Ghost Recon Review

So, in order to make up for not posting any new reviews for 20 days, today you get two reviews, one game and one anime. The game review is for Ghost Recon, a PC game made by Red Storm Entertainment in 2001. It is a tactical first person shooter, where the player controls the "Ghosts," elite rangers who are sent into Georgia on a peacekeeping mission and end up fighting Russian Ultra-nationalists who want to resurrect the Soviet Union (the game is set in 2008).

So, here we go. Ghost Recon is, honestly, one of the best first person shooters ever made, and this comes from a person who's played a lot of FPS games. Actually, I've played a lot of pretty much every kind of game, so...yeah. Just realize that I'm not completely clueless about the genre. So, what makes Ghost Recon so good? Well, it's got great visuals, tight, responsive, and easily adjustable controls, a decent AI (for a Tom Clancy game), overall awesome gameplay, and a classic Tom Clancy U.S. vs. the Soviets story (though this is hardly the focus of the game).

     I'll start by following my usual formula and begin with the gameplay. You move around in a sandbox map, see enemies, and shoot them. There, that was easy, wasn't it? But no, in all seriousness, Ghost Recon has some amazing gameplay. If you've ever played a Tom Clancy game before (at least, a good one), then you're probably aware that, in essence, every gun is the golden gun from Goldeneye. Both you and your enemies may as well be wearing tissue paper, at least if you're using rifles. One shot, or rather, one hit, from almost any gun, is usually enough to kill anyone.

Yeah, I think we all saw you coming

If you're wondering how this could possibly be fun in a video game, the answer to that really lies in the AI, the visuals, and your own personal tolerance for frustration. Before I go on, that's something I should point out. These games (Ghost Recon and Rianbow Six) are often called the "thinking man's shooter," in part because they usually require more than just reflexes, but also because the "thinking man" is assumed to have more patience and a higher threshold before snapping and throwing their computer out the window then, say, "the raging buff jock man." I really want to make this clear, so I'll say again in yet another way: This is not a "run-and-gun" FPS. Which is not to say you can't play it like one (success rates vary), but it's not intended to be. This is a "scan the horizon, identify your targets, stealthily make your way to the position of your attack, then systematically wipe out all your enemies with a well executed plan" FPS. You know, that subgenre. So, with all this said, on to the gameplay (for real this time).

Can you see the Russians? They can see you.

So, I'm going to start with the AI. The above caption is actually not entirely true (in case you're wondering, they're those little dots about a centimeter above the reticule). Usually, the enemy cannot identify you unless you're out in the open or are very close. Almost always, the same holds true for you. Thinking about it, if the AI had been just a little better or a little worse (in terms of skill), the game would very likely have been ruined. They react to suppressive fire, individual sniper shots, and seeing enemies. Their ability to notice you is effected by how good your cover is, how much you're firing, and whether or not you're using silenced weapons. In other words, it's great. The make-it-or-break-it aspect of a game where one shot kills, though, has got to be how easy it is for AI to notice you. Fortunately for everyone, Ghost Recon found what is nearly the perfect compromise. They are good at spotting you, but not too good, and not if you're careful. Now, this may sound weird to a generation which grew up on gameplay based around dying and respawning (I don't really know the age range of my readers, so you may not be included in that generation), but it is actually possible to make it through a level of Ghost Recon without dying. Really. This is not a game where you die, reload at the last checkpoint, kill the guy who killed you last time (because now you know where he is), get killed by another guy, reload again, repeat. Admittedly, it can be like that sometimes, but more often then not, Ghost Recon is a game about planning carefully the first time, and if you die, you continue as another member of your squad, with some occasional quick saving/loading here and there. The game is by no means easy; and if you just run around a corner, chances are you're gonna get a bullet between your eyes. However, it is not unreasonably difficult; the AI, while accurate, do occasionally miss (especially at longer ranges), and they can't see you in a forest from 100 feet away. The other AI we have to look at, of course, is that of your allies, the other soldiers in your squad. They, too, are well balanced. Unlike some games <*cough*Battlefront II*cough*>, your allies in this are actually moderately able, and aren't simply there to give away your position to the enemy and get summarily killed. They are mostly able to carry on a firefight by themselves, and are not so incompetent that they are unable to take out any enemies. The one thing is that while they are good at defending, they aren't so great at autonomous assaults. Granted, you're usually only going to be attacking one specific point at a time, so you'll be able to lead the attack and make sure your squad (which follows you) is under good cover. There is also the fact that the game would be boring if you could just sit back and let the AI run in and kill everyone. However, it can sometimes be a little annoying to try to have a pincer attack and have the AI squad get wiped out. This is only a very minor flaw, however, especially considering that you can easily switch between squads and squad members and position them both before an attack. In fact, this switching between squads is so good that you can almost control two or three soldiers in a firefight simultaneously, but I'll get to that in a bit. So, over all, the AI in this game is good. Neither your allies nor your enemies are too good or too terrible. Everything about the combat in the game (and, by extension of that, the game itself) is based around careful planning, cautious approaches, and patience, and dealing with the AI is no exception.

