Not as Bad as Expected

When I picked up Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW, for short), I have to admit, I did not have very high expectations. Based on everything I had read on the internet up to the point of my purchase, the game was mediocre, at best.

So why did I pick it up?

I have to confess, I'm a strategy nut, and, given my past track record with other Ubisoft Tom Clancy games (namely the first Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell), I'd come to trust the series as a reliable source of entertainment. Now, there are exceptions to every rule, of that I have no doubt, but I decided to take a chance on GRAW, and, to be honest, I was not dissapointed.

Let me preface here by telling you that my system is a bit better than an average gamers, so some of my playability data might be off. I run an AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (overclocked to 2.25 GHz), 2GB DDR-400 RAM, and an ATi/AMD Radeon x1950XT; not the beefiest system in the world, but plenty for most modern games at reasonable detail settings.

Installation

No issues with this; just pop in the DVD, let the autoplay work its magic, enter in a serial, OK the EULA, and five minutes later I've got a fresh GRAW installation ready. The patch took about 3 minutes to apply (it's big, 250+ MB, as a warning), and then I was set. No other tweaking necessary.

Graphics

Overall, the graphics were quite impressive; I don't know how GRIN pulled it off, but from the moment I saw the huge (virtual) expanse of Mexico City before my eyes, I was impressed. The city literally looks like it goes on forever, and the developers have really taken some time in making sure you're immersed. Coupled with nice use of HDR effects and a generous smattering of particle shaders, everything in the environment looks top notch. High resolution textures are reserved for card with 512MB of RAM or greater, but, after tweaking the game to force high resolution textures, everything ran smoothly.

Object models (including the player) are top notch. You can see every wrinkle and crevice of your Ghost Squad's BDUs and every nut and bolt of your Scar H assault rifle. Vehicles are impressive, though slightly on the bland side, with generic looking tanks, just as you would expect.

The game ran very smoothly for me (though struggling a little in firefights) at 1280x1024 with all settings turned to high except textures and 8x anisotropic filtering. However, some high system requirements are needed to really flex the game engine, so I'm taking points off because I really think there could've been a more efficient way to code the engine.

Score: 4.5/5

Sound

My sound system isn't great (2 cheap speakers and an integrated soundcard), but I could hear bullets whizzing by my head, tank shots booming across the fields, and shrapnel cutting into the wall I was hiding behind. There's a nice use of orchestral score whenever the action gets tense and you're nearing a mission objective that heightens the atmosphere.

Very immersive, overall.

Score: 4/5

Gameplay (Singleplayer)

Alas, for all its technical beauty, here's where the game really struggles. I'll put it bluntly: this game is tough. Brutally tough for anyone whose new to the tactical genre. It's literally one or two shots from an OPFOR (opposing force, ie: the enemy), and you're dead. Ordinarily, this wouldn't be a bad thing, but, even at the lowest difficulty settings, the game presents quite a struggle, and newcomers could be easily discouraged by how readily they die.

The AI for the enemies is good. OPFOR are scattered all around, able to take cover behind any object in their surroundings, and behaving very realistically. However, they seem to have an ominpotent ability to see and shoot you. Even when I'm perfectly hidden in the shadows, peeking out from a wall and spotting them from 500-1000 feet away, the enemy instantly sees me, retaliates with a few rounds, and I'm dead. Additionally, grenades have little to no effect against shielded enemies (ones in front of machine gunes, anti-tank batteries, etc) if you hit anywhere in front of their position. I've never been in a real combat situation, but I'd like to think a high explosive round directly hitting the faceplate of one's machine gun would do more than a scratch.

Your own teammates, thankfully, are similarly equipped with such prescient skills, and are very good at taking out baddies. Unfortunately, they seem to lack the part of their brain involved in pathfinding, getting stuck easily behind objects, facing the wrong direction when bullets are flying at them, and generally acting like dolts whenver you need them. They can pull you out in a clutch, but, against any armored vehicle, they're more likely to blindly run out from cover to shoot than to stay back while you call in an airstrike. This can get frustrating after the 15th time you've reloaded the map.

I like the peeking mechanics, though; you push up closely to a wall, press the "q" or "e" key, and you lean out from behind. Sometimes it feels clumsy, and your gun dissapears if you're too close to the wall, but, for the most part, it's a good way of getting a shot without taking too much flack back.

Stealth and strategy are key in this type of game, items which, due to your handicapped AI, are exceedingly difficult to implement.

Score: 2.5/5

Multiplayer

I don't really engage in multiplayer play, so I can't make any comment on the game currently. However, I'd assume that, with humans instead of squadmates, it should be much more fun than the SP.

Last Thoughts

Overall (I overuse that word), I solid entry in the Ghost Recon series, though perhaps a bit dissapointing. A lot of the basics Tom Clancy geeks love are in there, with some tweaks and enhancements to make things a bit easier. The ability to command your teammates with the middle click mouse button was an inspired addition, I must say. The game is, unfortunately, oftentimes painstaking to the point of annoyance. I don't regret buying it thought, if you like strategy shooters; however, it's just not fun enough that I can give it my recommendation.

Final Score: 3/5 (rounded up from 2.5/5; the gameplay is the most important part of any game)