Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon - Test your timing, intelligence, reflex, and most of all patience.

In Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, war has broken out on the borders of Russia and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. that is when the call goes out for the Ghosts, an elite handful of specially trained U.S. Army Green Berets, armed with the latest technology and trained to use the deadliest weapons. Their mission: Spearhead the way for a NATO peacekeeping force, and keep the lid on the conflict.

Introduction

Gamers, you have just accepted a very dangerous and arduous task. Ghost Recon will test your timing, intelligence, reflex and most of all patience.

Like most Tom Clancy games, Ghost Recon has a full and realistic story. Set in 2008, you are part of a leading American infiltration team called the Ghosts. Your goal is to go in before any other troops, perform fast and lethal maneuvers then evacuate before anyone even knows you are there. Your missions will range across Russia and your objectives will be anything from assassination runs to stopping bank robberies.

Indeed this tests every skills you have as a gamer. So do the training missions, familiarize yourself with the controls and weapons, then enter our mission guides.

Controls

• Pause Game/Exit Game
• Move/Strafe
• (Pressed) Open door
• Look/Aim
• (Pressed) Zoom
• Fire weapon
• Bring up Map
• Reload
• Switch weapon
• Toggle Night Vision on/off
• Switch character
• Toggle rate of fire
• Click to Talk
• / Stand/Crouch/Lie Down
• / peek left/right
• Enter Cheats

Missions

• 1. Iron Dragon
• 2. Eager Smoke
• 3. Stone Bell
• 4. Black Needle
• 5. Gold Mountain
• 6. Witch Fire
• 7. Paper Angel
• 8. Zebra Straw
• 9. Blue Storm
• 10. Fever Claw
• 11. Dream Knife
• 12. Ivory Horn
• 13. Arctic Sun
• 14. Willow Bow
• 15. White Razor

Game Spot Review

Originally released for the PC last year, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon was a squad-based first-person shooter that followed in the basic footsteps that were set by its predecessors, the memorable Rainbow Six and Rogue Spear games from Red Storm Entertainment. Though it differed considerably in its plot and setting, Ghost Recon was still a methodical, slow-paced action game that required a good deal of planning in order for your team of highly trained military operatives to succeed in their objectives. Ultimately, it was another good game in Red Storm's venerable line of tactical shooters, but it suffered from a bad case of poor AI and had a less-than-stellar interface to boot. Nearly a year later, Ubi Soft has released the Xbox port of Ghost Recon, and even though there might not appear to be a lot of changes outwardly, the game does in fact have numerous changes. To be sure, some of the problems from the original Ghost Recon still persist, but this Xbox port is wholly satisfying, and its Xbox Live support transforms what was largely a straightforward multiplayer component on the PC to a fun and addictive experience.

Unfortunately, the graphics, which could have used a good shot in the arm, received no such boost in the transition to the Xbox.

Like the recently released Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon takes place in the near future and focuses on tensions in the Caucasus region of the former Soviet Union. Specifically, the game is set in 2008, and right-wing nationalists have seized control in Moscow and launched a war campaign to envelop all of the former Soviet states that gained independence in the early 1990s when the Iron Curtain fell. As part of an elite US Army unit called the Ghosts, you are sent into the region to wreak havoc with the new Soviet regime's plans. The single-player campaign spans the length of 15 individual missions, by the end of which you are leading your team of trained and sdefeated warriors into the very heart of Russia itself — the Kremlin — to overthrow these radicals once and for all.

Before jumping into any one of these missions, you are given a text and voice briefing that includes the latest background information on the war, as well as your mission parameters. Outlining these proceedings is a map in the right-hand corner of the screen that denotes all your primary and secondary objectives, your insertion point, and your extraction point. On the game's easiest setting, neutralizing all the enemies in any given level will automatically satisfy all your primary and secondary objectives, and the mission will end successfully without your having to return to the extraction point. This is not the case under the veteran or elite settings, however, where you have to actively complete all of your objectives before being able to move on to the next mission. Additionally, whereas the completion of the primary objectives is required, the secondary objectives simply net you additional bonuses in the form of unlockable characters and unique weapons.

