Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter Xbox 360 Review

G.R.A.W. as its commonly known has been one of the more anticipated titles for the Xbox 360 since the console was relased back in December. G.R.A.W. is a squad based shooter taking place in either the 1st or 3rd person perspective! Personally, I feel the 3rd person is where its at. The detail alone on your player, who goes by the name of Scott Mitchell, is amazing. Ill get to the graphics in a minute! The general gist of the story is that you find yourself in Mexico city after Mexican rebels take over a summit. The Canadian president is after hitting the bucket and the US and Mexican prezzers are missing. You've guessed it, you and your squad are on a mission to find the Presidents in question.

The game opens with a selection of training missions which will give you a general understanding of the controls and the mechanics of the game! Theres quite alot of controls in the game, but after about an hour you'll be ordering your men around a tactical map and calling in air strikes. In G.R.A.W. not only do you control your team as to how they react in a situation, point out who to shoot at and where to go, you also get to control AC's, Tanks and Choppers. You get to order these when the game decides when is the right time. Its not as if you can call in a gunship for any old reason. Some levels have you holding tough until you get a message over the radio calling for you to point out some targets. Then the gunship arrives and kicks some serious backside, while you and your men run for cover! Other levels have you controlling an armoured car, which will happily go forward or backwards blowing things up, while offering a nice spot for you and your squad to get some cover. Parts of the game also allow you to ride in the Choppers holding on to a big machine gun, shooting at anything that moves! This happens early on in the game and its then do you appreciate how wide and vast the landscape is. Buildings of all shapes and sizes are as far as the eye can see, all shimmering away in the hot Mexican sunshine. The graphics are superb through out. On the top left of the screen you can see the various views from your team, chopper or whatever else your controlling. Things explode with debris, smoke and flames. Lights shimmer in the distance, choppers fly over head. Some of the graphics really have to be seen to be believed. The audio is equally impressive. Your squad scream and shout and say "Thanks" when you administer some medical attention to a wounded comrade! Buildings and vehicles make very convincing bangs and your array of weapons make all the right sounds!

This is a very ambitious game, and UBISOFT have almost pulled it off. The game does have its faults though, mainly in various bugs. The first bug I came across was during the training, not 20 minutes into the game. It was a simple task, to move your squad to a point on the tactical map. No matter how many times I moved them to the exact spot, the game would not let me exit the map. I had to restart to pass the training point. Another bug I found was the level where your trying to get the Mexican president to an extraction point. After a long and hard gun battle, the chopper flys in and we make for the extraction point. Nothing happens. Again a restart fixes the problem. I wouldnt have minded so much except I found the level fairly difficult! Bugs aside, the single player game is a really immersive gaming experience. I found myself running through a hail of bullets to get some medical aid to one of my fallen squad. A game that makes you care! Says it all really.

16 player multiplayer on Xbox Live is also part of the package. This consists of your regular death and team matches. Capture the terriority etc. and you take on the campaign mode as well with various levels where its up to 16 Live players all in one big squad. Again the graphics are really amazing here, particuarly on the Fishing villiage and Rocky Cove levels. The water effects alone are serious eye candy!
Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter is one of the few titles to give the power of the Xbox 360 a half decent workout. It looks great, sounds great and plays great and the Xbox Live experience is great fun. Check it out. 9/10