The first Xbox 360 game to inspired me to write about here is GR – Advanced Warfighter.

So here I am anxiously waiting for Oblivion to rock my world.  Then I see a little blip on the www.metacritic.com radar … a new Ghost Recon game for 360.  Hmmm, it peaked my interest enough to check it out to make sure it’s just another rework of GR2 engine that’s been kicking around for years.  Metacritic nails this new GR with a 91 (out of 100) rating so I read on.

I come to find out reviews rate it highly saying it’s a totally new game, it’s not just another GR2 makeover, the likes of which we’ve been seeing a lot of, maybe too much.  It’s a new story, a new time period, new technologies in the immediate future 2013.  So I sell CoD and buy it Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare (GRAW). 

I haven’t completed the game, I’m currently deep in Mexico City somewhere.  It’s definitely a return to good old Ghost Recon suspense.  Danger lurks around every corner.  You never know if you’re going to get the drop on some Mexican rebels or if you’re going to turn the corner into enemy fire.  It’s the level of suspense that makes the Ghost Recon franchise so remarkable and GRAW has it!  If you’ve played any Tom Clancy games you already understand the games have a level of realism.  Although it’s a first person shooter with some control over a squad, it’s nothing like most twitch FPS games like Doom or Halo.  You must use tactics, the enemy isn’t going to miss you much and when they hit you it only takes two to three bullets through body armor to kill you, or one good head shot.  You won’t overcome the enemy with quick aggressive reactions, you have use tactics to flank the enemy positions.

Setting 

GRAW adds some nice technology but getting comfortable requires a steep but quick learning curve.  If you’ve played any of the GR games you’ll feel at home except for a few tweaks.  In this game you’ll control Capt. Scott Mitchell as he controls a squad through Mexico City urban combat.  It seems that in 2013 a treaty is going to be signed between Canada, US and Mexico in Mexico’s capital, Mexico City.  A breakaway faction of the Mexican government opposed to the treaty captures certain VIPs who are supposed to sign this treaty.  Your job will be to rescue the president while completely out manned and outgunned in the middle of hostile territory. 

Gameplay Elements 

The “quick cover” option allows you to pin yourself close to a wall and peer around corners easily.  It’s a valuable touch for the mainly urban fighting you’ll be doing in Mexico City.  The weapons are nice assault rifle variations, only slightly more advanced than the M-16 A1 rifle I used in the Army.  Some of the weapons have scopes that give you a sniper element which is extremely valuable.  I’d personally rather have a scope on any weapon for one shot precision than a higher caliber round or a grenade launcher, but that’s just me.  I don’t intend to get into grenade range of the enemy. 

You have to get past the HUD (heads up display) which overlays your view of the immediate environment and start working through it.  Only then will working with your avatar in the game start to make sense.  Manipulating Capt Mitchell through weapon choices and all his tactical controls and options is tricky at first but eventually becomes linear.  In fact, I’m to the point now where I find the squad and extra vehicle controls to be clever in their simplicity.  A nice touch (but difficult) is that you can actually feel the encumbrance of all the gear your character is wearing.  You won’t be pulling off any quick strafe maneuvers, dives, running hops or many of the things you’d do in an FPS to avoid enemy fire.  Capt Mitchel is mortal man weighed down by body armor and lots of gear.  If you’ve ever had the experience of wearing combat boots under a ruc sack toting MOP gear including mask, weapon, LBE, drawn chin strap … you know how difficult it is to move with any amount of dexterity.  Capt Mitchell will move forward slowly at first, then he’ll slowly escalate into a trot if you keep him in one direction.  The control feels real because it’s not snappy at all. 

Ordering your squad around becomes second nature with the point and down D pad, it’s easy.  They mainly think for themselves in combat so you do not have to babysit when the bullets start flying.  I don’t quite having healing down, I feel bad and sometimes restart from last checkpoint when one of my squad dies.  I try to take care of the kids under my command.  Trying my best to keep the squad out of fire, I always go in first and only use the squad to put fire on an enemy position as I try to flank.  It’s worked for me so far.  But there are situations where the Mexican regulars are going to surround you and come in from all directions.

When I first read about the Crosscom technology and the unmanned drone you can control to give you enemy positions I though … sounds complicated.  The unmanned drone is very useful once you learn how to use it.  The back button takes you to an overhead map of your area beamed to you from a satellite.  You can send in the drone to give you detailed reconnaissance of the area including enemy positions.  The drone is a little flying “craft” like a UFO.  Normally it flies too high to attract enemy fire or scan for useful information.  But if you put it into “scan” mode you can point and click it to areas on the overhead map and it’ll recon those areas.  The enemy it finds will show up as red triangles on the overhead.  When you go into first person view again you’ll see their positions highlighted in your view as part of the “Crosscom” technology.  It’s literally the eyepiece that goes over one eye from your helmet.  It’s a brilliant piece of real life future soldiering.  It’s creepy when you’re sending the drone to scout and it exposes enemy positions and you start to see more and more red triangles exposed, realizing you’re in the middle of some serious merde.  Then you can actually hear the enemy fire in the distance as they shoot at your drone.  They’ll destroy it if they get the chance so you have to recover it to safety pronto. 

Graphics

The best I’ve seen yet with Xbox 360.  At first I took Capt Mitchell’s sluggishness as slowness or the graphic chip / CPU not being up to the task of rendering at acceptable speeds.  I had just finished FEAR on a PC that is more than up to the task so it was hard to watch this at first.  But you have to realize that 720P isn’t quite 1280 x 1024 and that sluggishness isn’t your processors choking, it’s Capt Mitchell trying to move under some 40 pounds of gear it starts to make sense.  The colors are mainly shades of brown saturated in sunlight so you won’t see many brilliant hues outside the brown, grey and green color palette.  Certain occasions where colors do stand out will remind you that this is the most advanced game system available today.  Views from inside the helicopter approach breathtaking.  Looking out over the skyline of Mexico City looks very nice when you can really take it all in.  This is easily the best looking game I’ve seen on 360, the animations of people’s movement looks very good.  The faces when you get a chance to see any are state of the art. 

All in all, this is a great way to wait for Oblivion.  I might not mind if Oblivion is delayed slightly now and this disc will certainly get a workout from me.  There is an addictive quality once you get past the learning curve and the game’s complex controls start to become linear. 

And one more thing … Capt Mitchell sounds like Clint Eastwood.

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Sound

I didn't comment on the sound quality.  Not a lot to say here because it's excellent!  Like most of the Xbox 360 games it makes great use of the 5.1 surround.  Games are a great way to exploit the surround channels and this one does so well.  What I liked is the subtle uses it has with the rear channels.  At times when you're running down the streets of Mexico City you'll hear voices cry out in the distance in Spanish ... Is that an enemy behind you or just voices carried in the wind?  They use the surrounds to add to the tension, well done. 

Frustrations

Yes, plenty of frustrations trying to control targeting from a joystick.  It's probably just my noobishness but I find myself turning the targeting reticle around the target trying to get it overtop.  I've always prefered FPS games on a PC using a mouse for that reason.  The left trigger “zoom” helps to varying degrees in that regard.