After these briefings, you are taken to a loadout screen, where you'll be able to custom-tailor your entire squad to your liking. In Ghost Recon, you'll carry out your missions with six soldiers split into two teams of three. The game also has four distinct soldier classes: rifleman, which is your standard elite infantryman; support, the group's heavy gunner; sniper, a long-range recon unit; and demolitions, which carries most of the team's explosives. Furthermore, each one of these classes can be equipped four different ways depending on your preference. For example, you can opt to have your support gunner carry his primary M249 SAW and several frag grenades for close engagement or extra ammo instead. After you complete a mission, you are given a certain number of points that you can allocate into one of four skills for your soldiers. These skills — weapons, strength, leadership, and stealth — have a concrete effect within the game, but you are not always better off choosing soldiers with more experience, since once a soldier dies, you lose all his points forever.

You can choose to equip your soldiers any way you want, and you can assign any available soldiers to the six slots on your two teams, though how you customize your team should be strongly influenced by the mission briefings. If you are told to expect tanks or other armor, you'd be wise to bring along two demolitions experts and equip them both with M136 LAWs. Obviously, Ghost Recon is a gun nut's dream, as it features more than 20 real-world weapons that have been made famous in recent years by games like Counter-Strike and Operation Flashpoint on the PC. Everything from the standard-issue M16A2 infantry rifle to the deadly Barrett 50-caliber sniper rifle will eventually be available to you in Ghost Recon, and each serves a unique purpose that translates well within the actual missions.

The missions themselves are very well laid out, and they often include scenarios unique to this genre, as well as ones that have been borrowed from popular culture. One mission, for example, tasks you with investigating the crash site of a downed Sea Hawk in the middle of Tbilisi. As you wind your way through the war-wracked city streets, taking fire from behind cars and building doors, finally turning the corner to reveal the helicopter wreck, you cannot help but relive some of the moments from Black Hawk Down. In fact, most of Ghost Recon's missions are very atmospheric, and though the game might not wow you with its visual splendor, its astounding ambient sound effects go a long way toward making you believe that you are actually part of the action. The very first mission, for example, tasks you with raiding an insurgent camp located on the face of a mountain in Georgia. As you make your way higher up the mountain, you note that the wind gradually changes from a light breeze to a strong gust. And if you happen to approach a certain cliff near the peak, you are greeted with an absolute howl that'll practically have you buttoning up your jacket.

The game's inherent slow pace and sense of realism also add to its believability. This is not Unreal Championship, where you can jump around like a rabbit while absorbing loads of damage. In fact, you cannot even jump at all in Ghost Recon. Your movement and the entire execution of any given mission are very methodical in this game. In every mission, your team will be greatly outnumbered, and it takes only two or three shots to defeat one of your squad members. Thankfully, the game lets you assume control of all six of your squad members, though never at once. By hitting the Y button, you can cycle through your entire squad, and the five soldiers who are not under your control at any given time will know to defend themselves properly. Ghost Recon for the PC suffered from some serious AI issues, and some of these still linger in the Xbox version of the game, though to a somewhat lesser extent. Most of these problems seem to involve doors. Specifically, it is easy to inadvertently leave your squadmates "trapped" in a house or building after you leave, since they often attempt to pass through two at a time and get stuck in the process. Other times, they block you in a doorway or a narrow hallway, leaving you frustrated in your attempts to pass. Unlike Rainbow Six or Rogue Spear, Ghost Recon was clearly developed with the wide outdoors in mind, and some problems arise in the few places in the game that force you to go indoors.

During combat, however, your two teams will shine. Because of the game's green and brown color palette, spotting camouflaged enemy soldiers can be tough, and oftentimes the noise you make will draw enemy fire to you before you are able to see where the attack is coming from. Your squadmates will more often than not spot enemy soldiers before you do, and depending on how you have set their rules of engagement, they either open fire or report their position to you. Additionally, the game makes use of a threat indicator that shows you the general direction and distance of enemy locations, as well as the direction of gunshots in general. In addition to adding stealth sdefeats to all of your soldiers, you can crouch or go into a prone position to reduce your visibility to others, and the rest of your team will follow suit. By tapping left or right on the D pad, you can even lean around objects to get a better feel for your surroundings without exposing yourself. You can also use a command menu to set the rules of engagement and lay waypoints for your two teams to follow. This interface is drastically improved over the PC version, which made giving orders a somewhat clunky ordeal. The new interface is much bigger now, and it lets you zoom in by pressing down on the right analog stick for finer placement of your troops. By moving the right analog stick around, you can quickly change the demeanor and rules of engagement for both of your teams, easily eyeball the status of all six members of your squad, and assume the role of any team member. Combat in Ghost Recon will border on paranoia, since you spend much more time scanning your surroundings and sending your other team on short patrol routes than you will shooting.

