| Author | Review |
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R1DD3R5
94,473
TA Score for this game: 1,632
Posted on 31 May 12 at 01:14, Edited on 05 June 12 at 15:03 |
This review has 23 positive votes and 11 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This is my first review, and i can honestly say i loved the previous two ghost recons when i got my xbox 360. So to me at least this game had a lot to live up to, after all it will easily now get compared to the many Call of Duty, Battlefield, and various other mainstream shooter titles that dominate this market.
The first thing to note is this game is entirely in 3rd person, and takes alot to get used to. So for those who delve straight to online play and are used to the first person perspectives of the other shooters, be prepared to not be as good as you may usually be.
The second thing to note is that one of the games most redeeming features, both in single player and multiplayer, is the ability to modify pretty much every aspect on the gun. So now you can custom your gun to your game style. This has to be a massive positive and gives this game the edge over other such shooters.
The third thing to note before specifically mentioning the campaign and multiplayer is the graphic quality. It is really well done, down to every last detail and are incredibly thought out well with the lighting being really well thought out.
Specifically the campaign is rewarding. Its enjoyable and makes you play the game at least twice. The Elite difficulty can be said to be a standard hard level. There are difficult moments, but nothing to testy especially to those who usually aim to complete the shooters on the hardest difficulty. The only major downside to this campaign, is whilst it is enjoyable, there are times where the plot seems to take the typical end of the world story line and you can almost predict what happens in the entire story. To those who played recent shooter Sniper; Ghost Warrior, the campaign to me at least seemed to take a similar approach with the whole stealth aspect ( an obviously major aspect to a Ghost Squad).
Multiplayer does have its positives, the significant amount of combinations of guns and attachments, good variety in weaponry, and the games are never massive in people so games tend to fill up quickly and start fast. Levelling up does take a while to get into it. The weapons you begin with are, i would say, reasonable, and unlocks do come at a steady rate, but you do have to persist with the game to get decent things. The maps are a good size, nothing to really complain although there is not really an emphasis on the different sizes of maps as they all tend to be on the Small to Medium Size. The only downside to the multiplayer that is not to do with typical server complaints and aspects is the pairing of the weapons for the default classes (At the time of writing this, i haven't unlocked the ability to unlock a 4th multiplayer character so i'm unsure as to custom classes). These to me at least seem odd pairings, however this may just be a personal opinion rather than a flaw in the game itself. *Edits from comments by Sgt Slithe and Minchy Munchkin* There are 4 types of main multiplayer games, Conflict, Sabotage, Siege and Decoy, All objective based games. Like all objective based game modes working as a team is incredibly beneficial, although i would have liked to have seen just a simple go out and kill deathmatch game mode and reach a limit. These game modes also cross over into a squad multiplayer mode, specifically designed for clan battles, which is a great addition for the hardcore gaming groups.
The final aspect of really multiplayer gaming is Guerrilla mode, which unfortuantly is either you on your own or with your mates. *Edit thanks to Elyoh and RedBlinky for reminding me  * This is similar to the Defense mode from the GRAW 2 where an onslaught of enemies constantly attack you. However this game mode reminds me more of Nazi zombies from Call of Duty, released much later, rather than what they had in GRAW2, and to me it seems as if Ubisoft instead of trying to just do their own thing (such as the Co-op missions they previously had, again like Battlefield but with less of a plot which seems better in a way). They have tried to mimic the dominant shooters and put a Ghost Recon spin on them.
Overall, i would say this is an enjoyable game and worth a buy. As there are many, many positives to playing this game and the hours of fun just from all the different adaptations to guns alone is enough to warrant a purchase and makes this superior to other shooters. But it is fair to say not the overall best shooter this year unfortunately.
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This review has 13 positive votes and 4 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
I've Left this review until now as It's been nearly a good month since it's release and it enables me to give a more fairer review than it would if I had done one within the 1st week of it's release.
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the much eagerly awaited 3rd person tactical shooter to come from Ubisoft. The game was released in the UK on 25th May 2012 to Favourable reviews at first but soon after it's release these reviews started to turn mainly into negative feedback due to the games major faults both in it's singleplayer and Multiplayer.
The Game as mentioned is a 3rd person tactical shooter which pits you in control of Kozak, a member of an elite 4 man special operations unit known as Ghost Squad. This squad officially does not exist and these men are sent into the most extreme of situations armed with the most cutting edge of Battlefield Tech to give them the upper hand into hotspots around the world.