With patience and practice, you too can get the ever sought after "one-shot, four-kills."

     The next aspect about the gameplay is the controls, and they too are great. Your soldier can crouch, go prone, lean, run, walk, shuffle, and strafe. Really, there's not much more you can ask for, in terms of movement controls. There are a few other generic controls ("R" for reload, "B" for binoculars, "M" for change rate/mode of fire, scroll up for zoom in/look down your scope, and so on), and all the controls are totally adjustable. The other main aspect of controls after moving the switching between squads. You can have an Alpha, a Bravo, and a Charlie squad on a mission, and switching between them is as easy as pressing 1, 2, or 3. If you want to select an individual squad member (as opposed to the squad leader), just use your "view team" key (there are controls for both toggling and showing) and click on the unit you want to control. If you want to tell an AI squad to move somewhere on the map, just select their squad and click where you want them to go. Really, I am continually amazed at how easy it is to switch between and order units. It'll take a little while to get your controls to match your exact preferences, but once you find a style that works for you, the controls themselves do the rest of the work. I mean, nearly every game requires you to modify your control scheme to some degree (games like Jazz Jackrabbit 2 being the rare exceptions), but there is more to good controls than just nice defaults. Controls need to be responsive, there can't be too many or you'll be using with "K" (using K is never a good sign), and there need to be enough that you can actually do things and controlling your character is natural, instead of laborious. Ghost Recon meets all of these requirements very well, and moving, shooting, and looking at maps or changing between squad members is a simple and easy task.

Team selection screen

     The last thing I'm going to talk about with the gameplay is actually the gameplay as a whole. Now, I've been talking about how this is a cautious, almost strategic shooter, but what does all of this mean? Well, Ghost Recon is, undeniably, an exciting game. When you hear the bullets flying by, you know that you're only a few seconds away from death if you don't pull back or find the enemy immediately. But, more than that, Ghost Recon is a tense game. I like to joke and say that Ghost Recon is kind of like a horror game; it feels like death is waiting for you around every corner, and most of the time that's actually true. The big draw of this game isn't its action and excitement (though, as I mentioned, it does have those elements), it's the tension of the game. As you sneak up behind the enemy encampment, fully aware that you may have missed one patrolling enemy who could shoot you in the back at any second, that feeling you have is tension. If you were to take a stealth game and combine it with a horror game, the feeling you'd get from playing that game would be somewhat akin to this game. The result is fantastic. I don't even really like horror games, and I love this game. Anyways, that's it for gameplay, so now we just have visuals, sound, and game content.

