Game Title: Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Game Genre: Action, Third Person Shooter, Tactical Shooter
Console(s): Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Paris, Red Storm, Romania and Ukraine (all part of the Ubisoft branches)
Date Released: May 22nd - July 5th
Retail Price: $50.97 USD (from Amazon)
Age Rating:: ACB: MA 15+, BBFC: 15, CERO: C, ESRB: M, PEGI: 18, USK: 18
Players: Single player, Co-Op and online mutliplayer
Co-Op: Yes
Achievements: 52 Known achievements
Xbox Live Compatable: Yes
Online Multiplayer: Yes
Xbox System Link: No
HDTV Support: Yes
Previous Edition: Ghost Recon: Alpha
Visuals & Graphics..The visuals and graphics return with their familiar modern day shooter feel and quite honestly it does feel like they've incorporated a bunch of Call of Duty and Battlefield texturing and rendering to their designs. I mean, how many times have we seen the inside of an military vehicle with the swinging rear view mirror attachment and the grit and rendered dirt that smudges the outline of the vehicles window wipers? However, the lighting is executed well and the darker shades are well balanced out to contrast the lighter ones. Shadows however could've had more attention paid to them so they didn't resemble too much of just faint blobs but had more defined tones to them, but I'll stop there before I start nitpicking.
Overall, its not a bad. Perhaps over done, but not bad.
Visuals & Graphics Rating: 7/10Achievement Difficulty..Most of the achievements are ones that are centered for more advanced players who have probably ran through the game at more than one occasion and then there are the achievements that can only be gained through online play. The secret achievements are the ones which seem to be single player focused but could moreorless also be picked up during cooperative play.
Which I guess does extend the replay value of the game, but if you never really caught on well with the game in the first place, then the remaining achievements would simply remain locked.
Achievement Difficulty Rating: 6/10Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty..The story line is not so new, but at the same time, not so cut and paste. However, we do seem to be meddling with Russians; game characters thoroughly exhausted by the other modern day shooters like Call of Duty for example.
And there are terrorist plots to destabilise the world and blah, blah, blah... I think this is just one reoccurring theme for all modern day shooters. But, I guess we have run out of things to shoot at. Aliens, monsters, creatures made up of nightmares, shadows and now we've resorted to people. I guess sooner or later it'd be shooting disembodied heads and perhaps boxes.
But the campaign isn't as hard as many modern day shooters. Little gadgets that you can deploy can help you mark targets for your A.I partners to take out your enemies by a means of a sync shot. Which is a handy if not strategic maneuver as your A.I partners will automatically get into place for you and wait on your command to shoot and kill all the enemies at the same time (or roughly within a second between each other). Which is a concept which makes the title seem a lot more relevant but it does mean that the difficulty level is often scaled back as using this method does clear the field awfully quickly. But its still enjoyable and a nice touch for all the stealth fanatics out there.
Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty Rating: 8/10Game Depth & Navigation Details..As the storyline revolves around modern day shooter scenarios, its not an easy submersive game to get into. There are moments when you think you are finally getting pulled into the game, only to have yourself painfully yanked back to the ground when you read the end of level summary for each chapter you complete which does fail and break the continuity of the gameplay. In my opinion, if it more gameplay then cutscence then gameplay then cutscene, it would have a much better flow to the game while sacrificing the one bit about it that sets it apart from other shooters.
Navigation is somewhat sticky also. Weapon customisation screen in specifics. I like the fact you can customise your gun to better suit it for the environment you'd be fighting in but for the fact that you cannot use the directional pads to help you navigate is a nit of a somewhat odd feature. Usually, I get more control out using directional buttons over the analog sticks. But in this feature, it brings up the categories you can have your gun built to so it'd be perfect for stealth and et cetera, but the least Ubisoft can do is to add in a comparison between the two different models. One before random editing and the other after the random editing.
Storyline Depth & Navigation Details Rating: 7.5/10Value For Money..Meanwhile, the game is currently taking a rest break on my shelf while I occupy myself with other games on a variety of consoles but I still find the levels fun, but annoying to replay in order to gain the perfect Ghost score of 100% (I'm not a perfectionist, there's real neat stuff involved if you get good scores!). But of course the amount of replays are limited by the difficulty and the never changing storyline. What you playthrough is all you'll get.
Until the new DLC's.
Value For Money Rating: 7/10Ratings Round-Up..Visuals & Graphics: 7/10Achievement Difficulty: 6/10Story Mode / Campaign Difficulty: 8/10Game Depth & Navigation Details: 7.5/10Value For Money: 7/10Overall Rating: 35.5/50
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