Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Review
Game Emblems
The Good
This is a quick review for those who are interested in the same types of games as I am!
A masterpiece of game design, but not a masterpiece of a game. An asbsolute MUST TRY.
Satisfying sync shots and a considerable campaign help Ghost Recon: Future Soldier deliver plenty of entertaining action.
The Good
- Pleasing sync shot mechanic
- Lengthy campaign is great in both solo play and co-op
- Enjoyable competitive multiplayer modes.
The Bad
- Numerous AI oddities
- Unremarkable firefights.
The decades to come may be full of unknown potential for wondrous inventions, but in the gaming realm, the future is old hat. Invisibility, X-ray vision, and miniature floating cameras are modern marvels that have long since become familiar. Though these tools are potent in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, there's precious little novelty in your futuristic arsenal, and this can make you feel like you're undertaking missions you've run many times before. So is Future Soldier just another by-the-book third-person shooter?
Fortunately not. Though there's plenty of familiarity to be found here, Future Soldier's brand of stealthy action and streamlined teamwork gives it a distinct appeal. The lengthy campaign lets you wield your AI allies like autonomous weapons; their guns are yours to command, but they handle their own maneuvers, pushing the action along at a slick pace. Replacing them with your fellow humans brings its own challenges and rewards, as does facing off against said humans in the lively competitive multiplayer modes. Though it's more of a product of the past than a vision of the future, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a robust package that provides plenty of satisfying ways to exercise your itchy trigger finger.
In the campaign, you play as the ghosts, a four-man team of elite soldiers. Cutscenes and mid-mission dialogue combine to create a nice sense of camaraderie among the crew, and hackneyed archetypes are downplayed in favor of more understated characterization. Personalities are colored in during small moments, like a song streaming out of earbuds, a fleeting facial expression, and a conversation about used trucks. Interactions with other military personnel reveal how isolated the ghosts are from the soldiers they break bread with and how oblivious those soldiers are to this fact. This segregation creates a connection among the ghosts that is a refreshing change from the familiar "bonds forged on the crucible of combat" trope.
On the field of battle, the ghosts try to emulate their namesakes, moving silently with the aid of slick optical camouflage that dissolves if you jog, sprint, or fire your weapon. Staying stealthy is often a mission requirement, and even when it isn't, avoiding detection gives you a distinct advantage. It's easy to maneuver unseen, and you spend a lot of time silently eliminating foes. Stealth melee kills and suppressed weapons are your basic tools, but the key mechanic is the sync shot. Spotting enemies through your scope or tagging them from aloft with your aerial drone, you can designate up to four targets for you and your squad to eliminate in one fell swoop. To execute, simply open fire on your own target, or issue the command with a press of the right bumper.
It's a neat trick, and the seconds of slo-mo that follow are a welcome flourish that allow you to silently mop up more than the few targeted foes. Using sync shots to eliminate enemies is pleasing and relatively easy, thanks to the array of detection methods at your disposal. Drones, sensor grenades, and a few flavors of optical gadgetry give you plenty of ways to detect nearby foes. As long as no one sees the dead bodies, no one gets suspicious, and many situations lay out foes in discrete, easily sync-shot-able groups.
Only in later levels do you encounter larger groups that put your coordination skills to the test. You must now take into account multiple lines of sight and interlocking movement patterns, as well as calibrate the exact speed at which you can tag and take down a new set of targets. Methodically carving your way through these scenarios is very satisfying, and you might even find yourself choosing to reload checkpoints when you are discovered, even if you aren't forced to. Though an alert doesn't always bring your mission to a close, challenging yourself to maintain stealth is usually more engaging and fun than blasting your way through.
Aside from sync shot orders, your AI allies are mostly autonomous. They follow your lead but move, take cover, and engage alerted targets on their own. They are very reliable, but they are prone to a number of unrealistic behaviors that can hamper your immersion. Shooting effectively through multiple thick walls, sprinting past enemies while maintaining camouflage, or failing to acquire a marked target in line of sight are all intermittent AI oddities.
