The biggest question for anyone who's followed Ghost Recon: Advance Warfighter since its unveiling on Xbox 360 is: Does the actual game look anywhere near as good as the mindblowing trailer Ubisoft showed just before E3 this year? Well, disappointingly, no the next-gen dream is over, my friends. At least for the time being. The real version of Warfighter we played on the X05 show floor tonight was much more in line what you might expect from a nice, crisp, high-res version of a proper Ghost Recon sequel. But definitely nothing quite like the shock and awe we received when the first target video trailer made its somewhat misleading debut. But fret not, because while the actual game isn't quite as gritty or beautiful, Warfighter is still a very sweet shooter, especially for fans of these not-so-friendly ghosts.
Graphics aside, what the early trailers showed were scenes where the player could aim in one direction with his gun and turn his head to track foes or friendlies independently. Well, that's totally gone out the window, as the game sees a return of the loved (or hated) third-person-over-the-shoulder perspective from Ghost Recon 2. The one level demo (which takes place really early in the game, we were told) was set somewhere in South America, where you're on the official prowl for Nicaraguan guerillas. You play as Special Ops soldier Ramirez, who has to make his way through a mostly abandoned urban environment, picking off random pockets resistance with nothing but you and your million dollars worth of high-tech gear.
For all the ways that Warfighter doesn't look like its photorealistic target video trailer, the game makes up for with convincing character animations and sweet gunplay effects. When your character trots down a street or slows his pace to raise his weapon to scan the horizon, his body language looks natural and, frankly, cinematic. For a third person game, this animation polish goes a long way to support suspension of disbelief. The biggest addition to Ghost Recon's gameplay comes in the flavor of context sensitive actions when your character reaches various parts of the urban landscape.
Run up against some makeshift cover or the corners of a wall and your guy can lean up, pop out, and duck back in to take out terrorists. Sprint up against a low obstacle and you have the option of jumping over it. Unleash a volley of bullets against cover and it may splinter, or fall apart if you pound it long enough. Physics, it seems, plays more than just a cosmetic part of the game. The other major innovation is in how you can issue commands to more than just your squad -- vehicles, gunships, and more are yours to order around (although you can never directly control them yourself). One cool little gadget you'll have at your disposal is a Cipher unmanned drone that you can use to seek out unseen targets hiding in hard to find urban corners.?
Finally, Warfighter features extensive multiplayer modes on Xbox Live, including the ability to customize your own games. When playing online, players will be able to choose different classes to give them certain balanced advantages. Grenadiers, for instance, are more adept at throwing grenades, while snipers have obvious rifle bonuses. For friends, the game also comes packed with four co-op missions, with more to be released over Xbox Live in time. Still no word about whether downloadable content will be free. Our guess? Probably not.
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