Ghost Recon pwned

I beat Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. I must say, up until the last mission I didn’t really have any real heat against the main villain. Sure, he was trying to take over Mexico, sure he was killing people, but there hadn’t been a personal connection to anything I was doing, I didn’t feel he was after me. Then, they tossed in a twist and bam, I wanted to kill that mother f’er. It was a nice way to bring together what had been up to that point a really solid story, albeit semi unrealistic.

For those who haven’t played it on the XBOX 360, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is an amazing game. Do not confuse this with the horrible XBOX version. They are “the same game” but not at the same time. The XBOX version isn’t a port of the 360 version; it is a completely different game that simply follows the same general story. The boards and missions both play different and the game plays different.

Towards the end of the game I started to get bummed because I knew that the game was coming to a close. Each mission was getting harder, the enemy AI getting tougher, and the missions were getting more complex. I felt satisfied when I beat it though, it was well worth my time. I especially liked the nice touch at the end where I met up with a few other grunts and you over hear them say to each other, “Wow, are those the ghosts we keep hearing about?” That line alone, heard as I was waking by, really gave me the sense that my guys were the elite of the elite. It was a neat feeling, even if it was fake.

I highly suggest this game to any XBOX 360 owner who enjoys the Tom Clancy style of FPS shooter. I’ll say that when I first started playing the Clancy games I didn’t like them at all. I thought they were too hard to control and that you could die to easily. Then I came to respect them. In real life if I shoot someone in the face, they will die. If they shoot me in the face, I will die. If I hit them in the arm, they’re going to spin around, or lose the se of that arm. The same goes for me. If I get lit up with for rounds to the chest, I’m going to go down, then probably die. This is how a Clancy game feels. No shields, no armor, none of that dumb stuff. It plays like real life, or as close to it as possible. My heart races when I poke my head out only to have a barrage of gunfire erupt around me, rounds slamming into the side of the building I’m taking cover against. I know that if I don’t move I’m one lucky shot, or one thrown grenade away from being toast, and I respect that.

I’ve been playing the multiplayer with several of my friends quite I bit and I enjoy that a lot. There are several missions that are specific to online play, almost a separate game, or at least snap shots of what one can fantasize are other missions these Ghosts have taken part in. It’s neat to play through them, even better to play through them with several friends. Unlike other FPS, these missions can sometimes take a hour or longer to beat, depending on the difficulty. The best part, you screw up and die, that’s it, you’re dead. No respawns, no coming back to life, you blew it, and you have to hope that the rest of your team doesn’t eat it because of your mistake. You have to sit there, like an angel, and watch the rest of your team play through the mission until they beat it, or meet the same feat as you. At least while dead you can converse with anyone else who also dies, so that does make the time pass faster.

I’ll most likely play through the game again on the HARD setting. There are several other bonuses to unlock by beating those missions. I won’t be doing that soon though. I’ve got a little game called Kingdom Hearts 2 just waiting to be picked up. I’ll also play some Perfect Dark Zero too, see if I like it or not, and if I don’t trade it in this weekend. Perfect Dark Zero plays more like the traditional FPS, with shields and all that stuff. Let’s hope the game doesn’t suck.

-Steve