The game starts off with you in actual control of a different Ghost squad who are on the trail of what appears to look like a Nuclear device. unfortunately after taking out the convoy escorting the device, the bomb was rigged to detonate with a dirty bomb and the team was killed by the ensuing explosion. This is where Your Ghost squad comes in. You're tasked of tracking how the bomb came into play near US soil and what players (or terrorists) were involved. This starts with you in Bolivia to secure a HVT (High Value Target) which then follows to Zambia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Norway and eventually the Motherland itself: Russia where the games Conclusion takes place.
Single player & Co-Op
Unlike G R A W 2, Both the Single player and the Co Operative in this game are both the same storyline and also unlike G R A W 2 where there was upto 16 online Co Op there is only the 4 man Co Op here.
The Story itself as stated above has in different parts of the world in different environments and it plays out really well. Dependant on your difficulty (of which theres 3 difficulty setting's: Recruit, Veteran & Elite) depend's on how difficult the game will pan out in future levels I found. While a breeze to play on Recruit, I found that the later levels in Elite were quite tough. Within each level you're given a set of level challenges to complete and an optional weapon challenge too which enables you to unlock new weapons & attachments & camo for your disposal in the single player campaign. While most of these challenges are relatively straight forward (killing enemies with a certain weapon, not being seen while reaching a certain objective ect...) there are a few in certain levels that might need a couple of goes before you're competent enough to try and complete them fully.
At your disposal in both the SP and CO OP you have the most cutting edge of technology at your disposal to give you the upper hand in battle, the best being the active camouflage when crouched. This renders you almost invisible to the enemy and can really save you a lot of time by quietly taking out the enemy quietly instead of going in guns blazing and the enemy calling in reinforcements. Also you have a mixture of Flash-bangs, EMP grenades, Smoke grenades,Sensors which highlight where enemies are in a certain radius, Incendiary grenades, and a funky portable UAV drone which you can control and highlight and mark enemy positions with. The drone can also land on the ground in later levels and cloak itself so you can drive it around & tag enemies too. It also comes with a pulse blast too which knocks out electrics in the immediate vicinity.
Also in the SP & CO OP you're able to mark enemies for a group shot which has you mark upto 4 enemies and then sync all 4 shots at the same time to drop the enemy so the enemy wouldn't even know you were there! Be warned when using this though, if there is an enemy patrol in the vicinity who see's a dead body the alarm will go so you have to plan who to mark and when to take your sync shots accordingly to avoid detection.
The cover system is the same in the SP, MP & co op where it's a basic cover system were so used to seeing now in games. Unlike others though you can supress enemies with cover fire where they will not move from the position they are covered in. Be warned though that the enemy can do the same to you and you will know this is happening as the camera will bob & sway heavily.
Gunsmith Mode
This is one of the games major selling points and it works rather decently too. Gunsmith mode allows you to truly customise your weapon unlike in any other game. Not only can you control what Scope you want on your weapon but you can really customize everything about it. The inner works of the weapon, outer workings, Laser sights, heartbeat sensors, what type of barrel, gas systems, trigger systems, what type of stock on the weapon, different underbarrel attachments from bipods, grips & launchers. Different muzzle selections from compensators, flash hiders, suppressors ect... The possibilities truly are endless with Gunsmith mode and in the SP it really is impressive but unfortunately in the MP mode, I personally feel that it makes little difference at the moment. You could customize a weapon to take the most minimum of recoil per shot to increase accuracy but you will still find your recoil is crazy out of control. You can add more power to the weapon but still find it takes a good clip (sometimes 2) to take down an enemy,
Gunsmith mode also supports Kinect but I really don't see the need in Kinect being used as everything you can do with kinect is actually easier with a controller. Before you finally make up your mind on the weapon you created you can give it a test fire on the firing range and make any adjustments needed to fine tune your weapon.
Guerilla Mode
Guerilla mode is a new edition to the Ghost Recon Franchise and it's one that popping up increasingly in most games at the moment - survive an ex amount of enemy waves!
in this you (and upto 3 other people) take a position and defend it against 50 waves of enemies. the 1st wave is always a stealth wave where you have to ideally take out the enemy without raising the alarm then after this its just about surviving each wave until you reach every 10th wave where you will get armored vehicles too, RPG teams and Riot shield squads all converging on you position. After every 10th wave the area you have to defend will move (Only moves to the same 2 places every time) and you will start again with a stealth round then carry on as normal. After so many rounds survived you do gain "perks" as to say to help and aid you. This ranged from a radar highlighting enemies on the map, a full stealth cloak for a certain amount of time, Guided missiles (guided by you) Gun turrets and Air strikes. Fail a round though and all these get reset and you have to earn them again. Also after each round you will receive a weapon and equipment drop where you can change weapons & re stock on equipment such as claymores sensors and grenades. The weapon selection is Very limited and also you cannot change any of the guns characteristics in gunsmith mode which with some of the weapons, it really does need!!!
