Almost a year ago at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, Ubisoft was showing off the gunsmith feature on the Xbox 360 version of Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier that utilized Kinect. It was pretty cool how it used motion sensing and voice commands. Unfortunately, the PlayStation 3 only has the Move controllers and the Move support touted on the package refers only to that Gunsmith mode, not to anything more than that. The customizations options available are a welcome addition but pairing up Move controllers just for that, even with being able to run around the firing range, is a waste of time.
Fortunately, there is a lot more that’s good about Ghost Recon: Future Soldier than being able to customize weapons and try them out on a shooting range. Ubisoft has a long and mostly successful history of utilizing their Tom Clancy license with the Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six, Hawx, and Ghost Recon franchises. Many gamers looking for more authentic representations of Metal Gear Solid and Call of Duty prefer those Tom Clancy-branded titles. It is with that more authentic approach in mind, that the further jump of the near future setting and equipment of Future Soldier may seem like a departure.
Ghost Recon is a team similar to the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 or the Army’s Delta Force, and as team, even the single player game requires teamwork with your AI squad mates. Luckily for those who don’t have friends to play with, your team’s AI is pretty good. The single player campaign can be played as four player co-op with the included Uplay pass, but only by LAN or online. The story is your typical global response team fare with arms smuggling, coups, and such so — don’t expect much new from it. Also, just like if you were really on a global response team, don’t expect much explanation. Like similar titles, Future Soldier will take you all over the world.
The voice work in Future Soldier is solid but the character models, particularly in cut scenes look last-gen unless played in 3D and speaking of graphics, many are likely to be unimpressed by a great deal of the textures. Some of the environmental effects work really well, but others, particularly foliage, looks like early PlayStation 2 stuff. There are a few other technical issues with frame rate and draw distances, but they rarely get in the way of the game. The 3D isn’t adjustable but it is better than many other shooters and will give a more immersive experience overall.
Article comments
1 - gamer in NC
the resolution only goes to 720, and the ps move compatibility is misleading, the 3d is choppy to say the best, overall i give this game 3 out of 10 stars... it could have been great, increase resolution, make the whole game ps move capable