As you progress through Ghost Recon's 15 single-player missions, you unlock new quick game modes that will let you play any one of the campaign missions in any order. And even though there is no dynamic placement of enemies in the game, some of the soldiers that you encounter will never be standing still. Many will be on patrol, meaning that they are not in the same place where you might have encountered them before. This adds a little bit of replay value to the game's single-player maps, but it is in the multiplayer component of Ghost Recon that this game shows its true worth. Ghost Recon supports up to four players via split-screen and four times that number via the Xbox system link. The really fun part, however, is Ghost Recon's Xbox Live mode. Using either the optimatch or quick match options, you have no trouble finding a server with a healthy number of people playing. And whereas the voice communication might be somewhat gimmicky in other Xbox Live games, its integral to a game like Ghost Recon. Using the command menu, one player will often tell the rest of the team where to go and where the closest enemies are. During particularly heated firefights, many of the players will yell things like "I'm hit!" and "Where is it coming from?" Obviously, these events are completely unscripted, and they only serve to suck you deeper into the game. Playing over Xbox Live is not perfect, however. Depending on the host's connection, the voice communication will often distort or drop out altogether for brief moments at a time. Also, to talk, you need to hold down the white button on the Xbox controller, which is awkward at first, especially considering that most other Xbox Live-compatible games do not require you to do so. Additionally, the game does not support split-screen when playing an Xbox Live game, even though it does via a system link match. There is no way for the host (or anyone, for that matter) to boot people from the lobby. This can be a problem if up to 15 other players are waiting for a single person to hit the ready button. The only solution in cases like this is to drop out of the game and create or join a new match.

To be fair, though, these points are nitpicky. The multiplayer experience of Ghost Recon on the Xbox is much more satisfying than in the PC version, and the game includes other fixes or enhancements--like a revised interface, a new auto-aim feature, and the ability to rename saved games — that make this game a better experience on the console than it was on the PC. Another major reason for this is Ghost Recon's phenomenal sound effects. The game now supports Dolby Digital 5.1 audio, and if you have the right speaker setup at home, you are able to hear ambient sound effects all around you, and more importantly, you are able to tell the general direction of gunfire, which is very loud and very convincing in the game. When one of your squadmates says "right behind you," his voice will literally come from right behind you. The game's music is great as well. Like in the PC version, it is composed largely of drums and brass instruments that produce a somewhat patriotic score, though also like in the PC game, this music plays only during the menus.

Unfortunately, the graphics, which could have used a good shot in the arm, received no such boost in the transition to the Xbox. To be clear, Ghost Recon does not look bad at all. In fact, the 3D models of your squadmates look very good, especially the ghilly suit-clad snipers, who even have their sniper rifles covered in the shrublike fabric. Moreover, the soldiers move with fluid animation, many of the tanks and armored personnel carriers that you encounter look very imposing, and trees and shrubs sway subtly in the wind. However, the levels and the rest of the characters in the game are modeled with a low number of polygons, the sky often resembles nothing more than a flat bitmap, and all of the textures in the game are low resolution and extremely blurry.

You would not expect a game like Ghost Recon to make the transition to a console very well. After all, its slow pacing and realism give it a distinct PC flavor. And yet you have no trouble controlling the action, thanks to the few but key changes that were made in the Xbox version. Additionally, Ghost Recon makes excellent use of the Xbox Live service, giving it replay value well beyond that of its PC counterpart. In a crowded genre of similar action games, you undoubtedly find Ghost Recon to be a welcome addition to the Xbox library. It would have been nice if the game had updated graphics and better squad AI, but as it is, this is a great game nonetheless.

