Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Review - When Tom Clancy games were challenging.

By Sam Coles:

Tom Clancy games are games that I love to play when I want some tactical action but in recent years the games have been a bit casual as they are trying to appeal to a wider audience. The Ghost Recon series is one of my favourite tactical shooters and the Advanced Warfighter games were the last of the challenging shooters in the Ghost Recon series in my opinion. I’m not saying that the newer iterations are bad, on the contrary I’m looking forward to Wildlands but it looks more like Far Cry rather than Ghost Recon.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter takes place in the distant future of 2014, yes that was classed as distant as the game came out in 2006. Mexico is in a state of war as a revolution has happened as a militia in the region are trying to kill the current president. Scott Mitchel and his squad of Ghosts are sent into the region to extract the president and quash the rebellion by any means. The story is rather simple but honestly I never expect ground breaking stories from Tom Clancy games as they give you a basic premise and let you get on with it.

Gameplay is third person unlike the Rainbow Six Vegas games however the console and PC version are vastly different as the PC version is first person I think this was to accommodate for mouse and keyboard controls, but it’s something you don’t see these days having different versions of the same game. I own the Xbox 360 version but I did play it on the PC first, but I do prefer playing on the 360 as it is easier to control in my opinion.

You control Scott but you have the ability to command three other soldiers in your squad and you have control of a UAV that you can use in your tactical map. This is great as you can scout the coming areas for enemies as they deal a lot of damage as on normal mode you can only take between 3-4 hits. In some missions you get the ability to command different vehicles these can range from APC’s, tanks and my favourite the attack helicopters. 

The presentation still holds up considering the game came out 11 years ago and this was a very early title on the 360. The lighting in Tom Clancy games were really good Rainbow Six Vegas came out the same year which had great lighting too especially during dawn or dusk in the cities. Mitchel’s main character model looks really good but other models do look dated and the lip syncing looks a dust bin lid flapping up and down.

The only problems I have with this game is the frame rate has a habit of tanking during explosions or when there are a lot of enemies on the screen. Also the aiming is very sluggish and can be a pain to hit a target accurately.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is a fun and challenging game and is a game you should pick up for your Xbox 360 if you want a good tactical shooter. It is super cheap I picked up my copy for 99p so it won’t break the bank. It’s a great way to get in the mood for Wildlands.