Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Review
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a near-future, class-based, third-person strategic military game. The game plays similarly to the SOCOM series on Sony’s consoles, with more futuristic devices to help you conquer your enemies and complete your objectives.
Some of you may remember that the GamerVets were also playing the Beta a few months ago and have provided some in depth analysis and review. Opinions varied but for me, I really enjoyed the beta and it convinced me to pre-ordering the game. Having said that, I’ve finally got around to finishing the single player campaign and put in enough time in the multiplayer to give you a full review of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.
Story
The single player campaign was surprisingly really enjoyable. You’re in a 4 main squad of elite soldiers. The typical bro type group of tough guys who do black bag type missions. Basically a dirty bomb is detonated killing another elite team. Your team is sent in to investigate the source of that dirty bomb. This leads to a rogue Russian elite special forces group that you must track down and defeat. It’s really nothing we haven’t seen before in military type single player games, but the presentation and story for Ghost Recon works and it was a blast to finish.
Graphics, Visuals and Sound
- Decent graphics running at 30 FPS. Nothing earth shattering, some choppiness but it doesn’t detract from any enjoyment of the game
- Futuristic type look with a lot of HUD on screen to deal with. Not as bad as say Syndicate but it still can be distracting or confusing but just takes a bit getting used to
- Decent gun sounds and typical military sound effects. When you get hit markers on enemies it makes a thump type sound
- The in-game chatter with your teammates work really well in this game and helps quite a bit as you make your way through enemy territory and try to figure out the best tactical route or positions to take. They point out things like enemy positions and what kind of guns they are equipped with
Gameplay
- The third person controls are smooth and transitioning between cover to cover is easy to do, especially with the added waypoint type system
- Controls are easy to get familiar with and the targeting for third person is accurate. Easy to jump from third person zoom to first person zoom for longer distance shots.
- The “sync shot” is pretty cool. This basically allows you to setup and initiate a synchronized kill shot with your whole 4 man team
- Added levels of in-game challenges to complete however, it can be frustrating redoing certain levels if you want to be “perfect” and kill each target without getting spotted
- The Gunsmith customization is really amazing and once can easily spend lots of time there experimenting with various gun setups and configurations. For those unfamiliar with the Gunsmith, it’s basically UbiSoft’s take on gun customization. You can break down the gun into pieces and customize each section from stocks, barrels, triggers, sights, etc. Cool stuff. The firing squad (ability to target practice with your new gun setup) is a great addition to gaming and I’d like to see other shooters adopt something similar. It’s great to be able to instantly try out your latest gun customization
Ghost Recon Gunsmith (click to enlarge)
- The campaign is a lot of fun, simple as that. The missions are varied from typical firefights, assassinations, and stealth type missions
- Spoiler Alert: The last level is a bit of a disappointment. After all the stealth throughout the game, the last checkpoint mission requires you to rush and chase the targets forcing various gun fights and battles. The very last sequence was a weird mix of on-the-rails shooting like your character is riding a conveyor belt towards the enemies where you just point and shoot at anyone who pops up and other mini canned animation sequences. Here’s the ending video (on rails finale)
Multiplayer
I bought this game BECAUSE of the beta multiplayer that we tried out back in April. The final release is more or less the same with some improvements, tweaks and of course more maps. All this is good news. Class balance was an issue in the beta with the Assault Class as the overpowered (OP) winner. UbiSoft has tweaked the classes to provide better balance. The Assault Class specifically has noticeably reduced armour and the frag grenades blast radius has been reduced. I still think the easiest class to use though with the highly accurate and long range assault rifles, however the other classes have been buffed also and are fun to use. I just hope there’s continued support UbiSoft with patches and DLCs and involvement from the gaming community.
- The co-op Guerrilla Mode is basically Gears of War horde mode with some differences. You must defend a point on the map and in between rounds, a weapon/equipment drop is available. A lot of fun playing with friends. It’s a friend’s / invite only system so there’s no open matchmaking to allow playing with random players. I don’t really play with randoms so it’s not an issue with me
- The competitive multiplayer is where this game CAN shine. Notice I said “CAN”. It’s great with good teammates who play the objective but it can be terrible and brutal if spawn trapped or on a bad team
- This game requires tactical game play to utilize all the technology at your disposal (sensors, recon drones, emps, etc) and communication/coordinating with teammates. All the game modes are objective based so the best team always wins. Lone wolfing doesn’t work here. A noticeable omission to the MP is there’s no Team Deathmatch (TDM). I can understand that since Ghost Recon tend to focus more on tactical, objective based players but perhaps UbiSoft should have included it to entice more CoD type players to keep them interested
- Some connection issues and frequent host migration issues can be very annoying
The Old Guy in Me Says
4/5
A note on our rating scale: We rate things out of five, but don't confuse it with ratings from other publications. We’re not professional reviewers who do this for a living, we don't get sent free copies of games, and we don't have the luxury to play a ton of games during our work hours - we buy/borrow all our games and do this during our off-time, outside of our jobs and families. Our ratings take into account the time and money spent, and are here to help you make an informed decision on whether this game is worthy of your hard-earned cash and limited time.
5 – An almost flawless game with good graphics, sound and gameplay. You might even want to replay it many times, despite your busy schedule. A must-buy.4 – It has some flaws, but it’s still worth a playthrough. Buy it if you like this type of game.
3 – An average game targeted to specific niches. It has its redeeming factors. Buy it on sale or if you fit its target demographic/niche.
2 – The game sucks, but some will get enjoyment out of it. Play it at your own risk.
1 – Broken, ugly game with few redeeming qualities. Probably shouldn’t have been made. Leave this game alone and don’t even look at it.
0 – Worse than garbage. Game companies should pay you for the time you spent playing this trash.
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