Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 Review (PC)

A game for the serious weekend Warrior!

I had played Delta Force for years and never even bothered with any games from the Tom Clancy era. The reason I had not bothered is a friend had referred to Rainbow Six as rubbish and that was that. No playing Tom Clancy games. But what I found after playing Ghost Recon 2 Advanced Warfighter was that I have been missing out big style!

Stealth or guns blazing.

After getting it to load and updating (don’t play it before like I did as it causes you more grief than it is worth) it was time to kick ass. Being from the Delta Force back ground I loaded up what I considered to be a decent weapon and off I went. No reading of the instructions or anything. As I was about to find out reading the instructions helps a hell of a lot with this game as within 30 seconds I was dead! What I will say about this game is that if you think that you are a Black Water operative in Iraq and can just fire at will then your game will be short lived. However if you take your time and move as you would do in a battle field you will not only live longer but you will also appreciate the game and the intelligence behind it.

One of the best things I liked about the game was the AI. They will duck, hide and move to either get the best shot or avoid being shot. Snipers don’t take pot shots they shoot to kill and most of the time they do. One instance I had the whole team was killed off before I could even locate the Sniper.

Graphics wise there is nothing better than taking your shot and seeing the blood blasting out from the back of their bodies. Be warned. If you do not get a clear shot they will get up and continue firing. Everything from buildings to vehicles is crisp, clear and realistic beyond belief. The sound is as good as it gets. Unless you have heard these guns in real life then I am not really sure how you would compare. I am sure that if you had surround sound with the bass turned up high then the rumble of an explosion just might get the old bill at your door to investigate! One weird sound on one mission was a child crying and a mother screaming!!! What this is all about I don’t know but it did not stop me from filling the enemy with lead.

There are several different ways a man will fall when shot depending on calibre of gun and the point of impact and GRAW2 covers all of them. The physics behind this game are good in standard form but if you have the advantage of having a physics card installed then all you will get is even more fluid explosions and anything else that involves some form of movement. A great effect (had to look twice as I thought my graphics card was failing) was the heat haze from a burning vehicle!!! I have seen realistic flames on other games but to get heat haze as well just makes the game more realistic than ever.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2I will say that if you intend on jumping straight into this game and blasting away then it is not really going to be good. To be honest after the first 5 minutes I nearly turn the PC off as I was fed up at dying. But take the time to read the instructions, plan your moves and you will get the most out of this game. I personally changed the keyboard to suit my style of play (lefty such a disability) and after that everything game together.

I think this game is excellent. You can use whatever tactics you like to achieve your mission. Stealth or guns blazing. You won’t be disappointed. The only problem you will have is pulling yourself away when you know that you have to sleep. Even then you will be running through your mind the mission you have just left and how you will succeed when you next enter the battle field.

Wait. I forgot to mention. The above is just about you and your tactics. You also control 3 other soldiers at the same time. This at first seems complex but once you get the hang of it boy do the enemy know your coming. At the start of the mission you really do have to decide if you’re going to go in guns blazing or have a stealthy mission. By equipping them correctly in the first instance you can have the correct firepower for the type of mission you want to run. One thing you do have to worry about is them dying as there is nothing worse than having 30+ enemy to kill of and only you left! It does not work trust me.

My only main issue with the game was the time it takes to load between missions and the actual install. I was able to make several phone calls, a few emails and even chat to someone on MSN whilst the game was installing and between missions there is time to take a few minutes away from the screen before the next battle. But then again you have to remember that it is going to take up 5GB on your hard drive and give your DVD ROM drive one hell of a run for its money.

A final note. You are going to need some hefty PC power for this game. The quality of the graphics does not come without a PC using as much electric as the local sub station. My advice would be to put the best graphics card you can afford and stack the PC with as much memory you can get. If you still have the spare cash invest in a physics card to get the very most of this excellent game.

So there you have it. If you want a different way of blasting things to bits this would be a worthy game. Will there be a GRAW3? I don’t know but I do know that I will be the first in the queue to get it if they do release it.

The Good: Realistic graphics, advanced AI and no standard way of playing the game.
The Bad: Takes too long to load between missions ‘Ghosts’ do their own thing sometimes!


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Gold Y AwardGold Y Award
4.5 4.5 / 5

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