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Great Gameplay for Those who Love Small Squad Combat

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 24
Date: March 25, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 picks up where AW1 left off - and brings in a higher level of graphics as well as some new changes to the physics engine. This means if you loved AW1 you'll be thrilled - and if you weren't fond of AW1, you probably won't change your mind here.

To start with, the overall graphics are really quite nice here. The level of detail on individual characters is quite impressive, with the guns, radio, ammo, sunglasses etc. that they carry. A HUD video will pop up with news transmissions or personal broadcasts. The mini-map is in three dimensions to help you with urban assault. Pieces of paper blow down the street. Heat waves and dust storms impair your vision. You really get the sense that this world you move through is barren, dusty, hot and ominous.

The sound fits in very well with this real-world atmosphere. When you're roaming the streets of Mexico, the locals are calling out Spanish dialogue. Bullet shots zing past your head, and the voice acting, while not stellar, is not wooden either.

You're not alone on your missions. You have up to three teammates with you. You can choose from a limited selection of individuals and can make some basic choices - medic, rifleman, antitank gunner. It matches your team up with your personal style of gameplay. I also like that they have some female players in here, and that they aren't the traditional "hide in the back nurses" games that some games offer!

Firing seems a bit slow - when you hit the trigger, it seems like there's a delay before the shot is made. So your own personal actions can get a bit frustrating. On the other hand, team control is well done. You can have your team taking cover alongside you, helping you to wipe out the enemy in well coordinated movement.

You can't go Rambo here and expect to survive. Full out running frontal assaults typically spell doom. Instead, you need to survey your surroundings, creep up slowly, peer around the rock and headshot your enemy before he spots you.

We're generally not fans of "make your squad do things" games - we tend to enjoy games like Splinter Cell where you are directly in control of all actions. But we were very pleasantly surprised with how smoothly and easily this game let you work with your team. The levels that involved alternate styles of gameplay - like riding in a chopper and shooting down enemies as you passed by - were a nice variation as well.

There are a few issues that you just have to accept - for example, in the chopper level - surely someone down there had a rocket launcher and could have shot you down pretty quickly! If the situation was reversed, and you were guarding a convoy under assault from a group of helicopters - you would easily have taken them down.

Still, that's how a game works, and in general we really enjoyed this one. It was fun to play - and fun for others to watch, which is a good indication of how well paced, voiced and "drawn" a game is. It was like watching an interesting war movie, and you got swept up in the events as they rolled out.

Recommended!

Decent but too short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 12 / 16
Date: March 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

GRAPHICS: 5

Pluses: Major upgrade from GRAW1, very impressive. Incredible textures, physics, detailing, lighting, shadowing... and I don't have a HDTV so god knows what this looks like with that, probably astounding.
Minuses: Fair implementation of graphics... you accidentally notice a lot of it when it should have been pushed into the foreground. For instance the whole "wind physics" they bragged about in the demos, you barely notice since they didn't bother to use it except during cut-scenes. It would have been nice to have shifting winds, which probably wouldn't be all that hard to code into the game.

LEVEL DESIGN: 2

Pluses: Some interesting levels like a night graveyard one, where there's votive candles on graves, "tire steps", and other nice touches that made it look exactly like Mexico, and stealthing around in this atmosphere seems eerilly realistic.
Minuses: Absurdly easy level play, nothing like GRAW1. Enemy AI is improved but still dumb, ghost allie AI is much better, but now you almost don't have to fight... far too much support on some levels. I just want the UAV and lot's of targets, not 3 pockets of stationary enemies a tank can eliminate. Too many helicopter gunship missions... 4 I believe... and those are childishly easy. I'd say there are about 3 "challenging" sections of the 12 (??!!) total missions; most are simply "sneak around and headshot", nothing involving tactics. Finally the night "ghost" missions with nightvision goggles (like 2 points in the game) if you use a suppressed weapon (silencer) on an enemy, all neighboring enemies come running at you(???) Why bother dedicating so much of the game to this crap (one button for vision, 5 diff silencer weapons) if the AI behaves like it's daytime and using normal weapons? Makes zero sense. Some bad programming involved.

OVERALL GAMEPLAY: 4

Still a great title, for a FPS it's the best on the 360. Multiplayer has tons of options including many co-op ones that are crazy.... Helicopter elimination where you have a team working together as they are swarmed by choppahs. Fun and crazy. I just wish there were more intelligent strategic levels to match the quality of the graphics, texture mapping, and physics. Still highly recommended despite my high expectations of the game.

Game freeze problem and bad customer support!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 15, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Good: This title has great and improved graphics. Little tweaks that give this game almost prefect gameplay.

Bad: Short single player campagin. Buggy online voice communication and people drops offline are very common. A little pricer than the last title.

Ugly: Freezing bug (undetermined reasons from software or hardware) makes this game totally unplayable on some old XBox360. Some have even reported that the game bricking their consoles (the 3 red light of doom). Hundreds of complains on the Ubi and MSLive forums but yet any reponse from the companies in the first week. This kind of customer support really breaks many gamers' heart.