Team Xbox Review

There was one game that decided to go against everything done before it and make a realistic almost sim-like first person shooter. The game was Rainbow Six and the people over at Red Storm Entertainment were responsible for this gaming masterpiece. The series has come a long way since then and spanned from your home PC and over multiple gaming systems. The main reason these games succeeded on the PC and failed on home consoles was a little thing called online multiplayer. Sure the single player was average but it was the realism and the playing against real people that made these titles shine. Although Ghost Recon is not part of the “Rainbow” series it is almost identical in all aspects except storyline. Do not worry though because the latest addition in the series, Ghost Recon is Xbox Live enabled which shoots it past all the console games of the series.

Gameplay

The first thing you need to know before playing Ghost Recon is that it is about as realistic as a game comes, one shot above the waste and your dead. This may turn some people instantly away from this game but this realism factor is what makes it as great as it is. It separates Ghost Recon from the massive FPS category that includes the likes of Doom, Quake, and Unreal. Before diving into any mission you have to pick your teammates, their weapons and what they need to be doing. Do not freak out though because if you are too lazy to do this there is a nice Auto Assign button for you to push. Being able to have this much control really gives the gamer the feel that they are in control, nothing is predetermined.

The controls are actually quite the opposite of what I was expecting considering how difficult it is to port a straight PC game to a home console and make it work well. Well Red Storm and Ubisoft did an awesome job. There is a learning curve but its not that bad and once you get the hang of it you will feel right at home holding the Xbox controller. Every button does something be it turning on your night vision or switching weapons. Also for anyone that is wondering the whole game takes place in real first person view, you cannot see your gun only the sight is on the screen.

The single-player campaign is very deep and you will end up doing some missions over and over until you complete all the objectives. The missions were well thought out and do not seem repetitive at all. Red Storm also did a great job with the design of the levels because each one from the vast outdoors jungle to the train wreck are nicely laid out. Each mission gives you a new feeling which will make you keep playing just to see what your team gets assigned to do next. The multiplayer gameplay is basically the same as in single player but I will cover this aspect of Ghost Recon later on in the review.

Multiplayer

Let us start with the two-player split-screen mode and 16-player system link mode. The two-player mode only features three types of gaming (co-op, tournament, and adversial), which makes sense because split screen fighting in a game like this isn’t really all that fun. Because Ghost Recon is a realist shooter the ability to look down and see where your opponent is takes away from that. This makes the co-op mode virtually the only playable mode in split-screen play. System link is ok but ends up being kind of pointless when Xbox Live is at your fingertips. So get online and start gaming. There are sixteen types ways to defeat your buddies online, well actually 12 considering four of the modes are co-op, which pit the online players against some AI opponents.

Team modes are my personal favorite but plain old “mano eh mano” are just as entertaining. I still want to spend some more time online and get some more play time in so check back in a few weeks for some updated information but as of now this is one of my favorite LIVE titles as everything works out. The menus, lobbies, everything up to the actual way you talk to your teammates were done with style. Playing Ghost Recon on Live is something no Xbox gamer needs to miss out on.

Graphics

Ghost Recon is a little sluggish in the graphical department. While in no way is this game painful to look at there are just some minor things that kept it from being a visually stunning title. The levels in this game are massive in size and while this is awesome for gameplay it really puts a strain on the graphics engine. The draw distance is not at all what most FPS gamers would call optimal. Meaning that if an enemy is a certain distance away from you, you might not be able to see him clearly if at all. The bad thing is that the enemies AI still may be able to see you resulting in them shooting you. This results in your death, which does not make some gamers happy.

Some credit does go to Ubisoft because they did notice the draw distance problem, they implemented a great little navigation compass system that allows you to know which way the shots are coming from, even if you cannot see the shooter. They also put in a large amount of fog keeping the gamer from noticing the very short draw distance. This fog also adds to the confusion when a bullet goes whizzing by your head. Not all the levels have this distance problem because some of them take place indoors or around a centerpiece.

Other than those small details Ghost Recon still looks amazing. The character models look realistic as do the surroundings (cars, buildings, etc.). A small gripe in this category is the lack in the ability to destroy anything besides people. You cannot blow up cars or light trees on fire; it is just not able to be done. The weather effects do a nice job of making you feel like you are in the game, rain and thunder along with snow adds to the realism. The game also runs at a solid 30 FPS even during big gun battles, never a moment of slowdown.

