 How do you kill a ghost? Terrorists have tried smuggling missile warheads into the United States and, in the process, killed an entire team of Ghost Recon operatives. Now it is up to the rest of the Ghost Recon operatives to figure out who supplied the warheads and shut down the operation for good.
1. Gameplay
I have a love / hate relationship with this game. For the most part this game is pretty awesome, and the invisibility puts an interesting twist on normal stealth mechanics. As long as you’re crouched, you’ll be mostly invisible. It isn’t perfect, but it does explain how an enemy can fail to see you if you’re crouched but out in the open. Unfortunately, the system does have some serious flaws that should have been ironed out, but it’s not enough to keep me from enjoying this game.  They'll never see it coming. On the plus side, the story for this game is simple enough to be interesting. There’s no need to worry about poorly designed plot twists. It’s not exactly literary gold, but it’s sufficient enough to forward the plot in a believable manner. A terrorist group was caught trying to smuggle nuclear weapons into the United States via Mexico. Now the Ghost Recon group has to try and figure out where the nukes came from so that they can put an end to that cell. It’s simple enough that there are clear targets and objectives but sufficiently pressing enough that it effectively communicates why immediate action is necessary.  Vital, but believable. That is important. The weapon variety is great. There are numerous weapons of all types that the player can use and dozens of different attachments that allow the player to customize each weapon to his liking. This would have been absolutely amazing except that most of the weapons and attachments are locked. In order to unlock them, the player must complete certain levels or certain challenges within those levels. This makes for an extremely boring, bland choice of weapons and attachments that purposefully prevents the player from creating the weapon they want to use.  Just unlock it all and let me go crazy! The other major problem I had was that once the player was “engaged” in open combat, the enemy would always know where he was. Even if I crouched, went invisible, and moved to different cover at a great distance, the enemy would always track me. This meant that, once I lost the element of surprise, any flanking maneuvers were basically useless. The only plus side to all of this was that my allies were surprisingly competent and would obey the commands that I gave them. So if I was stuck behind cover, getting torn to shreds by six different enemies, I could tag those enemies and my allies would take care of them. That was definitely helpful.  Taking fire? Take cover instead! But this was definitely a lot more entertaining than the previous Ghost Recon games. Until Rainbow Six comes out with a new game, this is definitely a satisfying substitute.
The campaign lasted around 11 hours, which felt just about right for the content. While the challenges included with the game will likely give skilled players greatly increased replayability, I found that there were few that I actively wanted to go back and attempt. Those that I could have completed quickly and easily, I completed on my first playthrough. There is a multiplayer portion of this game, but as I discuss in the “Online Community” section of this review, it can be daunting for new players. The community is filled with skilled gamers who are dedicated to the Ghost Recon franchise, so this isn’t the kind of experience that a player could casually pick up for a weekend and enjoy. There is one very bright spot though. The game does include a full four player cooperative campaign. So even though the story might be simple and the challenges might be too annoying to finish, there is definite replayability. After going through the campaign once and unlocking a lot of the weapons, I could definitely see replaying the game with friends.
