Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Preview

By Tom Bramwell Published 15 February, 2006

It'll be great with friends, but what of single-player?

With no Halo to speak of (and indeed no speaking of Halo), a lukewarm reception for Joanna Dark and, in Call of Duty 2, multiplay conditions arguably harsher than the conflicts Infinity Ward was actually fictionalising, it's probably safe to say that anybody with an Xbox 360 perched there or abouts is resting a hopeful eye on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. With GRAW, as it's affectionately known, now due out in Europe in March, we toddled along to sit in Microsoft's carpeted swimming pool (we didn't understand either) and see how it's shaping up - starting with the single-player mode.

One of the things that's bothered us about the early 360 games (you might have noticed this) is that we're perfectly happy to have spangly graphics and sound yes-it's-lovely-thank-you, but what we'd really like to see is people using the technology to create gameplay scenarios that couldn't be offered before. With GRAW, you get the sense Red Storm might actually be doing this. The idea is that you're a soldier in the near future strapped up in a computerised war-suit (not exactly a far-fetched concept), which includes something called a "Cross-Com". The Cross-Com's a sort of visual overlay, the principle "ooh" feature of which is the ability to flick between the viewpoints of your squad-mates in a little window-in-window in the top-left. You can also dispatch a drone flier to pinpoint and identify squaddies and enemies, who are identified by blue and red markers respectively and, when they're within line of sight, outlined in the same colours.

In other words, Cross-Com's your HUD, but where King Kong (peculiarly) won praise for dumping the idea of status bars and the like, GRAW might just win praise for finding a way to justify it.

'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter' Screenshot 1

That's a hit.

The storyline is slightly sillier than the ideas that underpin the military concepts, but it's a fair enough backdrop. Set over a three-day period, GRAW's single-player campaign takes place entirely in Mexico City in 2013, as the US president of the day tries his hand at some diplomacy to do with drugs or something (we were looking at some guns and forgot to write it down), only for it all to go a bit wrong and him to end up kidnapped. Naturally it's up to you and the other 'ghosts' (newcomer? Think "best of the increasingly recursive best") to sort that out and deal with the rebellious group that has him. To wit you don't get to leave MC until you're done; you're bussed between what are in effect different levels by APC or Black Hawk, constantly receiving intel updates through Cross-Com with new objectives, riding in on a chopper clearing out enemies on the ground to create an LZ, and then tackling the 800-metre-square level-space however you please.

Therein lies the most interesting bit, really: Ghost Recon's always been about demonstrating tactical awareness in testing situations rather than twitch-killing, and GRAW's giving you a different set of tools to do this, with enemies smart enough to try and flank you, or to seek new cover when you blow up whatever they're hiding behind, snipers high up in buildings, and generally treacherous urban environments. To this end the Cross-Com will be hugely influential - you can't switch between squad-mates, so you'll have to read the situation and decide where to deploy people using the window-in-window viewer - as will initial squad selection, with marksmen, grenadiers, riflemen and automatic riflemen available.

'Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter' Screenshot 2

Kill the library! Death to books!

Squad management will be handled through contextual Cross-Com commands rather than with headset voice comms ala the recent Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon games; if someone goes down, for example, you'll be able to use a contextual healing command to dispatch someone to help, and then chip in yourself if you want to expedite things. But really the idea is that along with all the usual precision-aiming where called for, moving between cover positions and peeping round corners, future warfare's about intel and tech, and how you apply them. On a basic level, making sure you have a rocket launcher in your team to deal with enemy armour. Or using the drone to identify entrenched enemies, and directing an air strike with the Cross-Com to hit them.

