Wednesday, 4 July 2012

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier review

I was busy downloading the latest desert warfare shooter, Spec Ops: The Line, on Steam when my mate Roger Jephcoat burst into the office clutching a review of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier which he's been playing non-stop on Xbox since it's release.

Being a charitable sort of guy and Roger being enormously tall and wide and very scary on dark nights, I promised faithfully to print his thoughts once I'd removed his arm from my windpipe. Over to you, Rog....



You know how it is when new games come out? You get hold of a copy of a new title and if you're lucky enough not to have been swept away by any pre-marketing hype, you load it into your Xbox360 and expect sumptuous graphics lovingly crafted to enthuse realism. You know, games like the Modern Warfare trilogy, Crysis 2 and the Gears of War saga ...
Well, you get that with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier... but only just! In a way theirs is refreshingly different but I do so wished that they touched on more attention to detail.

The campaign has 12 decently mapped levels providing very challenging missions to play on your own (with three AI counter-characters) plus co-op with up to three online friends.

TCGRFS also provides impressive accuracy when it comes to weaponry, sounds, environments and the peripheral scenery with long-range distant vistas that other games developers tend to "fog out".
I've played and completed the campaign on Recruit and Veteran difficulties both solo and with co-op buddies and it's immediately re-playable, especially if you're a stickler for in-game challenges, achievements or trophies. I'm now gearing up to tackle Elite difficulty and facing a tough choice: opt for the stealthy approach or go in all guns blazing...

The game also has the obligatory on-line multi-player facility with many combinations of team-based modes as well as Guerrilla Mode where wave after wave of ever increasing enemies try to defend an imaginary Headquarters. There are 50 waves to master so banish sleep!

Although there's never been a truly perfect, well balanced, exceptionally programmed, graphic paradise of a game all rolled into one, TCGRFS certainly has been a remarkably executed and considered game and is definitely a strong contender amongst the current crop of heavyweight first and third person shooters.
The Tom Clancy genre has continued perfectly - all we need now is Rainbow 6: Patriots and Splinter Cell: Blacklist to complete the perfect trinity...

Score: 4.5/5

Lovely bloke, Roger - the guys at the Home are missing him badly though...

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