One minor issue I had is that the controls felt like they lacked real weight. This may have been because the game was designed for a controller and not for the mouse and keyboard, but I sometimes struggled with faster, reflex-based movements. Fortunately, this game hardly ever required such actions, but it made some engagements feel awkward and forced me to rely more on my AI partners than on my own abilities. There was one thing that definitely annoyed me in certain sections. There were a number of times when the specific objective for an area was unclear or not highlighted in a way that caught my attention. For example, there is one section where the player is trying to defend a VIP from some sort of vaguely Russian forces. The player and his allies take cover in some sort of an outdoor picnic structure and begin to defend against an endless wave of enemies, including a tank. While the player is busy concentrating on the advancing enemies, the game fails to effectively mention that it wants the player to go and heal the wounded VIP in order to progress. This forced me to fail the objective a number of times before I figured out what I had to do. 2. Parental Notices
For the most part, violence in this game is going to be extremely mild. When the player engages targets without a visor, the targets will typically be at a great distance. This, combined with the smoke from the environment and recoil from the player’s weapon, minimizes the amount of blood seen.  The blood never matched the lighting correctly. When the player uses any sort of visor attachment, such as heat or X-Ray vision, blood disappears completely. The player can still shoot and kill enemies, but he will never see any real result to the damage he has caused other than the dead enemy. There is never any gore.  This is how I saw the game most of the time. The blood present in normal gameplay is more obvious the few times when the game had the player escort a VIP through a sort of rail shooter section. The player will stop controlling where he is going and instead focus on shooting enemies while the game forces him along a specific path. In these sections, enemies are close to the player and hardly ever in cover, which makes the blood from the player’s shots much more obvious.  The blood was extremely reflective. It was almost like red mercury. There are a few cutscenes and scripted events where the level of blood increases slightly. However, these are still not much worse than the normal levels of blood.  Yep, that's blood. The only time when the game became slightly more graphic with its portrayals of violence was at the very beginning. The main character ends up being nearly blown off the edge of a cliff by an explosion. While hanging on for his life, his arms catch fire and his skin begins to melt off. It sounds more graphic than it looks.  Pull yourself up and put yourself out, man!
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
There is one cutscene in the game where the characters all share a beer together. Other than this, substances are not a factor in this game.  Responsible, light drinking after a mission. As it should be.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
This game deals with international arms smuggling and proxy wars. While most of the acts and events of the game do not directly violate any domestic law, there are a few incidents that would be considered “grey areas” internationally and some incidents that are clearly intended to be acts of aggression. The most obvious examples are the arms smuggling into the United States and the attempt to detonate a nuclear missile over London. But actions that would be questionable in an international court aren’t always so overt. For example, in numerous missions the player must help a resistance force in Russia overthrow the military government. This usually involves small tasks like destroying artillery batteries, but later in the game these actions become more pivotal.  That "fighting"? Yeah, that's us. Late in the game the player must not only free the former president of Russia from a gulag but also eliminate the Russian military forces ahead of a civilian rally. If these actions had been made public, they would be condemned as acts of war against the sovereign country of Russia. However, in the game they are blamed on dissidents within the Russian military.
The multiplayer community for the Ghost Recon games have been fairly consistent. These are dedicated players who are well versed in the tactics necessary for victory. It was a pretty small group when I was online, but there were more than enough people to have two competitive teams. While everything was completely civil, this is the kind of multiplayer game that would be frustrating for new players. Unless you’re willing to put in the time and dedication necessary to earn upgraded weapons and perks, you’re going to be left in the dust.  I actually got a few kills!
Extreme sports are hardly ever a factor. There are a few times when the player or another character uses a rope to insert or extract from a location. These are very brief and only included in certain cutscenes.  Not sure I'd feel safe doing this. There is one mission where the player has to infiltrate a Russian gulag. In order to successfully insert into the area without alerting the enemy, he skydives into the location from high orbit. If this is possible, it's absolutely amazing.  I hope he used the restroom before this. If he didn't, he certainly won't have to now.
Magic is not a factor in this game.
Weapons of Mass Destruction Nuclear weapons and other less specific weapons of mass destruction are included as key plot devices and sources for motivation. The game opens with the player finding two missile warheads on a truck. While the game doesn’t specifically mention what these warheads are, they seem to be something more deadly than “standard” missile warheads.  Well, at least it's not going anywhere. Later in the game, a nuclear missile is launched over London. While the missile is destroyed by a round from a missile shield, the detonation of the missile delivery system causes some casualties that are seen in first person including the person filming the incident.  A missile that shatters glass but leaves the structure and people intact? Check. Missiles, some of which are presumed to have nuclear warheads, are seen a number of times in the game. However, they are never detonated.  What does one do with all of these missiles? Interrogation There is one scene where a character is beaten, presumably for information . However, it is an extremely brief scene that is quickly forgotten with the rest of the action.  Where were you the night of the 24th?!
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