Live option presently only offers 4 co-op campaign missions for budding squad players, it's highly probable that Ubisoft will swiftly remedy that failing through downloadable content, patches, and/or expansions. Of course, the usual list of multiplayer modes also exists for due appeasement of Xbox Live appetites, and players with decent broadband connections will experience nothing short of total enjoyment from Advanced Warfighter's breathtaking 'Live' experience.

For many months prior to its release, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter was touted as the first Xbox 360 'killer app', and the gathering screenshots, video clips, and demos certainly added considerable credence to swollen industry expectations. But now that the pre-release hyperbole is over, and Advanced Warfighter is on retail shelves everywhere, can Ubisoft honestly raise its creation to the heady heights of Halo - which is what they're competing against in terms of that legendary 'killer app' status? No, they cannot. Does Advanced Warfighter exist as a defining moment in next-generation console history? No, it does not. Does it even qualify as a 'great' game? Well, when the gameplay is not weighed down by the awkward squad controls (specifically when freed on Live) and the occasionally laughable AI, Advanced Warfighter's tightly confined urban combat is thoroughly impressive; and when the visuals are not compromised by poorly implemented night-vision, the graphics are astounding and far outreach anything presently available on the 360. Yet, as an overall package, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter fails to achieve the same levels of intensity as Call of Duty 2, fails to inspire the same levels of tension as the first Ghost Recon, and fails to attain the 'killer app' label worn so proudly by the Halo series.

83%

By Stevie Smith