You have to admit; pretty darn good for 2001

So, for visuals, Ghost Recon seems at first "just passing." And while the game doesn't look bad, and it was probably even groundbreaking in 2001, it certainly doesn't make you blink in wonderment. At times, the amount of map rendered is a little low for the size of the map (as in, when you're using a sniper rifle or binoculars, the map can disappear into "fog" - the area the game hasn't rendered 'cause it's so far away from you). Also, things can get a little blocky, and at its absolute worst, you start shooting the piece of cover you're behind because you didn't quite clear it, even though it looks like you did. So why, then, did I call the visuals "great?" Well, first off, you have to realize that I've never been one to be sold over by graphics, so good or bad graphics don't mean tons to me. What matters to me is whether or not you can  be immersed by the graphics. Looking at the screenshot above, it doesn't compare with a picture of actual woods (the HUD display doesn't help), but you can believe that you're in the mountainous woods, that you're walking on grass and soil, and that the dark object in front of you is, in fact, a tree and not just a clump of pixels. However, that's not what makes the visuals good. There is one thing in particular that I'm going to hold up as really good, however, is the use of camouflage and terrain. In many games, characters wearing camo is just obligatory; they're army people, so it's obvious that they'd use camo, right? In this game, however, camo actually holds visual meaning, especially in multiplayer. Camouflage actually serves to make you harder to see. Remember that camo can do that? The same holds true for the enemies (though their camo usually isn't as good as yours). This just makes such a difference for me. Why? Well, I've often said that visuals "don't get in the way of playing the game" in my reviews (for the games that have mostly good visuals). If the rendering fog was so severe that you couldn't see targets in your range while just using a basic rifle, then that would be an example of visuals that interfere with gameplay. Things like that camo detail, make the game better. You could be playing multiplayer and there could be another player prone in the bushes five feet away from you and you wouldn't know it. This kind of thing (at least, in my opinion) is an example of visuals that actually enhance the gameplay and make it better. You'll have to see for yourself whether or not you like it, but I personally think it is a very nice touch.

On a side note, the weapon models in the game are really pretty nice

     The next thing is the sound. This'll be quick. There is little music in the game, all of it in the menus. It's not particularly good or bad, though after a while it gets old (in which case you can just turn your speakers down). Really, the music plays such a tiny part in the game that it is barely even worth mentioning. The sound effects are a different matter, though most of them are strictly practical. You can tell how close to you a bullet hit from how loud the sound was, you can how quietly you're moving (which has a direct impact on how easily enemies notice you) from how loud your footsteps are, and you can even tell whether you're at the limit of your endurance by how heavily you're breathing (endurance doesn't have a huge effect on gameplay, but it's still pretty cool). That's really it for sound. There's some voice acting, which is neither drop dead awful nor...drop dead amazing, but it's decent. It doesn't come up that much, mostly just brief confirmations of when you or a teammate kill an enemy. Honestly, while the sound effects are nice, the sound plays such a small role in the game as a whole that I'm not even going to rate it.
     And finally, we get to talk about the multiplayer. There are a number of options available for multiplayer: you can play over LAN or over the internet. There are multiple game modes, including standard deathmatch scenarios and also a few others. The game supports up to 32 players (8 soldiers on 4 teams), though I've only had the chance to play it with 4 (and I wouldn't suggest doing a deathmatch with anything below that number). That said, the co-op multiplayer has to be the best thing about it, and it could even be debated that it's the best thing about the game. Co-op, to the best of my understanding, can be played with up to 8 players (one team), and, quite frankly, it's awesome. As I said, I've only had the chance to play this with 3 other people before, but it was immensely fun (and yes, I do love LAN parties). Me, my brother, and 2 of my cousins all played it in the living room one night, and I remember it as one of the best multiplayer experiences I've ever had. It's still a little hard for me to pinpoint the exact reason for it being so fun. Maybe it was the ability to coordinate attacks on groups of enemies from all sides. Maybe it was the ease of mind of clearing out a building with the help of a friend. Like I said, I can't really say what it was, exactly. The bottom line, though, is that if you've got a friend (three or more players are preferable, but you can do it with two) and a couple of computers, this is probably the best you can do for a co-op multiplayer FPS.

