Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Review - June 18th 2012

In the near future, a squad of four elite specialists called ghosts infiltrate behind enemy lines, stop terrorist regimes, and save the world without anybody knowing they were even there. This is Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

The gameplay of Future Soldier is both complex and engaging. There is a focus on stealth, but you and your AI team mates can still comfortably handle the situation if things get loud. Future Soldier's cover system is great at allowing the player to establish a solid position and also move about the field easily. And although moving behind cover gets clunky at times, the game makes up for it with simple and effective cover to cover swapping. Your team is also a big factor in combat and stealth sequences. When in combat, they provide suppressing fire and communicate how the battle is progressing. Players can mark up enemies to focus fire, and use tech to expose enemy positions.

Sync shot is consistently satisfying.
The tech and gadgetry in Future Soldier has a huge impact on the outcome of each battle. It all works as a means to gather information on the battlefield. Players can use sensors and a flying drone with a mounted camera to expose enemy positions in and out of combat. Doing so allows players to see the enemy behind solid objects. Players can also turn invisible. Well, almost. The invisibility is really slick, and very smartly balanced; it restricts the player from moving quickly or just firing their weapon all the time. Players need to control themselves, and be smart about who they take out. Being invisible does allow you to take in the environment, but not roam freely about it, as enemies can still spot you if you end up getting too close.

The team is a big part of Future Soldier. As there are a lot of sections where the player is required to sneak, and they aren't equipped with radar, the team chimes in with information on the locations of enemies that the player doesn't often see. Having those extra sets of eyes is a tremendous help when making a route through an enemy encampment. The team is also your greatest weapon when it comes to clearing out patrols, checkpoints and other areas where the enemy is an obstacle in your path. Future Soldier has what's called the Sync Shot. Players can mark up to four enemies and take out each of them in the blink of an eye. You don't always have to mark four enemies, though. You can sit back and let the team do the dirty work, and it's always a treat each time you hear a single shot followed by multiple downed targets. During firefights, the team still communicates with the player, giving them information on the enemies location, when they can see them, and commenting on the tide of the battle. Players can help out by throwing out sensors or setting up the drone in a decent vantage point on the battle field to reveal the enemy. When the team knows exactly where the enemy is, they can fight back more effectively and actually change the outcome of a fight.

The story remains engaging throughout.
Players can also tinker with their loadouts in the Gunsmith. The Gunsmith is a really amazing tool that gamers can use to customize their weaponry. This isn't just a matter of throwing on a red dot sight and a silencer, no sir. This here is an incredibly in depth and fully customizable system with which to adapt your gun to the upcoming mission. Now, yes, there are red dot sights, and silencers. As well as compensators for kickback, flash hiders, laser sights, iron sights, under barrel shotguns, under barrel grenade launchers and the whole gamut. However, most games that let you customize your gun collections only allow for adding things. Gunsmith lets you change the mechanics of your gun. This means the fire system, semi-auto to full and the other way around, to the gas system of the gun itself. The gas system of an automatic rifle is what readies the next bullet to be fired. The less gas in the gas system the slower the fire rate, while increasing the gas ups the fire rate so you can unload a clip before you can say "daka daka daka". Luckily, the developers of Ghost Recon were kind enough to include a firing range with which to try out your new creation, rather than just sending you off into the field. The Gunsmith is also where the Kinect integration comes into play.

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