This game came out a few weeks back and seems to have been largely ignored on the PC front, both by gamers and reviewers alike, but I am posting this to encourage people to give it a go.
Now, a quick bit of history to give context to my thoughts: While I have played many, many types and genres of shooters over the years, the more "hardcore", military types such as the original Ghost Recon, Raven Shield and SWAT 4 hold a dear place in my heart. I spent a simply ludicrous amount of time playing all those game cooperatively with a bunch of guys I used to work with and we all loved the difficulty of them and the fact that you had to had to be genuinely tactical in your approach to them. Unfortunately, passing years saw the Ghost Recon name go to hell. First the xbox only GR2 that was half a step away from being a lightgun game the the (imo) utterly DIRE Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1/2, so, especially with this being a 3rd person game, released simultaneously on console, I had pretty much lost hope that it would be worth my time.
Then I got to play it and was, flatly, very surprised. Now, this is a different take on the war-sim type of game. First up, its 3rd person, but I, someone who normally hates TPS games, was able to get by that. Second up, instead of taking the approach to making a Sim-FPS that people usually take, i.e. make it difficult to control, intolerably hard/harsh and with all its style swapped for substance, this game has gone a different way.
As it is set in the future, you are afforded a whole range of fantastical, though fairly believable, gadgets from drones to EMP grenades (yes, credulity did groan a little there from how far it was stretched) to short-range, localised scanning to allow the Ghosts to see through solid objects, and by and large these are good additions that do not break immersion or seem to be tacked on simply for show. The main gadget of note is a cloaking device (sort of like the one in Predator, but less perfect) that can be activated only so long as you are stationary or move very slowly, and even then it is only somewhat effective. The largest change, however, is in the style of play, and I for one was glad of it. One of the things that always annoys me in games of this type, where I am dropped into the shoes of some super-capable, tech rich, highly trained killing machine with 20 years of experience, is that I am generally not as adept as advertised. I always feel like I should be able to do far more, be far harder, move far more quickly and use my guns far more efficiently than I do. The early Splinter Cell games are a good example of this. Sam Fisher, an experimental, nano-augmented cyber-killer who is sent in to do wet-work at the arsehole of the world and who has survived on his own through countless encounters, was constantly ending up dead on my screen simply because, as a character, he lacked options. The latest Splinter Cell addressed that, making Sam a bad ass who could tear people up with his bear hands and leap between cover as a man who has done this for 30 years and been surgically altered for specifically that task aught to be able. It added a very visceral edge, fully putting you in the shoes of the man claimed to be the greatest spy ever.
GR:FS does much the same thing as it is made in the same engine by the same studio. Instead of having to jog without manually between cover, you get a floating reticule that lets you, by merely holding a button, tear at massive speed between obstacles, your gun always ready. Similarly, while some will no doubt argue that the gun/shooting mechanics are simplified, I would suggest that they are in fact simply acknowledging the skill of the protagonist. The guy you are playing is part of Ghost Recon, an elite, hyper funded, utterly deniable asset that has been through all of the best training available to the only super power left in this world.
What would have been long, drawn out street battles, where your character limped between cover, desperately waiting for your reticule to steady out so you could make the shot, becomes a fast, furious, blast of a combat seen were shell casings fall like rain fmo the enemy but through which you slip like a ghost in the night, always ahead of them, always faster than them, always better than them.
In short, its very different, but I think its a good different. Given a chance I think it would entertain both the hardcore sim-FPS crowd but still be a good lot of fun for the more casual player. As of yet I cannot comment on the multi-player side as my copy...well let's just leave it at I "haven't played it yet".
And now some
music screenshots:
Login
FAQ
Search
[SpA]Howard
canadacanucks01