And of course, on top of that it has, er, spangly graphics and sound. The multiple Xbox 360 cores have allowed Red Storm to do really good multi-window visuals, high dynamic range effects add a tangible humidity to the atmosphere, walls are specked with bullet holes but windows crack and then shatter and solid metallic surfaces are dented rather than their surfaces broken. The play area may be 800 metres square, but you can see for 2km in any given direction - the game uses a Battlefield-style "you are leaving the battle area" prompt to keep you hemmed in without resorting to invisible walls - and if you look closely at each ghost you'll be able to pick out all their equipment.

All in all, what we've seen of GRAW single-player bodes extremely well. Without getting the chance to really get stuck into it ourselves, mind you - something we'll do soon when Ubisoft sends out near-final code - a lot of our enthusiasm's down to the potential. Ever since the old-days-Rainbow Six we've enjoyed surveying an area and plotting a course through it with guns. GRAW's filling in the finer details, and with its Cross-Com approach demonstrates a bit of ingenuity. Climbing out of Microsoft's pool, our heads are full of "makes a splash" puns. It's never going to be the 360's Halo, but it does look like one of the best fresh Clancy game prospects since Ubisoft started banging on about some chap called Fisher back in the day. And he was quite good for the Xbox, we seem to recall.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is due out on Xbox 360 and PC on March 10th (despite what Ubisoft's Feb 9th release schedule says, grumble grumble), with Xbox and PS2 versions due later.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (43) Latest comment 6 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Moogrose #1 6 years ago

    now due out in Europe at the end of March

    Er, check out your news, and the offcial release date... the xbox and xbox360 version is out on the 10th of March. ps2 and PC - 31st.

    Sloppy. (Clicky)

    ...what exactly is being previewed if you ain't played it yet?
    Edited by 2 at 15/02/06 @ 09:03

  • Scimarad #2 6 years ago

    Maybe this is more up to date?

    Anyway, I tend to shy away from Tom Clancy stuff but this does look pretty good.
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/06 @ 08:56

  • Talha #3 6 years ago

    My question remains: What in hell is a 'Warfighter'? What was wrong with the good old 'Soldier'? What is next, Ubi? Are we going to see titles like 'Deviant Single Organic Unit: Two-Sided Representative', 'Heir to the throne of Land Currently Known As Iran', 'Remote High-Pitch Vocalization: Seeker of Prey', "Males of Common Parentage In State of Full Weapon Equipment' etc? Daft.

    By the way, the video featured in BIA looks amazing. Hope it actually turns out like this.
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/06 @ 09:13

  • Eighthours #4 6 years ago

    Maybe this is more up to date?

    No it's not. The 10th March date was revealed after the Ubi preview event that this article is based on.

  • reality_cheque #5 6 years ago

    10th of March eh?

    Looks like that weekend will be full of killing mexicans then :D

    I'm guessing that the 4 player co-op isn't on the same machine, can anyone confirm/deny this? I've been looking forward to a 4 player co-op for so long it'd be a bit of a let down if I have to team up with random people for each level. I'd honestly rather have only a quarter of the screen and play with my mates but I know I'm probably in the minority.

  • Moogrose #6 6 years ago

    I'm guessing that the 4 player co-op isn't on the same machine

    It is!.. check out the official forums and ghostrecon.net for confirmation by developers. there is also a few videos foating around the net showing off the 4 player split screen.

  • Gouki #7 6 years ago

    For crying out loud this is not more up to date!!!

    I can confirm this game is out on the 10th. We confirmed ordering numbers yesterday at Gamestation.

  • smoison #8 6 years ago

    Should be good enough on PC. If its well completed, and optimized for PC.

    They should allow cross-platform multiplayer, so that consol gamers could learn what true online skill is all about....

  • Furbs #9 6 years ago

    Would be great smoison, if players used the same control method.

    PC version is slightly different btw - its a more tactical game, and it also supports a physics card if you have one.

  • reality_cheque #10 6 years ago

    Woo-ha! Now I just have to get 3 friends in the same place at the same time, and in the mood for killing "terrists" as GWB would say.

  • IAmBatman #11 6 years ago

    Christ that looks pretty.