By
Chris Watters, Editor
With his Apple IIGS as the spark and his neighbor's NES the fuel, Chris Watters' passion for gaming caught fire early. Years later, you can find him aiming down virtual sights, traipsing through fantastical lands, and striving to be grossly incandescent while desperately avoiding sunburns.
430 comments
I love almost everything Tom Clancy has put out, but I never got this and right at this moment I'm kind of regretting it since I was pretty excited for it before its release. Instead of asking how this game is in general, I wanted to ask more specifically, how long is the campaign and is the story at least OK?
hey i have the system to run this game on highest setting,but its not satisfying,means its too dull,to find enemy i always have to use the magnetic view,can u please recommend the graphics setting to run it on PC?
Great game with laughable Kinect features. I got it ONLY because the box said "better with Kinect", but fortunately, it didn't disappoint me as a classical shooter while using my gamepad.
Multi-player is a lot of fun, when you have a team that communicates well, and there are no server/connection issues. Hopefully, UBISoft will listen to our complaints and install dedicated servers, instead of relying on individual XBOX's being used as host.
Campaign was ok first time around but the "mission failed you've been detected" BS really spoils it in the end.
Yeah the multiplayer is so broke with this game its not even funny.
Dont buy this game if your looking for a great multiplayer experience.
The game doesnt even have dedicated servers!
Its hosted on a players Xbox ala Call Of Dookie.
Homefront has dedicated servers and this doesnt?
After the first patch the teams are so uneven it hurts.
The matchmaking was fine before the patch.
So you see scores like 615-13 and more than likely you will be on the losing team.
Im selling it on eBay as we speak.
Hope I get at least $40 back from this horrible multiplayer game.
Back to Homefront and BF3 until I see a better FPS with Dedicated Servers!
and what about the cut scenes. when ever a cut scene begins it makes me laugh like a mad man.
1 Like While I probably wasn't going to buy the game anyway, I find it a bit odd that the reviewer only gave it a 7.5 for just a small thing as occasional AI oddity (something that isn't too infrequent), and uninteresting fire fights (which they probably don't differ in CoD or BattleFD much). I'd say this probably deserves as 8.5 or an 8 with what i've seen of it. Just sayin'.
1 Like Mr Watters! I just read this. I have to say it's the most short-comprehensive review of GR:FS ever I read!!
@mogwart36 Just because this game is different from the usual modern combat shooters doesn't mean that it is automatically better.
This game is a complete waist of money on the pc, its close to being a joke, multiplayer randomly disconects u every few mins, so its unplayable, and the single player is meh, coop would be good if it didnt crash on my friends pc every 10-15 mins :/
You cant expect much for the PC. UBI ignore console users that demand dedicated servers since the beta stage.The MP (x360) most of the games are plagued with bad lag and random disconnection and host migration. X360 users have been partitioning for dedicated servers since the beta stage, UBI dont give a shit
I hope you can save the game at various intervals instead of having to restart the whole mission from the beginning as in previous Ghost Recons.
1 Like @Wizallah You can tag dudes for them to shoot and tell them when to shoot, and command them to help out a downed teammate, but that's pretty much it.
...plus they should have done a better job rendering the faces. They all look so "metal- face" with just the mouth open and close, a little scary, too.
1 Like I wish they would stick to their own GR and not to make it like COD or BF. Not the same old "solid" feeling experienced from GRAW 1 and 2. Too many "hi-tech" things distracting in the gameplay, taking away the core of the series.
2 Like Got this, i do agree that the firefights aren't the most "exciting" but i look for precision when playing a game like this so i really like the patience needed to play this game. Multiplayer i have fallen in love with due to the fact that you cant run around like an idiot holding fire and killing everything that moves. Its a brilliant game if you give it a chance.