Five stars but,

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: May 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just played through this,I've been playing Rainbow Six:Vegas before so I thought I'd give this a try.First the visuals and sound are superb,the outside combat is really cool,love the maps,but the controls are lacking.My biggest complaint is the taking cover feature.In Vegas just like Gears of war you push a button to manually take cover,in this one though its automatic.You walk up to a wall and it automaticlly takes cover,this sounds good but its really not.Throughout the game I did and did not take cover when I wanted it to,it can be awkward.Having said that there is just to much good not to give it 5 stars.Be warned though Rainbowsix Vegas is a better game,so get that one first then go here.

Awesome

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 7
Date: March 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I love the Ghost Recon series, and just about every Tom Clancy game. Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2) is a great war game. The graphics are excellent, the sound is top-notch, and the gameplay is some of the best around. If you're a fan of war games, this is the one to get.

Graphics:

The graphics in the game are great. The environment looks spectacular, especially when the sun is shining on water. Individual leaves on trees cast shadows onto your character, which is really cool to see. The explosions are the best of any video game around, and look very realistic. The character faces could be a bit more detailed themselves, but I'm honestly not looking at the faces of my teammates when I'm shooting an opponent. It's not that they're bad, they could just be a little better. When it's raining outside and a bullet goes by you, you can see the trail of the bullet through the rain. During points of this game, you'll just stand there looking around because it's such a great looking game.

Graphics Score- 4.5

Audio:

The audio is just as great as the graphics. From the rustle of your clothing and equipment when you're running, to the sounds of explosions, to the reloading and shots of your guns, the sound is phenomenal. The only knock I have on the audio of this game is that the voice-acting is not very good. Sometimes, it's way over the top. Sometimes it's very good, it's a mixed bag.

Audio Score- 4.5

Gameplay:

This is where GRAW 2 shines the most. The gameplay in this game is fantastic, online and offline. Some people say that the gameplay is too slow, I disagree. I think the speed of it is perfect. You shouldn't be able to roll on your stomach in under a second, you've got 30-50 pounds of equipment strapped on your body. The roll speed is perfect to me. Also, it takes a little time to reload a gun, you shouldn't be able to reload in under a second. You have to release the old clip, reach for the new ammo, and finally load the new clip into the gun. Why are people complaining that it taked too long to reload? This is a realistic game, we're not playing Halo.

Offline gameplay is great, but I especially love the online play. There are MANY online modes available, including: Co-Op Campaign, Team Elimination, Capture the Flag, Terorist Hunt, and many others. I usually play Co-Op Campaign because it's more realistic than Team Elimination. The problem with Team Elimination is that most people just run and shoot in order to increase their kills number. They don't care if they die, because they'll respawn in 10 seconds.

Co-Op Campaign allows you to team up with other human players and go through missions against the CPU. This is good because the CPU opponents actually act as a team, and will try to flank you. The AI this year is smarter than previous versions in the series, and that's always a good thing. Most hosts will set respawns off, so your human teammates will treat the missions as they would in real-life. Also, you can add CPU teammates to your team if you don't have enough human participants. The most players allowed in online servers is 16, which is a good number. I think any more than 16 would cause lag, I haven't experienced any significant lag so far, and I've owned the game since the day it was released.

Another complaint from other people is that you can't take cover behind an object and shoot around/above/under it. YES YOU CAN! All you have to do is hold the left bumper button and youtake cover. You can shoot around/above/under the object you're taking cover behind. The only thing you can't do is shoot blindly around your cover, like in Rainbow Six: Vegas. However, you CAN take cover behind objects and shoot around them. This is applicable in BOTH online and Single Player modes. Play with the buttons folks, you'll discover that you can perform many actions in this game.

Gameplay Score: 5/5

Overall, this is the best Ghost Recon game in the series. It's also the best war game available right now. I don't classify this in the same category as Rainbow Six: Vegas (RSV), because RSV is more of a tactical shooter in close quarters. GRAW 2 is more of a war game in open areas, much like what you would see on a battle field today. If you're a fan of war games at all, you need to go buy GRAW 2 whenever you have the ability.

OVERALL SCORE: 93%

Solid Game But has Issues.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

While GRAW2 is definately an improvement over part 1, there are are issues Id wouldve liked see done better. The left to right gun movement while in aim LT mode is sluggish, Ive preferred a option to change L/R gun speed in options menu. And there are at times to many orders and commands to give in the middle of gun fights. Sometimes it takes away the fun factor of playing a game.But I have to say this still is a great game , The weather effects look quite nice on my LCD TV 1080i . There's one desert type MAP where there dust devils are swirling around in the distance which looks quite nice , some of the best ive seen on a console system. Also I like how sometimes if I die and reload a checkpoint ..the weather has comepletly changed from sunny to dense fog type conditions.And if you go very slow in a map you'll see it go from sunny to dark night, which adds to the koolness factor. The A.I. isnt very agressive I dont remember ever being flanked one time. So dont expect VEGAS SIX type enemies. I do feel that many elements of the graphics are nicely done ,especially the weather. But I will say if you dont have HDTV you might get a different impression. If your a fan of GRAW1 you should be happy with this game. But the A.I. does seem less intelligent than games like Rainbow Six Vegas, or GEARSofWAR.But I still had funplaying it. After playing the spectacular GEARSofWAR and R/S-VEGAS story campaigns a bazillion times its nice to have something fresh to run through. AT least rent it and beat it in 2-4 days.Peace.

