Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review (X360)

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is the best Ghost Recon game yet. Period. End of discussion. It looks and sounds amazing and the new additions to the gameplay make Advanced Warfighter one of the best playing squad-based shooters around. And best of all, the game is amazingly newbie friendly while still retaining all of the stuff Ghost Recon fans love. Xbox 360 owners, you need this game.

Story

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter takes place in Mexico City where rebels have attacked a summit between the leaders of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. The presidents of the U.S. and Mexico have gone missing and the Canadian Prime Minister is already dead. The city is taken over by the rebels and it is up to you as Scott Mitchell, a captain in the elite Ghost unit, to rescue missing dignitaries and take back the city.

The story as a whole is pretty good but the way it is told is the impressive part. Rather than cutscenes and long conversations that take you out of the game, everything is presented right on the gameplay screen. In one corner of the screen you’ll get a view of what your teammates or support vehicles can see and in the other corner you’ll be patched in to briefings from your superiors as well as news broadcasts. You get to absorb all of the story information while you are sneaking through back alleys and issuing commands to your team, which really helps to immerse you into the game.

Single Player

The single player campaign is a nice mix of oldschool Ghost Recon with new features and ideas that make the game better overall. The biggest change is that the game takes place in a sprawling urban area rather than out in the boonies, so instead of getting sniped from a mile away by an enemy you can’t even see you get sniped by an enemy hiding in the building across the plaza. The combat has a much more intimate and up-close-and-personal feel than other Ghost Recon games.

You aren’t just a one many army running through Mexico City, though, and how you use your teammates and other help can greatly alter your experience. In addition to your squad, you will occasionally have recon drones, APCs, and Apache helicopters at your disposal and you control all of them with commands on the D-pad. You can also bring up a 3D map and issue precise orders to your heavy artillery to destroy enemy buildings and soldiers. It is all surprisingly intuitive and the tutorial level at the start of the game does a good job of spelling out the controls. Using the tools at your disposal are vital to your success, but you still have to know not to stumble around corners or you’ll be dead right quick.

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