1 Like Usually I agree with Chris?s reviews but on this one he is totally and completely wrong. Between the strategic sync shots, to the game dynamics, up to the firefights I think this is the best Ghost ever. Deserves at least an 8.5. Also, what the hell does Chris mean that there are AI oddities and ?unremarkable firefights?? At times you get caught in ambushes where you have to relax and pinpoint the fire or you get killed quickly. I think the story line is pretty good too. Loved both Ghost 1 and 2 but I think so far that this one tops them all.
1 Like Agreed! Though i think the only missing component is a straight up Deathmatch & Team Deathmatch as i find the Capture the flag / KOTH game types quite monotonous at times.
Other than that Yes, this is definately worth an 8.5 in my opinion.
@XFFIGHTER I rented it last night and am about halfway through the campaign. There is the occasional f-bomb, but it's not incessant (maybe one every mission or 2.) It's on Redbox so it only costs $2 per night. And yes, I realize this comment was 3 months ago, but I saw there were no other replies so I decided to be nice...
1 Like TC's:GRFS was not as "tactical" as expected. The game mechanics were very much like a cross between Gears of War and Call of Duty. Using your squad to sync shot made it a little too easy at times, and the assassination action buttons ("X" and "RT") were so monotonous to use throughout the entire game => seeing the same cut scenes. Certain levels also made it impossible to play in complete stealth due to such concentration of enemies in one area. Even if you wanted to, it was almost impossible to be a complete ghost. Weapon customization was excellent! Multiplayer was just OK. Server lag and less online users created a lackluster element to it. Overall I recommend at least a rent if not a purchase once the price drops below $40. You will love the game the first time through.
1 Like is this game worth getting.. im pretty late on this release.. im a battlefield guy so wuld this b a waste of time or is it a good backdoor game
@iWREKK its ok if you like a rainbow six styled game (honestly think rainbow 1 is better than this though) really though if your a battlefield guy then in a couple of weeks this game will be an after thought with the close quarters dlc on it's way. it's a rental at best.
Unbelieveable, im starting to really believe that people are paying for good review scores. ive seen some bs games get higher then this GRFS. Chris Watters says the negitive- unremarkable firefights? wtf? think your review is backwards. never heard someone say a game is negitive for unremarkable firefights? 8/10 atleast sorry chris watters, gamespot fire these bumbs
2 Like 7.5? This game is Great been playing it for about two days and I'm l oing the slow pace of it an 8.5.in my books
2 Like I heard team death match will be coming soon as dlc my God what is going to become of gaming it just wouldn't surprise me if they started selling games with a blank discs and telling us the content will come as dlc later i mean seriously if you companies are worried about money how do you think your consumers feel but then again who cares right. On a lighter note games ok all 80% of it :D
1 Like Well regardless of the 7.5 score i think its great, the only thing its missing in my mind is a straight forward Team Death Match. Regarding "Unremarkable firefights", Really??, ill simply translate that comment into: "doesnt provide the same arcacde-esque runnie-jumpie-grenade spamming gameplay as Call of Duty", play it on Elite difficulty and it is highly challenging. Regarding the narrative, Ok so its doesnt have the most thought provoking story, then again what military FPS does?
My conclusion is simply: if your looking for a 'Light Tactical' FPS that requires more thought than the standardised FPS nowadays, you wont be dissapointed.
Im just waiting for the next installment of R6 now and ill be very happy.
These are of course my own personal opinions.
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1 Like Congrats on the online pass... They lost a sale from me for jumping on the bandwagon...
4 Like I find it funny that Gamespot always has to be "that guy" when it comes to reviewing games and score it a point or two points lower than everyone else does.
1 Like @Yojimbo25 There have been quite a few lower scores then this one, so I don't know what that really means: http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-future-soldier/critic-reviews?dist=neutral
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@buccomatic Not exactly: that would mean putting it in the same league as games like Bomberman: Act Zero, which really does "flat out suck". This game is good, according to the general consensus, and I'm basing that off of Gamespot's guidelines.
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Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
Not Following
- Publisher(s): Ubisoft
- Developer(s): Ubisoft Paris
- Genre: Action
- Release:
- MDA:
GR: Future Soldier Navigation