Multiplayer
The Multi player on GRFS can support up to 12 people and can either be played alone or with friends in "squads" of up to 6 people per squad. Unlike most shooters where it's Lone Wolf " I can take everyone on by myself" The MP ideally needs you working and communicating as a team to get the objective done. This again though you will find more often than not that people play it like It's CoD and cannot understand that it's a tactical team shooter.
The Multi player is comprised of 4 game modes: Conflict, Siege, Saboteur & Decoy.
Conflict is where 2 teams fight it out to gain control and hold different objectives spawned randomly across the map.
Siege is where you have to destroy an objective but if you die you do not re spawn and have to wait until the next round. (Like hardcore Search & Destroy in CoD)
Saboteur is where you fight it out for control of a suitcase, The team with the suitcase then has to escort it to a location where it must be deployed and detonated.
Decoy is most probably the most enjoyable of the multi player modes. It requires you to find and locate intel from 3 locations, the twist though being that 2 of the locations are actually full of false intel so its sussing out which to go for. When you do eventually get the correct intel you will have another objective where you have to detonate the objective.
As with most MP games now there is a levelling up system for you character who has 3 choices to choose from: Rifleman who mainly uses Assault Rifles, LMG's and frag grenades
Engineer who uses PDW's (Personal Defence Weapons) and shotguns and the Scout who Uses Sniper Rifles and SMG's (The scout is also the only class able to use the adaptive camo while in a stable position not moving unless he has unlocked the camo upgrade later in the Levelling system)
Each character can be levelled up to level 50 and with each time he levels up, he also earns a credit to spend on unlocking new gear for your character to spend on weapon upgrades in Gunsmith mode. After every few levels too you are given a choice of what to unlock dependant on your class type. This can range from new weapons, UAV's Dragon's breath Rounds, Medikits, Field Computer's for faster hacking of downed enemies, AP ammo, ect...
As fun as the multi player can actually be at times it does not come without consequence. The lag for starters is borderline awful. More often than not you are constantly spawn trapped by the opposition and it's increasingly hard sometimes to try and recover from this. Spawning on team mates more often than not gets you immediately killed. Kill cams do not give an accurate account and more often than not it shows that someone has killed you whilst not even aiming/looking at you. At the moment as well despite ubisoft's efforts at patching this, people (AGAIN) are using Mods & exploits. This includes being able to practically Sponge someone's entire ammo capacity (YES IT DOES HAPPEN) then being pretty much 1 popped by that person you have just pumped 5 mags into. People are also managing to effectively climb out of the map and are able to walk & shoot people from underneath the map too and it shows no sign of stopping. The maps feel small and clunky and are nowhere as big as they were on previous ghost recon games.
As good as this game is at time's it does not come without it's down falls and it does have some major downfalls. The biggest at the moment being how the multi player runs. Constant server crashes, Extremely lagged out games and sometimes near impossible scenarios where you cant help but wonder if the multi player actually work's at all. Also as well for the game in general considering that its had numerous delays, & 2 complete overhaul's the game look's incomplete. The graphics, shading and texture look incomplete and is just not what you expect from the high game visuals we expect from developers today. The character's in the Single player sound like they actually have no soul. There is no life to them and only speak in one tone.
Over all the game feels like it was rushed out. If they had spent maybe another 2-3 month polishing a little more the finished product would of been different. All you have to do is visit the Ghost Recon fan page on Facebook and it would tell you everything you need to know in the comments section alone. This game had a lot of hype in development and it Failed on it's release. There will be a few people who will disagree with me but the vast majority will say the same thing I am: Some real nice elements, a decent ish single player but Bogged down but it's inconsistent Multi player which if not sorted soon, will bog down this game hard and draw people away from playing it. |
uKRyaan
25,472
TA Score for this game: 2,569
Posted on 17 June 12 at 22:12, Edited on 07 July 12 at 22:25 |
This review has 10 positive votes and 1 negative vote. Please log in to vote. |
Singleplayer
In my opinion I think the campaign had a very poor story line which did not seem to really go anywhere or get me hyped up. It seemed very tedious and repetitive. I feel as though they could of made the story line a lot better and made it more unique. However in all fairness it did have some good parts such as the stealth aspect which is common in Tom Clancy games which I quite enjoyed. The singleplayer however offers a co-op play through with friends however i think this should be adapted to be played with random people online, so being able to search for people interested which would make it more playable. Apart from that there is not much really to say about the single player. Overall I would give the single player campaign a 3/5 as I thought the story line could be better and that they could of mixed it up and add more features to stop it being boring and bland. Recommended for stealthy/tactical gamers.