  • AtomicBanana #12 6 years ago

    They should allow cross-platform multiplayer, so that consol gamers could learn what true online skill is all about....

    If you're going to be an elitist PC f!ckwit, at least learn to spell the word 'console'
    Geez, why can't we all just get along? I flick between pc gaming and console gaming all the time... do I suddenly become more stupid and less skilled when I play on my '360?

  • Commodore75 #13 6 years ago

    For me (and my friends), Ghost Recon games on the Xbox is about one(1) thing...

    Couch co-op.
    If we can't play with our friends in the same room, we aren't interested.
    Obviously having the option of split-screen co-op isn't enough.
    If couch co-op lacks most of the modes/maps/missions, then we'll pass.

    I guess what I'm trying to say here is,
    EuroGamer, when you review GR:AW for the Xbox and/or x360, please, please, please thoroughly test the couch co-op.
    Please. There are a lot of people who want to know...not only if it's there, but if it's any good.

  • Furbs #14 6 years ago

    PC version - first person view with weapon showing (a la Far Cry/Halflife).
    360 version - first person view with no weapon showing (ie like traditional GR) OR over the shoulder (like GR2).
    Dunno about the last/current gen systems - prolly over the shoulder too.

  • Raid #15 6 years ago

    " My question remains: What in hell is a 'Warfighter'? What was wrong with the good old 'Soldier'?"

    Advanced Warfighter is the name of the US army's development programme if I recall, it's not Ubi's wording (though they chose to call it that I suppose).

  • ssuellid #16 6 years ago

    " we're perfectly happy to have spangly graphics and sound yes-it's-lovely-thank-you, but what we'd really like to see is people using the technology to create gameplay scenarios that couldn't be offered before. "

    Like what tho? Its not like the 360 or PS3 are going to be delivering any new things to gaming - just more power. Just like the last gen.

  • Talha #17 6 years ago

    @Raid: Thanks - but US Army you say? Oh, I KNEW the word didn't exist!!! ;-)

  • nomaad #18 6 years ago

    Amazon.co.uk says March 31st, Play.com says March 10th. And the official announcement says March 9th. Hmmmm.

  • gizmo #19 6 years ago

    For me, the real draw of next gen IS spangly graphics, but running at a nice resolution at a nice framerate, with more things going on at once, more particle effects, better physics and better AI. I'm not expecting a new genre or anything.

    For instance, I would would a remake of the N64 perfect dark, including counter-operative (why did they not include that in PD0?) but running at a stable framerate.

  • reality_cheque #20 6 years ago

    @boabg: Well done for bringing your insightful wit and sheer commentary genius to this conversation. Your input was greatly appreciated*

    @AtomicBanana: I've given up having this argument with people. If anything, playing with a more difficult control system would make console gaming more skillful. After all, if a man with a pad can beat a man with the supposedly superior k/b+m combo, how crap is the pc user? :)

    * For the intellectually challenged, I'm being sarcastic here.

  • Talha #21 6 years ago

    @reality_cheque : Hey, no sweat man. Almost all of us are PC gamers as well as console gamers. Yes, I also find this argument very strange - what makes console gaming any dumber than PC gaming? And how is PC gaming superior? How intelligent are we, shelling out 600 quid every six months to upgrade our graphics cards only to see games running choppily, endlessly tweaking detail levels, suffering ridiculous framerate drops and spikes, wrestling with endless drivers just to get the damn controllers to work, being thrown to desktop everytime the antispyware remembers its existence, buying new processors and chipsets only to realize a week later how crap they are?

    I would say anyone buying X360 and playing CoD2 on it in full glory, is FAR MORE INTELLIGENT than the hapless PC evangelist scraping the piiggy bank to manufacture a dual-core dual-hard disk dual-card system to see the game above 35 FPS. I only speak from bitter experience.

