Games

Ghost Recon II Review

well, i liked the first ghost recon for the XBox platform a lot, and i liked the controls a lot for it too, they were simple and easy to adapt to. the game was fun, and pretty challenging for a shooter game noob like me. or so i thought until i got the sequel.

my goodness! ghost recon II is WAY more difficult to play than the first one.

first off i'd like to say that the graphics for the sequel are light years ahead of the graphics on the first game. the game play is better as well, with much more things that one individual can do, but i found it kinda frustrating that you can't switch off players like in the first game (pressing the Y button cycles through the different members you select in the planning phase of the mission, in GR1), as well as the fact the AI is way more intelligent (seems like they get lucky kill shots with bursts of fire on full auto too often) and that if you die, you have to start the mission over or restart from where you saved last. this is because you always play the same character, Capt Mitchell. in GR1,�you could rotate through all 6 members selected for a mission from a pool of characters, each with different skills and specialities, but in GR2 the mission set up is always done for you, and you don't get to equip your teammates manually, you can only view their equipment, which is selected by AI based on what equipment you select for yourself and what is required for the mission. also, i thought it was kind of stupid that characters injured including yourself were back at full health for the next mission, where as in GR1 they had to sit out 1 mission to be healed (if you take injured players on the next mission they will remain injured until you let them sit out).

that being said, the weapons are much cooler. they are�more varied than GR1, including new explosive satchels for taking out vehicles and other things, a laser designator for� painting a target for an air strike,�a function on�one of the rifles for calling an artillery barrage, and airburst grenades (difficult to use) that can be used to take out choppers. the other weapons from GR1 are also there but in greater variety and for rifles variety of calibres. 5.56mm and 7.62mm assault rifles, and sniper rifles. there is the good ol' rocket launcher for tanks and choppers whose rockets fly faster than in GR1 but slower to reload and for the reticle to narrow in order to shoot after moving around (moving around is neccesary when shooting down multiple choppers cuz if you stand still too long they will certainly kill you with ease). also, in GR2 you can man .50 cal gun emplacements, but not vehicles like in Halo.....yet.

lastly, in GR2, there are more different types of missions outside the campaign than in GR1, but the campaign in GR2 has only 11 missions to GR1's 15. in GR2, the new types of missions include helo hunt, where you select a map and only shoot down helicopters (this proved very useful to play between campaign missions to hone my helo killing skills which became neccesary in the campaign). there's also lone wolf, not sure exactly what that's all about cuz i haven't played it yet, and the traditional defend and firefight types.

overall, i really like both ghost recons even though the sequel makes me curse out loud every time i die.