     Now, this game is not without its little irks. For example, there are 4 unit types: Rifleman, Support, Sniper, and Demolition. There is little difference between the soldiers themselves (except for how they look), but each class can choose between 4 weapon kits. Every kit is a mirror of the other class's; you get a primary weapon, and then grenades, a sidearm, extra ammo, or a support device (claymores, sensors, etc.). There are also specialist units you can unlock, and each of them has their own special weapon. Sounds pretty standard, right? What, then, is the irk? Well, the complaint I have with it is that you can't just pick your weapons freely. What if I want to use a machine gun and a non-silenced pistol (because they do more damage)? Why should having a grenade launcher stop me from taking a sidearm? There is already a considerable amount of freedom in weapon selection, so this is not so much a "problem" as it is just a complaint. Another very similar complaint is that you can't pick up enemy's weapons. Considering that when you run out of ammo you can't get any more, and also considering that your sniper may have gotten picked off in that last clearing and now you need someone to scan that clump of trees there, such a feature would have been much appreciated. This, again, is not a problem, but a complaint. I think I've only ever run totally out of ammo with a gun once in all the times I've played the game, and also considering that the sniper's death could probably have been avoided by simply moving him around the clearing. Still, it just would have been nice to see it in the game. In the same vein of complaint, you also cannot customize your appearance. Even just being able to change your face camouflage (there are a few variations, so soldiers don't look like clones) would have been a nice little feature. And lastly, the game could use a map maker/random map generator. While I am pretty sure that there is downloadable fan made content (if you know of any good sites, post a comment and let me know), unfortunately there are just 16 maps that come with the base game, and these are the same maps as the missions. This is probably the only thing about the game that is an actual "problem." Between multiplayer, single player campaigns, single player quick missions, and the firefight and recon options, each map has a lot of replay value. But the fact remains that there are still only 16 of them. There are two expansions for this game, neither of which I have, and I get the feeling that if I had them, any replayability issues would be over. Like I said, they pack an astonishing amount of replay value into each map, so if I had even just 16 more, I'd probably never get bored of them.

Overall: Ghost Recon is one of the best first person shooters I have ever had the pleasure of playing. It's fun, it's tense, it's got great gameplay, it's got a nice realism to it, it's got a great multiplayer, and it even looks nice.
     Gameplay: 9/10          The gameplay in Ghost Recon is exceptional. The AI is balanced, the maps are fun to fight on, the controls are great, and the action is nerve-wracking. While the ease of death (I say that like it's such a passive thing. I'm sorry, I meant "While the mass-slaughtering...") of both the player and the enemies (mostly the player) may ward some off from this gaming gem, I highly recommend it to anyone who is willing to try something different from the wild "run around and shoot whatever moves" FPS games that are so common today.
     Visuals: 7/10           Like I said before, this game is not the most striking, visually. Still, it by no means looks bad. It's a 6/10 if you add the fact that nothing really gets in the way of playing the game, and a 7/10 if you add the great experience camouflage adds onto that.
     Sound: --/--          As I said, sound plays such a tiny role in this game that I can't really rate it. The sound effects are nice, though, and do sometimes add to the tension.
     Game Content: 9/10          Even with only 16 maps, this game has plenty of content. Between the single player campaign, the quick mission option that lets you to a basic team deathmatch with bots, an awesome co-op experience, and 3 difficulty levels for each, you won't be bored of this game for a long time.

Game Rating: 8/10          Ghost Recon is a great game. If you consider yourself a fan of first person shooters, you should try it. If you consider yourself a fan of tactical games, you should try it. If you consider yourself a fan of video games in general, you should try it. Really, if you can get past the difficulty, one of the richest FPS experiences available waits for you. With a great single player, a great co-op, and a lot of death in between (both yours and the enemy's), I highly recommend this title.

Any suggestions/requests for my next reviews? Leave a comment!