    Point is, gamers are gamers - console gaming is not any different from PC gaming in terms of skill required, only it offers ease of use and largely consistent frame rates so yes, you can say console gamers are dumb to revel in such luxuries!

  • jozz #22 6 years ago

    Whats Boabg got to do about this, he was just expressing his disinterest with someone trying to troll.

    Definately looking forward to this game but it does seem abit silly to have the PC version with a FPV and able to see the gun yet the 360 gets both 3rd and 1st views but no gun.
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/06 @ 11:30

  • Furbs #23 6 years ago

    Theres loads of chat about this on the official forum, but someone makes a reasonable point - in reality, if you werent holding the gun up to train it on a target, you wouldnt see it anyway, and if you were looking down the iron sights, you wouldnt either.

    Personally, I'd still like to have the weapon view, but I do see his point that the traditional view means the gun is more akin to being a shoulder mounted predator gun :)

  • reality_cheque #24 6 years ago

    @Talha: You speak the truth with your comments on gfx cards - I've never actually owned a PC that's run as smoothly as it should. I figure one day I will, but that'll be when I'm a gazillionaire and can afford to have the uber-rig custom built for me :( It very much bugs me when I see people saying that because I like to use a pad I must be inferior at FPS games, it's another one of those personal preference things that very few people seem to realise.

    @Jozz: Then why couldn't he do it in an imaginative, funny way? Besides, the first lesson of teh interweb is that you shouldn't feed the trolls, it'll only encourage them unless you can insult them in such a manner they immediately go off and commit suicide. Well, maybe the second rule - after "don't leave pr0n on your parent's PC unless you can realistically blame it on your dad"

  • smoothpete #25 6 years ago

    Furds said " and if you were looking down the iron sights, you wouldnt either"

    Nearly true, you do see the weapon when looking down the iron sights, but more in the sense that it's blocking your view of the area below the weapon rather than seeing the weapon itself, which is why CoD2 IMO succeeds so well

  • Heartcore_Ninja #26 6 years ago

    "One of the things that's bothered us about the early 360 games (you might have noticed this) is that we're perfectly happy to have spangly graphics and sound yes-it's-lovely-thank-you, but what we'd really like to see is people using the technology to create gameplay scenarios that couldn't be offered before."

    Finally, somebody has come out and said this with authority.

  • reality_cheque #27 6 years ago

    @boabg: New? No, not really. Been posting on here a fair few months, as it's a handy skive from work. Certainly long enough to get bored of the "Yawn" comments! :p

    He may be a troll, but you show no imagination! Shoot him down hard, or leave him alone - don't encourage them! Besides, if you don't like someone, ignore them. Then they'll go away forever! :D

  • Talha #28 6 years ago

    @reality_cheque : Trust me, any PC you will ever own will not run as smoothly as it should. Ever read the blurb on the box of the latest cards and processors? Ever found the actual performance living up to it? And it doesn't matter what input method you use - it is the RESULTS that count.

  • kangarootoo #29 6 years ago

    "It very much bugs me when I see people saying that because I like to use a pad I must be inferior at FPS games, it's another one of those personal preference things that very few people seem to realise."

    I try not to let that sort of thing bother me either. I would agree that a mouse gives you a better degree of control, but taking that further to suggest that people who play with sticks are somehow not as good is just playground nonsense. It could be argued the opposite is true, as you suggested yourself in an earlier post.

    I'll play either way depending on the game and the platform and I find that if the game is good, the input device is a pretty minor factor in determining my level of fun.

    I rest safe in the knowledge that I am superior to those who make petty distinctions in some sorry effort to be elitist :)

  • smoothpete #30 6 years ago

    @ Heatcore_Ninja, I agree with that too (ie spangly graphics but where's the new gameplay), but I'm struggling to think of a gameplay scenario that could only be done with a super duper next gen console. I just can't think of anything at all

  • gaijin #31 6 years ago


    "to suggest that people who play with sticks are somehow not as good is just playground nonsense"

    ah, a return to the old rugger/hockey debate....

