Title: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2
Genre: Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360
Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: March 8, 2007

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You know. Terrorist, criminals and rebels are never on holidays and this is why the video-game universe is always full of Special Forces, secret commandos and assault elite squads, which number seems higher than the regular army one.

Hence, a new menace needs, again, the Ghosts presence and those lethal Ubisoft soldiers cannot wait to enter in action.

Mexico and Clouds

We are only few days away since Scott Mitchell, commander of the Ghost squad, has completed his "presidential" recovery and rescue mission in Mexico City.

The signature of the collaboration agreement between USA and Mexico is imminent but some revolutionary soldiers, in spite of the suffered defeat, with the support of some allied cells spread all over the Middle and South America and of some part of the population, are attempting a new coup d'état putting the Mexican army under pressure.

But here we are and, always acting as Commander Mitchell, forgetting every holiday dream we'll go back into action with out team-mates. Clearly, the political moment is very delicate, and the U.S.A. government won't confirm our presence in a foreign territory in case of problems. We are NOT in Mexico. We are NOT fighting. We are NOT killing people. We do NOT exist.

We are Ghosts.

A short but intense single-player

Let's go immediately to the point: GRAW2 single-player campaign is as intense as short. Those, who were able to finish the previous episode of the franchise, won't spend more than 6-8 hours on this mode, depending on the chosen difficulty level (among the three available).

The campaign plot is lightly stereotyped and it's very similar to the one we've played about 1 year ago with GRAW1: we'll be alone in some missions, while in others we'll have to command a squad or even use a free gun during helicopter incursions. Moreover, every mission will have several goals: to save a journalist, to destroy an enemy outpost, to defend the position waiting for reinforcements and so on.

Everything, however, has been enhanced to the state-of-the-art by the programmers who were able to improve the title in almost every aspect - graphics and game-play above all - in only 12 months. Let's start from the latter...

The game-play has been refined and now all the little gaps found in the prequel have been bridged. Going into details, one of the most important new features is the possibility to see full-screen what our team-mates are seeing. This is not an "easy-feature" also considering that it's possible to give them orders directly from this screen. Nearly the same thing can be done with supports as the UAV (the flying drone), helicopters and the MULE (the new entry), a sort of strolling armoury with at least some more sense than GRAW1 weapons distributors spread all over the map.

Everything makes the mission game-play deeper and more exciting, giving us the possibility to, if we want, complete portions of every level just giving orders to our men, leaving Mitchell in a safer place. Once again, all this is possible thanks to the advanced Cross-Com technology we can now count on.

The control system has remained almost the same of the previous episode with some tangible upgrades. Among them, it is worthwhile to point out that it is now possible to cover behind set elements and this, with a faster change of weapon feature, makes the action more fluid and less frustrating. Furthermore, we now have a new type of soldier, the doctor, who adds some tactics to the fight and allows us to heal our team-mates when needed.

One last comment on the game-play: this time helicopter missions are easier because our free gun won't superheat as fast as before and we'll be able to shoot on enemies almost without interruptions. Thanks Ubisoft!

Kaboom!

Switching to the game graphics, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 improves what has been done with GRAW1. To have an idea of what we are talking about, just pick up GRAW graphics and add stunning real-time light effects, extremely detailed polygonal models and the best particle effects you've seen in a video-game: the result? The most photorealistic graphics ever seen, to the point that when we'll see on the Cross-Com some real clips everything will seem perfectly integrated in the title, with no wrong note. GRAW2 do not, indeed, points on the graphic brutal power (here Gears of War is still the "king") but on its general impact, given by a never too bright chromatic palette and by the details programmers were able to fill the title with. The icing on the cake is, eventually, the superb realisation of the atmospheric agents that give the title a great injection of realism: for example, during the game we'll see the alternation of night and day, with stunning lights effects.

Moving to the sound, tracks are definitely recycled from the previous episode. It could have been a sort of wanted choice, just to underline the closeness of the events of the two titles, even if some new stuff would have been appreciated. However, the fact that now the music will be present also during the frenetic fighting moments is certainly cool and sometimes we'll feel the thrill.

Set sounds, from explosions to the burst of machine-gun fire, from the shots on different surfaces to the propeller noise of Blackhawks, are excellent and, thanks to a good voice acting (and a good dubbing in Italian, French e German), we'll fill completely immersed in the game experience.

Let's end this paragraph speaking about one of the most important technical aspects of a game: the artificial intelligence (A.I.). Here it lays the greatest difference between GRAW1 and GRAW2: the latter, in fact, can count on a very strong AI which will move enemies behind covers and will elaborate their strategies even using means support.
Fortunately, on the other hand, also our team-mates will take advantage of such feature and now they will more than capable of following our orders remaining alive... ok, maybe that depends also on what kind of orders we give them.

Clan feuds

GRAW2 only fault is the single-player longevity. However, the game gives us also a multi-player experience with 18 maps (and one more is freely downloadable) and numerous game-modes.

GRAW2 supports up to 16 players and comprehends:

• A cooperative campaign (up to 16 players split in cooperating teams) against AI enemies made of 6 missions which surround the main story and set in South America.
• A series of team modes, among which the team Death Match, Territory (teams must conquer and maintain territories), Objectives (teams must recover particular objects), Battle (similar to Territory but with the aid of the computer AI) and Mission (teams fight while trying to complete the co-op missions).
• Death Match, Territory and Objective are available also in the "Solo" version, all against all.
• Death Match, Territory and Objective are available also in co-op against the AI.

The multiplayer longevity is also guaranteed by the fact that every mode can be highly customised and by an already available 19th map - you have only to subscribe to the Ubisoft site - which is the Ghost City in GRAW1.

Eventually, GRAW2 contains a feature that has been always asked by the Xbox Live gamers: the clan support. The game lets you create a clan, join one, send message to your team-mates, play together and choose to search only for Clan Wars in multiplayer matches.

Our only 2 regrets on the multiplayer side are about the graphics - as in GRAW1 and Rainbow Six Vegas, it is less impressive and detailed than in the single-player - and the fact that the cover system has not been implemented: Why? We really don't know...

Conclusions

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 is probably the generally best looking game now available in the market. It is certainly too short in its single-player mode (a well-known plague that affects almost every new game), but has a very complete Live support.

If you've loved the first episode, just go out and buy GRAW2; on the other hand, if GRAW1 was not in your top-5 games, probably also this new chapter and its stunning graphics are not for you.

Evalutation

Presentation: 9
Menus and cut-scenes are at-the-state-of-art.

Gameplay: 8.5
It is almost the same game-play of the first episode with some not so fundamental upgrades.

Graphics: 9.5
Maybe... the best looking game on Xbox 360... in single-player.

Sound: 8
Good but not exceptional and yes... recycled.

Longevity: 7.5 - 9
The first mark is for the single-player, while the second is for the multiplayer mode: you just need to have an Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Multiplayer Factor: 9.7
Tons of modes and maps... and clan support.

Overall Evaluation: 9.5

This is a "must-have" game, but only if you know what you're buying.