Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Review

goldfries rated it

 

Alright, this game is great! It’s not an easy outing but for those who love tactical scenarios, this is it!

The Story

It’s 2014, and the soldier of the future returns to encounter a new and more imminent threat along the recently completed wall on the U.S./Mexico border. The Ghosts are more powerful with an upgraded Integrated Warfighter System (IWS) but will have only 72 hours to assess the threat and stop the rebels from reaching U.S. soil. With a border that’s 1,900 miles long and an enemy that doesn’t play by the rules, this is a job for the U.S. military’s most elite fighting unit. This is a job for the Ghosts.

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Gameplay

The gameplay is great! Too bad it wouldn’t be great for everyone. Why so? It’s a tactical game, you command an elite fighting unit called The Ghosts and take on battlefield scenarios.

Unlike STALKER or any other story-based First-Person Shooters (FPS), GRAW2 is mission-based so with each mission you’re presented with a scenario update, then you proceed with setting up your crew and armaments and off you go to the mission itself. GRAW2 still evolves around the story as stated in the earlier section of this article, just that the progression of the story is based on your progress in the missions.

Generally I love this game for its tactical nature. GRAW2 comes with an intuitive command for you to control the group, or even giving each member an individual order. Such flexibility allows you to coordinate reconnaissance and assaults, like for example getting a rifleman to provide cover fire while a sniper stands guard while you and the other rifleman storm the front. 🙂

Just bear in mind that the game aims to be realistic, so it’s not going to be your usual FPS where spamming medic-kits, bandages and food could actually keep you alive. 🙂 So if you’re not up to tactical stuff, forget about the game, you probably wouldn’t get pass the first mission.

The thing I hate most about this game would be the lousy crew member AI. For example, being the leader of the squad, I would expect all my members to follow me closely when I yell “Follow me!”, unfortunately if you ran ahead for 30 seconds and turn around, quite often they’re not in sight, either they’re running at a slower pace or just plain stuck at some wall.

So much for being soldiers of an ELITE fighting unit, my kitten trails me better. Quite often I’ll just tell my soldiers to MOVE! and I’ll follow from behind. In most cases, I’ll just charge ahead to save the situation.

The saving grace for the AI would be that they’re pretty good shooters, with corny one-liners that is.

Anyway, once you get the hang of the AI’s stupidity you’ll actually enjoy the game.

GRAW2’s allows games to be saved BUT only at checkpoints OR when the coast is clear, so don’t expect to save a game when you’re combat. It’s not one of those games that you could keep on reloading and hope to take down 2 enemy with 10 bullets and 10% health. 🙂

Do note that patching the game does kill off your quick-saved game files BUT the good thing is that it still retains the progress of the campaign.

Graphics & Sound

Graphically the game is stunning with all the HDR, just don’t expect the game to be as colorful as Ratatouille. 🙂 You’re in a WAR ZONE man, sight-seeing is not an option! I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

The special effects are nothing to shout about but I sure love to look at explosions in the game, especially when you blow up a tank. I also like how they did part where the rocket launcher locks on a heat source, nice!!! I love to be the one firing it (and yes, to view the explosion).

Don’t expect any soundtrack in the game other than at the menu and cutscenes. In the missions, it’s only sound effects from the war zone. (Soldiers! No Ipods! That’s a direct order!). Sound positioning was great as I could hear the effects from my rear speakers clearly.

The only not-so-nice part about the sound is that some gun shots sounded like it was fired from a toy gun.

I do face random crashes when the graphic was set to high however tuning the graphic details down solved the problem.

Online / Network Gaming

Online & LAN gaming for GRAW2 was really fun, here’s a breakdown on the possible game types.

• Recon vs Assault- Ghost Recon experience in Multiplayer, the Ghost team must bomb three Anti-Air vehicles in the Rebel camp. The Rebel team wins the game if all Ghosts are eliminated.
• Cooperative Campaign – Work together with other humans (instead of the lousy AI) on accomplishing mission objectives, campaign style.
• Hamburger Hill – A team holds the central zone of a map, points are gained when no enemy is inside the hill area.
• Deathmatch – Free for all, Quake style!
• Team Deathmatch – Same style, as deathmatch, just that you eliminate only the people of the opposing team.

I was so pleased to find out that New Era had a game server for GRAW2. 🙂 Hopped right in and had fun slugging it out with the other players over a few matches. It’s definitely something every GRAW2 owner should look into. Even if you don’t finish the campaigns, just enjoy GRAW2 in multiplayer mode. It’s even more challenging.

Conclusion

It’s a great game, not an easy one, not exactly something for someone who’s unfamiliar with First-Person Shooters but for all I’m concern – I love it because it’s a game that tests your intelligence as you need to coordinate your team to get things done.

Ratings

PC Specifications Used

Processor : Intel Pentium E2140 @ 3.2ghz
RAM : 2GB DDR2 667
Graphic Card : XpertVision HD2600XT
Monitor : 20″ Dell Ultra-sharp Wide-screen LCD