Rental Yes. Purchase No.

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game leaves a lot to be desired. The best thing about this game is the toon's movements. Running, crouching, firing etc all look very good.

While it is a good looking game, the single player missions are very short and there are way too many cut scenes. Making my controller vibrate for 5 minutes during an unnecessary Humvee ride just drains my batteries and my patience. The overall storyline of "OMG ROGUE NUKES" is pretty lame.

I didn't enjoy the aiming aspect of this game. I know it's supposed to be wide open while RSV is close quarters, but I never got within 50 yards of an enemey. You just get your gun near, wait for the crosshairs to change and pull the trigger. It was too automatic. They needed to mix up the action.

The remote units are overdone. I don't need to see the camera angle of my remotes, besides when you use that feature your toon just sits still. Boring. The chopper was fun to command, but in the whole game you only get it for a few minutes. The remotes may have been more enjoyable if they required actual tactics. Your team's AI leaves a lot to be desired. Example, if you target someone to kill and then move slightly and target them again your team leaves cover and runs toward your target. That is stupid. Also, after completing the entire game I was still unsure of the best way to heal teammates.

The HUD is also overdone. I felt like I was controlling a terminator, not a ghost.

Online play is not very enjoyable. Again, everything is done from such a distance I feel somewhat detached. There's a lot of sneaking around, but with none of the suspense of RSV. If someone gets you in their crosshairs from across the map, they will not miss (unless you ar running). This takes the skill away.

As mentioned, the gun reacts slowly. If a terrorist runs across your screen you can't lead him with your gun, he will outrun your crosshairs. That's particularly annoying.

I wish I would have rented this instead of buying it. As a rental I would probably rate it higher, $60 later and very little replay value and it's a 3 star game at best.

QUICK EDIT: This game also froze my xbox several times, and my xbox is only a few months old. Every other cutscene required a hard reboot!

Pretty much just more of the same...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: December 10, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I kind of have a love/hate relationship with sequels. When a game is great and they make a sequel one of three things can happen:

1. The sequel just stinks it up,
2. The sequel is more of the same, or
3. The sequel improves upon an already great formula.

Obviously, option 1 is bad and option 3 is great. But most sequels (GRAW2 included) fall in option 2 with hints of 1 and 3. GRAW2 is a very short game with the same graphics and gameplay as GRAW and a few improved tweaks on the multiplayer game. By itself, GRAW2 would be a good, albeit short game. But as a sequel with a year's addtional production I just expect more. This game feels more like a $60 expansion pack than a full game. With the explosion of online content for console games I expect to see this kind of crap less and less as a stand alone product and more as additional content. GRAW2 is good but I docked a star because it feels like another piece of subpar development and exploitation by the game megacompanies.

I'll get off my soapbox now. If you really liked GRAW then wait until this goes down to $25 or $30 and then buy it.

Well executed, but short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you like tactical shooters, the Tom Clancy games are the ones to get. This is a third person shooter and in much of the game you have control of a squad of 3. The game closely follows the first installment, with perhaps more polished graphics. The game can get complicated when you have to control your team as well as a UAV, Mule, A1 tank, etc. My biggest complaints are that the AI is still not that good (Rainbow 6 Vegas is much better) and the single player mission is short. If money is tight, get the first installment. If time is short, get Rainbow 6 Vegas. If neither is an issue, than get them all and enjoy!

Well done single player... Frustrating ultiplayer for the newbie

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me begin by saying... I like Tom Clancy's games. I own or have rented most of them...

I also tend to like playing games... alone

That said, I enjoyed the single player game. Played on the harder levels, the game is a challenge, enjoyable and the plot is... well semi- kind of- plausible. The single player game, made the game enjoyable...

The multiplayer game was frustrating to say the least. If you enjoy playing with a handful of people you don't know... you will probably be okay. That said, be prepared to get chatted up by hosts more interested in talking then playing. Be prepared to get booted to make room for another player. Get prepared to get booted because you have a low rank and a higher ranked player doesn't want to lose to you (as it may in turn lower his rank). If you want to try and play with a friend, be prepared to spend some time trying to find the same ranked server... I got rid of the game earlier than expected, because of frustration with the multiplayer games...

In conclusion, if you are used to some of the frustration associated with multiplayer games on xbox live, and still love them... give this a go. If you want a challenging, rewarding single player game (though a little short), RENT THIS...

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