    Kanga, let's face it, if you took all the playground nonsense out of Eurogamer posts you wouldn't have a forum left.

  • mazzl #32 6 years ago

    about cough multiplayer, wasn't N Revolution going to support up to two tv's?
    i know this is a bit off topic, but just for cough multiplayer that would be good.

  • reality_cheque #33 6 years ago

    @boabg: "So thats why you started moaning at me?"

    I wouldn't say moaning, more encouraging you to be more imaginative with your comments :p

    @Talha: "Trust me, any PC you will ever own will not run as smoothly as it should."

    This is why when I am rich I will have an IT Monkey to throw things at if my machine does not run perfectly. Then even if my PC doesn't work, I still have myself a game to play...

  • captainrentboy #34 6 years ago

    Ohhh a title that's rather highly anticipated by the ole 360 community,on the basis of that fact I predict a 6 or 7 out of 10 from Eurogamer where as every other site will give it an 8 or 9,mark my words people mark them well :)
    And talking of pc gaming versus console gaming,I was on the xbox forums yesterday and they were on about the c.o.d 2 experience on both PC and 360,and the peeps that had played both versions said that the 360 version felt far more immersive and difficult,as with the pc version it was just far too simple with the mouse and keyboard combo to pop out from behind cover and kill 5 enemies in 5 shots,where as they felt you needed more skill to be good at the console version.I'm not saying this to cause arguements,it's just what I read.Me personally,I find pc gaming rock hard as I have the finger dexterity of a chimp,a blind chimp...With just one hand.

  • kangarootoo #35 6 years ago

    @gaijin

    "Kanga, let's face it, if you took all the playground nonsense out of Eurogamer posts you wouldn't have a forum left."

    And I wouldn't be allowed to post myself half the time, so point taken.

  • gaijin #36 6 years ago

    which reminds me, you should really try beetroot crisps if you like the parsnip ones.

  • morriss #37 6 years ago

    /adds yet another game to his list

  • morriss #38 6 years ago

    we're perfectly happy to have spangly graphics and sound yes-it's-lovely-thank-you, but what we'd really like to see is people using the technology to create gameplay scenarios that couldn't be offered before.

    Too bad you didn't say that at E3 last year, eh? Could have saved yourselves a whole load of trouble. :)
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/06 @ 19:51

  • morriss #39 6 years ago

    I think you should look up the verb to be 'bitter' in the dictionary and then try and explain to me in what way you think it applies to me.

    /taps foot
    Edited by 1 at 15/02/06 @ 20:33

  • Bates #40 6 years ago

    Wasn't aimed at you actually. The other guy deleted his post.

    Wouldn't kill you to lighten up a touch though mate.

    Sorry, kidding.

  • kangarootoo #41 6 years ago

    "which reminds me, you should really try beetroot crisps if you like the parsnip ones"

    I f'kin love parsniop crisps moe than life itself, as well you all know. Beetroot crisps are now on the list though.

    Now come on Psychonauts, turn up in my bloody mail box.

  • kangarootoo #42 6 years ago

    "which reminds me, you should really try beetroot crisps if you like the parsnip ones"

    I f'kin love parsniop crisps moe than life itself, as well you all know. Beetroot crisps are now on the list though.

    Now come on Psychonauts, turn up in my bloody mail box and my life will be complete.

  • morriss #43 6 years ago

    "Wasn't aimed at you actually. The other guy deleted his post.

    Wouldn't kill you to lighten up a touch though mate.

    Sorry, kidding."

    lol

    Sorry, mate :)

  • The-Bodybuilder #44 6 years ago

    >"Too bad you didn't say that at E3 last year, eh? Could have saved yourselves a whole load of trouble. :)"

    I'm guessing you haven't seen the killzone 2 video showcasing all the "new gameplay", did you? ;-)