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IGN Review of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon
Wii owners have largely been left out of the Tom Clancy shenanigans this console generation. While the Gamecube eventually saw ports of a number of Clancy titles, motion control just hasn't been in the cards for the military themed franchise. Wii gamers had hoped that might change with the announcement of Ghost Recon earlier this year, but in the interest of saving everyone time and trouble, you'll be waiting a while still. Much like the dismal port-in-name-only of HAWX 2 earlier this month, the Wii version of Ghost Recon feels like a cynical attempt to capitalize on the Ghost Recon name with a game that bears little resemblance to a decent game, much less one of Ubisoft's flagship shooters.
Ghost Recon takes place in Russia and Northern Europe, as a renewed ultra-nationalist branch of the former Soviet Empire has moved to... you know what, I can't. The story in Ghost Recon is a mish mash of bits and pieces from every other Tom Clancy game this year, save that it doesn't really fit in with the other games particularly well. It's a worn out premise that Ghost Recon Wii does absolutely nothing interesting with, save for throw some offensively bad Russian accents at you as often as possible -- we're talking "American-ski" territory. This includes the rest of the voice acting and presentation as well. It's all straight out of a low budget Saturday morning cartoon -- assuming that Saturday morning cartoon hated children and thought they were stupid.
The soundtrack is actually not terrible, but it's ruined by the same voice samples repeating over and over, screaming "reloading" and "get to cover", and Ubisoft and developers Next Level have seen fit to assault players with a host of ear-murdering chimes and tones from the Wii Remote itself.
Ghost Recon Wii's visuals are bad. I don't have a good, flowery way to put it. It looks stuck somewhere between Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation and the Metal Gear Solid remake for Gamecube, which wouldn't be such a big deal if not for the fact that this is an on-rails game. On-rails titles on Wii have practically set the standard for great looking games on the system (aside from platformers like Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic Colors), but Ghost Recon Wii is full of ugly textures, hordes of the exact same character models for enemies, and laughably bad explosions.
Ubisoft would have us believe that Ghost Recon isn't just an on-rails shooter, and have stressed that it's more of a guided experience with player choice and interaction. However, what they've done is force the Ghost Recon name into what is, essentially, a Time Crisis game. Your character is always in cover until you tell him to come out of it. You can blindfire around corners, but you're really only effective coming out of it and firing away. Once enemies are clear, you can aim your reticule at specific points on the screen and move there.
This is supposed to be tactical. What it feels like is a "keep going" button. This lip service paid to "depth" is everywhere in the game. There are vehicle sequences, but they're on-rails with no cover and slightly better weapons. There's a sort of bullet time power-up you can grab from time to time, but it adds little to the game. Essentially, you'll be going through the same boring motions with slightly different weapons for the entire, poorly-paced experience. Which sort of seems like what Next Level was doing when they developed Ghost Recon.
Ghost Recon Wii isn't particularly difficult, but it does feel excessively punitive. There are plenty of attacks that will kill you instantly whether in cover or not, and several instant fail sections which I suppose were meant to mix things up, but really just hammered home a dismal experience. Should you get bored of that, you could always play arcade mode and remove any of the more complicated gameplay additions, and if you have a friend you don't like very much, there's co-op as well.
©2010-11-16, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Ghost Recon takes place in Russia and Northern Europe, as a renewed ultra-nationalist branch of the former Soviet Empire has moved to... you know what, I can't. The story in Ghost Recon is a mish mash of bits and pieces from every other Tom Clancy game this year, save that it doesn't really fit in with the other games particularly well. It's a worn out premise that Ghost Recon Wii does absolutely nothing interesting with, save for throw some offensively bad Russian accents at you as often as possible -- we're talking "American-ski" territory. This includes the rest of the voice acting and presentation as well. It's all straight out of a low budget Saturday morning cartoon -- assuming that Saturday morning cartoon hated children and thought they were stupid.
The soundtrack is actually not terrible, but it's ruined by the same voice samples repeating over and over, screaming "reloading" and "get to cover", and Ubisoft and developers Next Level have seen fit to assault players with a host of ear-murdering chimes and tones from the Wii Remote itself.
Ghost Recon Wii's visuals are bad. I don't have a good, flowery way to put it. It looks stuck somewhere between Metal Gear Solid on the original Playstation and the Metal Gear Solid remake for Gamecube, which wouldn't be such a big deal if not for the fact that this is an on-rails game. On-rails titles on Wii have practically set the standard for great looking games on the system (aside from platformers like Super Mario Galaxy and Sonic Colors), but Ghost Recon Wii is full of ugly textures, hordes of the exact same character models for enemies, and laughably bad explosions.
Ubisoft would have us believe that Ghost Recon isn't just an on-rails shooter, and have stressed that it's more of a guided experience with player choice and interaction. However, what they've done is force the Ghost Recon name into what is, essentially, a Time Crisis game. Your character is always in cover until you tell him to come out of it. You can blindfire around corners, but you're really only effective coming out of it and firing away. Once enemies are clear, you can aim your reticule at specific points on the screen and move there.
This is supposed to be tactical. What it feels like is a "keep going" button. This lip service paid to "depth" is everywhere in the game. There are vehicle sequences, but they're on-rails with no cover and slightly better weapons. There's a sort of bullet time power-up you can grab from time to time, but it adds little to the game. Essentially, you'll be going through the same boring motions with slightly different weapons for the entire, poorly-paced experience. Which sort of seems like what Next Level was doing when they developed Ghost Recon.
Ghost Recon Wii isn't particularly difficult, but it does feel excessively punitive. There are plenty of attacks that will kill you instantly whether in cover or not, and several instant fail sections which I suppose were meant to mix things up, but really just hammered home a dismal experience. Should you get bored of that, you could always play arcade mode and remove any of the more complicated gameplay additions, and if you have a friend you don't like very much, there's co-op as well.
©2010-11-16, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved