Reader Request Game Reviews: "Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier"

Next up in our series of reader requests is this console game, requested by the Surly Badger.

As I’ve mentioned before, multiplayer and I don’t get along, because, at heart, I’m a backshooting dirtbag. I like to go carefully through the environment, figure out where my enemies are without them knowing it, and then killing them. It comes from playing old FPS games without health regen, where it was a good idea to trick the enemy into opening doors or sneaking up on them, or otherwise avoiding getting shot. In other words, I’m no fun to play against because I’m kind of a troll.

So, with its stealth and backshooting and general dirtbaggery, this is a game that was practically made for guys like me.

There are some flaws here: “Call of Duty” has had something of a pernicious effect on games in general, especially ones with military pretensions. But overall, this is a much different experience from your typical modern-day FPS.

To start with, the story is thankfully not blitheringly stupid. One thing that’s driven me crazy about “Call of Duty” over the years is the fill-in-the-blanks plots that make no sense, geopolitically or otherwise. We’re basically asked to swallow that these countries which now want to do business with us would suddenly revert to Cold War attitudes, something “Black Ops II” continues as a proud tradition if the E3 preview is anything to go by.

Here we’re just asked to accept that Russia might have a civil war. Granted, it’s a bit silly in the details, but this is a game with Predator camouflage. I’ll cut it some slack.

The focus on stealth is also a welcome change of pace. This is a game that really, really does not want you to be shot at, and if you’re forced out of cover, you’re probably dead meat. In fact, when you’re the target of suppression fire, the screen shakes and your vision narrows, making firing back difficult. You can pump anybody you want full of lead, but that’s rarely the best choice. In fact, more often than not it makes sense to not shoot anybody, or only pick off a few targets.

It contributes to a surprisingly harsh difficulty curve. If there’s one flaw here, it’s the fact that this game will not be kind to you, right out of the gate. Adapt or die seems to be the motto, and it can be rough going at first if you’re not used to the system.

Helping substantially, tough, is that your squad aren’t idiots. They’re best used with the tagging system: mark an enemy for them to take out, and when you drop your target, they take on theirs. Tools like the drone really help in this respect, letting you figure out patterns.

Unfortunately, that really makes the “set piece” moments, you know, the scenes with big explosions and airstrikes and crap, just that much more jarring and out of place, and there are way, way, too many of them for this style of gameplay. It’s hard to feel like a stealthy badass when the game forces you into these bottlenecks.

Ultimately, if you like sneaking around and feeling like you got one over on your target, this is well worth your sixty bucks. If you’re more into run and gun…perhaps look elsewhere.

image courtesy Ubisoft

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