For those of you who have played
Rogue Spear, your assumptions of this being a clone are slightly misguided. It looks like
Rogue Spear and handles mostly like
Rogue Spear, but
Ghost Recon is really
Rogue Spear on steroids. There is more control over your team members, more overall action, and much faster gameplay.
The Campaign mode will test your skills with a myriad of levels, each with varying parameters. Before each mission you get to load out your squad with the handful of soldiers given to you at the beginning of the game, each with their own stats and special qualifications. This is where Ghost Recon puts on its role-playing hat. At the end of each mission, every soldier who participated in the battle will be awarded one point, and it's up to you to allocate it. There are various skills for each soldier, allowing you to mold each one into your own personal killing machine. Get a soldier killed, though, and they're gone for good, along with all their hard-earned points.
The major complaint I have about the game is the damage system. Shooting a bad guy in the foot with a sniper rifle somehow manages to kill them instantly, but popping them five times in the face with a silenced pistol will only manage to piss them off. It also seems that your own team members will die too easily, and though it is possible for them to just get wounded, they seem to favor dying instead.
Your squad can hold up to eight people, and these eight people can be assigned to three different teams. Once in battle, you take control of one team while controlling the others via the in-game map. This is a great feature of the game, allowing for easy squad control and also stepping up the pace of combat. If you don't like how your guys are acting, you can switch to any member of any team and get the job done yourself.
Each mission has primary objectives, along with tertiary (optional) objectives. Though not required, completing these will unlock specialized troops. These troops are highly trained and use state of the art equipment. They can be deployed and used the same as your other troops, but getting one of these guys killed will be a bigger blow to you than losing an original team member.
The Multiplayer mode offers a lot of good replay value that is relative to the number of people you have to play with. Despite all of the different Multiplayer modes, one on one action is too slow and boring to be worthwhile. This isn't Quake, it's a modern combat sim, and the gameplay reflects that. There is no jump, you can't aim while you run, and if you make one mistake it's game over. On the other hand, if you can manage to play with a group of people, the experience is more than rewarding.