Sound:

I know I have stated a lot recently that you should own a 5.1 sound system but I am going to go ahead and say it again, get a damn 5.1 system if you can afford it. Ghost Recon sounds so realistic I once actually jumped for cover when I was creeping through the Russian jungle. It helps a lot when you are getting shot at and cannot figure out where it is coming from visually. One thing that some gamers might find strange is that there is no in game music unless it is during the intro or maybe a loading screen. This may seem weird at first but after getting in a lot of playtime with Ghost Recon you actually start to enjoy the silence. Voice acting is good for this type of game and the SFX sounds a perfect fit.

Overall:

Ghost Recon has to compete with the macho Unreal Championship for the title of best Xbox Live shooter. In no way should these two great games even be compared except in the aspect that they are both Xbox Live titles. Ghost Recon is for those gamers out there that dream of being a Navy Seal not those that dreamed of taking out a robot with a rocket launcher. Games like Ghost Recon have been around for a while and have sold millions of copies; they do not only apply to realistic shooter fans. This game is still fun for all types of gamers and I believe all people should at least give this a renting chance. Although I do not think it is GOTY worthy like it received on the PC it is still a solid online and offline shooter and a great addition to your Xbox collection.

By: Eric Bush - November 19th, 2002

Cheats

• X, A, Y, B, X High Pitched Voices
• A, X, B, Y, A Big Heads
• X, X, Y, A, B Chicken Explosives/Bombs
• B, A, Y, Y, A, B, X, X, X Team God Mode
• Y, Y, B, X, A Slow Mo Mode
• B, A, X, Y, A Two Dimensional Mode - when you look at the other soldiers on your team, they will be two dimensional
• X, X, A, B, A Individual god mode

Unlockables

• Distinguished Service Cross: Get 25 defeats.
• Congressional Medal Of Honor: Get 30 defeats
• Silver Star: Get 20 defeats
• Purple Heart: Get wounded during a mission
• Bronze Star: Get 15 defeats
• Cat and Mouse Game: Complete M06 Castle in Firefight on Elite, using only a sniper
• Helium Mode: Complete M13 Airbase in Firefight on Elite with a full team, and not losing a soldier
• Domination Game Type: Complete M15 Red Square in Firefight on Elite, using only a sniper
• Siege Game Type: Complete M05 Embassy in Firefight on Elite, using only a sniper
• Paper Mode: Complete M15 Red Square in Recon on Elite using only a sniper with the M24 and frags kit

Unlockable Maps

• Map MP09 Wilderness: Complete the Campign once on Elite.
• Map MP08 Creekbed: Complete the Campign once on Veteran.
• Map MP07 Stronghold: Complete the Campign once on Recruit.

Unlockable Weapons

• 7.62 Carbine for W. Jacobs Complete Special Objective in M1 Caves in Veteran during Mission Mode.
• M60 for D. Munz Complete Special Objective in M11 POW Camp in Elite during Mission Mode.
• PKM for Guram Osadze Complete Special Objective in M7 River, in Veteran during Mission Mode.
• AN-94 for Buzz Gordon Complete Special Objective in M4 Village in Elite during Mission Mode.
• Bizon 9mm for Nigel Tunney Complete Special Objective in M2 Farm in recruit during Mission Mode.
• A-91 for Klaus Henkel Complete Special Objective in M6 Castle in Elite during Mission Mode.
• 7.62 Sniper for A. Galinsky Complete Special Objective in M9 Swamp in Veteran during Mission Mode.
• M98 for Scott Ibrahim Complete Special Objective in M12 Docks in Veteran during Mission Mode.
• Silenced Sniper for Jack Stone Complete Special Objective in M3 RR Bridge in Elite during a Quick Mission in Mission Mode.
• 5.56 Carbine for Susan Grey Complete Special Objective in M10 Vilnius in Veteran during Mission Mode.
• 7.62 AR for Lindy Cohen Complete Special Objective in M8 Battlefield in a Quick Mission in Mission Mode
• AK-74 for Henry Ramirez Complete Special Objective in M5 Embassy in Recruit.