Multiplayer
I have very mixed feelings with the multiplayer. The main factor which I must stress which needs fixing and is a big let down is the mass amount of lag/hostmigrations/connection losses; they are very stressful and really annoying and makes me want to snap the game. However a good point about the multiplayer it has a range of different game modes including conflict, decoy, saboteur and much more to keep the multiplayer interesting and to provide a range of entertainment. In relation to this I think there are not enough maps in the game and that some maps seem to occur a lot more than others.
The customization of weapons is very good allowing you to apply everything but the kitchen sink to the gun which I think is pretty cool as I haven't really seen this so well done in many shooter games. However I think the ranking system is a pit plain and not very exciting at all and doesn't really encourage you to rank up as once you reach level 50 that is it. I also think that having two different gun set ups for each of the character roles (rifleman, engineer, scout) is kind of annoying as you are not given enough time between games to sort out classes and add the wide range of add ons.
Overall I think the multiplayer is very enjoyable in caparison to the singleplayer however the negatives just out way the positives in this game with the unbearable lag which makes the game very stressful at times and the bugs and glitches in the games which I do not care to exploit. Rating 3/5
Guerilla Mode
In all fairness I think this is a very unique game mode they have introduced which is quite enjoyable trying to accomplish all 50 waves with your friends. However it has quite comparable to other games and does not really give you the WOW factor i hoped for. This game mode reminds me of the singleplayer which I found boring which has an impact to this game mode. I think if the creators focused a bit more on improving the singleplayer mode the game would of been a hell of a lot better. Rating 3/5
The Verdict
Overall i think the creators should of spent several more months polishing off this game to perfection. As they have been lazy and chose not to the long awaited hyped up game has resulted to not be as good as it should of. There are a lot of pot holes in this game which are quite obvious, which need fixing which can be noticed after only an hour or so of gameplay. Overall I would say this game is satisfactory and is something different to play however wont keep your attention for very long. I will give this game a score of 3, however it could of easily been a 4 or possibly even a 5 if the creators spent longer on the game and stopped being lazy and just thinking about money. My motto for this game: "Come for a good time, just not a long time".
Ps. This is my first review go easy. 
(Couple weeks after review/Edits)
. If you want achy balls, try getting 1000 GS on it.
. Fuck my life how is this been rated 4 star.
. Sort it out UBISHIT
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IMI E D I C
102,170
TA Score for this game: 2,576
Posted on 26 June 12 at 19:11 |
This review has 6 positive votes and 0 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
This is my first full review of a game, so take it a little easy. As a longtime fan of the Ghost Recon series, this franchise has come a long way, both in positive and negative aspects. I will be comparing this game to previous installments to help portray how this game has stayed true to its roots and changed. I am pretty much going to go in order of the most impressive aspects of the game down to the least impressive.
Gunsmith
Not enough can be said about this feature that is available for campaign and multiplayer. This is the ultimate customization tool for your weapons that you will find in a console shooter. This tool helps you tremendously in being able to play the way you want to. Whether you want to go in face paced and guns blazing, or take a more subtle route of stealth with a suppressed weapon. You can customize your gun with side rail attachments, multiple types of optics, under barrel attachments, and down to the internal gas system.
This rather innovative approach to weapons in a console shooter is a good highlight of this game. This feature receives 10 out of 10.
Campaign
For the most part, the missions seem to flow like the GRAW series. The missions are pretty linear action. It seems you are always forced to follow the same path to each objective. Although, you are allowed to choose how you want to engage the enemies 90% of the time, whether it is with stealth or an all-out assault. Suppressed weapons actually work this time around when killing your enemies. This is a good thing since the majority of the campaign is based on stealth. The UAV makes a return to this game, but this time around, it is a pocket sized drone that you carry around with you. A new and enjoyable addition to the campaign is stealth kills. You can sneak up behind enemies and gun them down silently or break their neck. The cover system in this game feels very similar to that of Splinter Cell Conviction. You are able to dash in and out of cover.
