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Incredibly frustrating, doesn't deserve the Ghost Recon name

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 94 / 102
Date: May 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Pros:
Physics. Graphics.

Cons:
No Quicksaves. Checkpoints are too infrequent. Friendly AI path finding is questionable. Most of the unique Ghost Recon 1 features and gameplay omitted. If you (the squad leader) die in single or multiplayer, GAME OVER and start over! All maps take place in urban Mexico City. None of the outdoor expansive terrains that made the original Ghost Recon so popular.

Comments:
If you are a die hard Ghost Recon fan be warned. This game has omitted most of the features that made Ghost Recon "Game of the Year." No longer can you jump into and control each squad member, no longer can you issue disposition to your commands (such as "recon", "suppress", "assault", "advance at all costs") and no longer are you in control of up to 3 squads (Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie). Nope, now its just you and 3 other ghosts.

The AI path finding in this game is far from Magellan. Your squad mates barely negotiate the complex cityscape, announcing "arrived" when in fact they haven't and are rather two blocks behind you guarding the back of a fence. As a matter of fact, you are constantly micro-managing your squad because they do not automatically follow you -- unless you issue the mislabeled "follow" command which causes them to merely regroup on your current position. There they'll stay until you manage them again.

The omission of quicksaves or some form of spawn capability is absolutely ludicrous. As a matter of fact, there are no manual game saves at all. Not even from the game menu. Just a sparse checkpoint system. One location had me fighting over 30 enemies, 3 tanks, and 4 armored vehicles in an ambushed town center before I was awarded my next checkpoint. That may be no problem in Battlefield 2 or Call or Duty but proves fairly difficult in 1-shot kill Ghost Recon (practically the only attribute they decided to keep from the original game). One should at least be able to spawn into an AI squad position and continue the fight. That would give you at least 3 more tries before receiving the perfunctory "GAME OVER" screen.

This really could be an excellent game if developer GRIN would either add some manual save functionality, increase checkpoint frequency, or add in some original Ghost Recon features. I encourage you to download the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Demo before you buy. Be sure not to kid yourself into thinking that it's merely a demo and more improvements and features have been added to the final game ... because, I assure you, they haven't.

Stop porting console only games to PC.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 46 / 55
Date: May 13, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Yup, its a console game alright. It's somewhat pretty and explosions are very cool but thats where it ends. I cant beleive I wasted 50 bucks on this.

- Frustrating
- No manual saves
- AI is horrid. AI sees you before you even turn the corner.
- Squad mates are dumb as stumps. Tell them to follow and they run past you into a crossfire.....
- No jumping or walking over short obsticals.
- Squad commands dumbed down and limited for the twitchers.

Do I need go on?

This game would be ok for an arcade setting. But Ghost Recon it is not. Shame on you Ubi

Not much fun at all

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: May 28, 2006
Author: Amazon User

If you've played the previous Ghost Recon game/packs - forget it; this is nothing like it.

If you haven't played the previous Ghost Recon game/packs - then here you play Mitchell, commander of a futuristic crack four-man Ghost Recon team who are sent into various hot-spots to sort out the bad guys the good ole American way - with advanced recon-technology and big guns.

Sounds like fun? It should be - on starting up the graphics are great, the music (if a bit cheesy) creates atmosphere, the intro movie looks good, the deployment into the first (training) mission is slick. Then you're on the ground and into the game - and the frustration begins.

Once you have to do something other than walk fwds/bkwds/left/right - you realise how inadequate the manual is in explaining all the features at your disposal (probably) are. For example, the `Follow' command - nothing in the manual, nada. I can have a good guess at it, but what exactly does it do? And Drone? What? Where? Also there are no stats on the available weapons. Not living in a gun culture, I'd like to know something about the in-game guns to make a decision on which to equip for each mission - but maybe this isn't an issue for our cousins across the pond?

Next, the AI. Your team mates are sometimes incredibly dumb and will happily walk into a hail of bullets no matter have many time you tell them to `Move' or `Stop'. In fact, the commands you issue them seem `advisory' rather than `orders' as sometimes they just seem to have a mind of their own. The enemy AI however, is lethal; they seem to be able to pick you off from a country mile with one or two shots - and then its game over.

Yep, once your characters is dead you're back to loading from the next checkpoint - you cannot assume the role of one of your team to carry on. Which is one of the main frustrations - you find yourself playing the same scenarios over and over again. Now I've played a few games that have used checkpoints instead of save-games and it's been fine. But here, given the sparse occurrence of checkpoints verses the deadliness of the enemy - the game quickly becomes a repetitive chore.

And all these gripes come from training mission! I can't imagine what its like after this!!

Not the Ghost Recon I was hoping for - and not much fun at all.

PC Gamer sick of this treatment

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: June 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I love how our favorite titles get taken from us PC players, get GUTTED for the consoles and are then given back to us like it's some kind of gift that they ported to PC for us. There would be no GHOST RECON or R6 if it hadn't been for loyal PC gamers and now we get this consol hack junk under the title of a once great franchise. I'm done with future GR and R6 until PCGAMER ranks them at 85% or above.