The whole campaign will take you around the world, from the deserts of Africa to the frozen lands in the arctic. The graphics and scenery were nicely done. As far as the storyline, you can pretty much figure out how the story will end about halfway through the campaign. After the prologue, you already know that the storyline revolves around your squad finding who is responsible for the death of several of your team mates in Nicaragua. Even though you don’t play as the hero from the previous titles dating back to GR2, Scott Mitchell makes a return as your commanding officer. The developers ever so slightly attempted to integrated the HAWx game into one of the missions.
With slightly impressive graphics, gunsmith, and co-op, the campaign receives 8.5 out of 10.
Multiplayer
Multiplayer has changed rather drastically since the last installment as well as the early GR days. They allow up to 12 players to play versus mode, which comes out to a 6v6. This is a change from all the past titles which allowed up to 16 players.
There are only ten maps out at the release of the game. Many, if not all of the map, force the players to meet up in or around the center of the map. There are really no battles on the outskirts of the maps. All the maps are pretty small compared to maps in all the previous GR titles. The maps are also pretty symmetrical. There are two bases on either side of the map with a center where all the action goes down. Although, there are quite a few routes to take to move around the maps to gain a tactical advantage over your opponent.
There are only four game types in this game: Conflict which is an objective, based team Deathmatch. There are objectives located throughout the map that show up one at a time and both teams fight to control that objective. In decoy, one team defends three objectives at the start of the game and the other team attempts to hack these points. One of these objectives will reveal the final objective that must be destroyed or hacked. Saboteur is the every equivalent to CoD’s sabotage. There is a neutral bomb located at the center of the map and both teams attempt to plant the bomb at the enemy’s base. The final and most weathered mode is siege. Anyone who has played a GR game in the past will recognize this game mode. One team defends an objective and the other team attacks. All players only have one life. All of these game types are revolved around team work. This is absolutely no way to win by going Rambo. This is a plus and a negative due to the amount of people who don’t have mics or just don’t communicate during the game.
Ubisoft has now included a matchmaking system as the main method to find and play against other players. Those of us that like to stick to our roots see this as a degrading change to the game. A plus side to matchmaking is that you are able to take a group of friends into the match with you. As far as the custom lobbies, there is nothing that is truly custom about it. In previous titles, the host had control of a vast number of settings to set up the lobby and play how they wanted to. In GRFS, you are able to change the map, mode, time limit, and game type. These lobbies are not searchable like they were in the past and you must be invited or join off of a friend.
When playing in matchmaking, you have three different classes. Leveling up these classes in matchmaking unlocks you new equipment, attachments for your weapons, and weapons. There is the Rifleman, Scout, and Engineer. These classes has their own specific weapons and gadgets. You earn xp for the doing some of the littlest things such as spawning on your teammate. The teams are divided up into the Ghost and Bodark. These two factions have their own set of weapons. This is a slight drawback on this game since ubisoft restricted what weapons can be used depending on which team you end up on.
One bug that is very irritating is the host migration that take place when the host leaves the game. If you are in the middle of playing, all players are sent back to their spawn points and the objectives may be changed depending on what game mode you are playing.
As far as the co-op multiplayer, there really isn’t much there. It feels that those of us who enjoy co-op the most have been shafted by this game. A lot of the old modes have been removed from the game completely. Upon release there is no more co-op elimination and recon. There is a different version co-op territory mode. Guerrilla mode is the only other co-op mode in the game. This will be talked about in the next section. As mentioned before, there is co-op campaign that is the same as what you would play in solo. There is no separate campaign that is just for multiplayer this time around.
I would rate the whole versus multiplayer experience as 7.5 out of 10. Game types that revolve around team work, customization of your guns, and a few decent maps are a plus. The inability to truly host custom lobbies, the removal of co-op game types, and graphics that seem to be 5 years outdated brings the multiplayer experience down.
Guerrilla Mode
This mode is Ubisoft take on Horde Mode. This is different than the previous types of co-op territory as you have to survive through waves of enemies instead of a steady stream of them like in previous GR games. . You can play up to 50 waves of enemies per map. There are over 5 different maps to play in this mode and they reflect different areas of the campaign. This can be done with four players on split screen or online. While this can be fun playing with a group of friends, it falls pretty short in being innovative and replay ability. The only true challenge and enjoyableness that comes from this game mode is by playing on elite difficulty during the higher waves when you and your squad mates are completely surrounded by snipers, riot shields, and RPGs. I would rate this as 6.5 out of 10 due to the lack of innovation.
The positives and negatives of this game almost balance out. The true replay ability comes from the campaign and slightly from the multiplayer. Overall I would give this game 8 out of 10.
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