Just like in movies, game sequals are not always better either

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 14
Date: May 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Biggest aspect I miss in this sequel is any kind of diversity in the maps. You?re in Mexico city and that?s it. It all looks the same. Where did the beautiful sunset prairies go where you could almost smell the grass while lying on the ground and waiting for your enemy to cross your sights? I would obviously like to think that future add-ons will contain different terrains, but, who knows when that will come out. For die-hard embassy-style-mission fans from the previous game, who love the street to street fighting, you may be rather happy with this game.
I also miss not being able to control in first person anyone else in the team but for Captain Mitchell. ...then again, that?s OK-ish since it is after all the most realistic way to play. Speaking of realism, graphics and sound are quite good, and the dynamics engine is a great addition. The manual for the game is minuscule. Personally I would really have appreciated an explanation for how some of the "Advanced Warfighting" technologies work (classified perhaps?!). I mean, is it really going to be so that enemies, especially, will be seen with a bright blue rhombus showing their exact location? ...don?t know, perhaps. Perhaps using infra-red signatures that are computer processed and show up in the Heads Up Display. I did prefer though as one just had to pay really very close attention to who was or was not moving around. Which brings me back to the memories of lying around in the prairies. Sigh. PS: no more OICW rifle!

SecuROM copy protection

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 9 / 13
Date: September 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

A previous reviewer indicated that this game uses Starforce copy protection, which is well known for causing system problems. This game does not use that, it uses SecuROM copy protection.

[...]

Flawed addition to the 'Ghost' franchise.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: June 14, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Having been a huge fan of the original Ghost Recon PC game and it's expansions, I was very eager to give this new incarnation of the franchise a try. From the point I loaded up my first game of GRAW, I noticed a ton of differences with this new Ghost Recon as compared to the first PC 'Ghost' game, both positive and negative.

GRAW focuses almost exclusively on urban action. While the new graphics and physics elements make for breathtaking visuals (like the flight and fastrope sequence from the second mission), the game unfortunately takes a turn for the worse from that point.

Those looking for large, open environments will be dissapointed, and the setting becomes repetative quickly. The new HUD and command system is excellent and fits into the whole concept of the information-laden 'advanced warfighter', but this is unfortunately countered by the fact that you can no longer switch between soldiers during play and when your character dies, the mission is scrubbed and the game stops. This is totally unrealistic, not to mention horrible from a gameplay standpoint. To make matters worse, there is no quicksave system which only aggrivates the problem. Some might also complain that in the original GR, you had up to 3 teams of ghosts to control, whereas now it is just a single team. I think this is actually good for the game, and reflects accurately the advanced warfighter concept of giving fewer soldiers, better weapons, protection and information, making them as effective as a larger, more conventional force. From an AI standpoint, since you can't change to another soldier during missions it is all the more important for the AI team members to be more useful. This is another area where the game takes a serious hit, because the AI ghosts routinely experience pathing problems which seriously affect gameplay.

Aside from these negatives, the pace of the action is fast and some of the firefights can be quite memorable. The voice acting is also good, and the music fits in well with the series. Another bright spot is the ambient noise in the game, such as little things like the sound of a soda can being kicked as you walk by one. But overall, caution against those out there who are just expecting a polished version of the first GR!

My Review:

Pros: Drop-dead awesome graphics, physics engine, awesome concept taken straight from real-world trends and near future tech, good sound and musical score.

Cons: No quicksaves, serious AI pathing problems, repetative environments, doesn't fully capture the Ghost Recon feel.

Summary: Not a bad game in it's own right, but not up to Ghost Recon standard. Those new to the GR series will be more comfortable than fans of the first GR game. Definately try the demo before buying.

Time to reinstall the original...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: May 24, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The original Ghost Recon for PC is hands down my favorite squad based 3D shooter. I loved the tactical aspects and the real life feel of being in the battlefield. From the tactical map allowing commands and control of all your men, this game really gave you the feel of being a battlefield commander.

With each new version of Ghost Recon it has become apparent that Ubisoft is no longer concerned with supporting the PC environment or it's users which is a real shame. While I enjoy some console games, primarily sports, I've never enjoyed 3D shooters on console. I like many of my friends prefer the mouse & keyboard as well as the beautifully rendered graphics.

While the 360 and HDTV eliminates one of these, I don't think it's enough to port a console game directly over to the PC.

Most important, I believe that the game play has been dumbed down to the run in, kill, get killed mentality. Gone are the tactical & squad based maneuvering that really defined the original game. That was something original that set this and the SWAT series apart from other 3D shooters.

Might as well go out and buy Quake or Unreal because here is yet another clone...

Game of the Year no more!

Not even in the ballpark of an advanced warfighter...

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: July 27, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Some of the extremely aggravating things about this game are 1) the AI ghosts either wander off and do their own thing or get stuck somewhere and you have to go run into them a few times to get them unstuck, 2)the gameplay is predictable and very very linear (you can only go a certain way even if it takes you directly into a line of fire), 3) there are some problems with the graphics where you see your team mate in places they aren't and get stuck on some of the trees and hillsides, and 4) there are no save points in a multiplayer mission.
On the plus side, the game is very challenging (even on the easiest settings). For the cost of this game and the amount of frustration that it causes, I would just buy something else.

this is NOT like the GR series is more like BF2 - its NOT a FPS its a war-simulator

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 8
Date: June 17, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game has nothing to do with the ghost recon series - witch is a good thing if you did not like the series (like me), in all honesty the should called it something else to avoid confusion. In fact I nearly did not even cheeked it out because I was assuming as well that this is like the rest of the ghost recon games.
This game is more comparable to battlefield2 then ghost recons, and with that i love it

The graphics is amazing; never saw anything like it, way ahead of BF2 or HL in question graphics

Maps have the highest details and biggest size i ever saw, i could only compare is to the since of some of the GTA maps, but with a density/detail i did not even hoped for in a game as of yet

Single player missions are ok, unlike bf2 where single player practically non existent

Multiplayer till 32players - not bad although i was hopping for 64, this should be a pure multiplayer game (but its not)

single/coop modes are hard but IMO just right, it is by far NOT impossible even with the weird saving feature - still at least it has a save feature unlike BF2 for example

this game amazing, ignore the name and play it for what it is not what you think it should be

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