First Encounter

By Ben Barker

The third franchise leg of Ubisoft's Tom Clancy tripod returns to the Xbox stronger than ever, with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2, which storms onto Xbox Live just in time to keep the near-future safe for democracy. The year is 2011, and there's trouble on the North Korean-Chinese border. The North Korean military has revolted, led by the charismatic General Jung, that favorite super-villain of military gamers and game designers alike: a latter-day neo-Communist nutjob. Jung's not only making aggressive moves against China, he's seized control of the nation's nuclear arsenal. While the diplomats do their thing and the rogue general threatens to declare open war, the Ghosts are sent in to deal with the problem their way. And, their way has never looked better or been more addictive than in the fifteen storyline missions, specially designed by developer Red Storm for the Xbox. The dedication to the platform also shows through on Xbox Live, where up to sixteen gamers can play in a huge variety of new and old-favorite game types. Xbox Live even allows up to three guests to join you on split-screen.

Ghost Recon 2 — it's more than just cooler hats.

Ghost Alone
The first thing you'll notice when you start up Ghost Recon 2 is a dramatic shift from first- to third-person. You can manually switch back to first-person if you like at any time, but you'll want to stick with the new perspective. It improves your ability to make tactical and strategic decisions, especially for the kinds of swift, silent strikes the Ghosts need to perform. You use hand signals, see yourself move with your team, and so on. The new point-of-view is especially useful on solo missions, where the game steps into Sam Fisher territory as you move stealthily through enemy formations. And, check this out: Your M29 rifle on these missions has a mounted camera to help you scout around corners, plus a programmable grenade launcher that you can set to go off at a pre-chosen distance. Better yet, any mission can be opened in solo mode once you complete it with the team, which makes single-player replay even more challenging and will keep you coming back to try new strategies and tactics against the vastly improved enemy AI.

Enemy and ally AI is stronger than ever.

Ghost Leadership
The command system has received a much-welcome revamp that never takes you out of the flow of the action and story. Commands are now executed more in-line with GR2's cousin, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, with context- and location-sensitive commands you can execute with a tap of the Y button. Hold the reticule over an enemy and tap Y, and your team will take out the tango. Target an enemy vehicle, tap Y, and the Ghosts will obliterate it. For finer control, holding down Y brings up a more-detailed command list that lets you easily manage your Ghosts without ever taking yourself out of the game. Additional regrouping commands are mapped to the black and white buttons, for when a fur ball explodes and you need to move everyone quickly. Here's where the real difference between Ghost Recon 2 and the rest of the Clancy-verse comes into focus: You cannot simply charge through, running and gunning your way to the finish line. The enemy AI is smart — very smart —and will move to counter your tactics. Completing a mission is more than a matter of getting to the end; it's a matter of accomplishing the goal against all odds. Fortunately, you can now save at any time, preventing "I'm just stuck on this one aggravating sniper" syndrome.

The latest hi-tech weapons/armor means new tactics.

Ghost Live
Single-player environments and multiplayer maps look better than ever, with improved realism that must be taken into account on any mission. Thick foliage can make sniper-spotting difficult, blasted city streets can conceal a deadly ambush just around the next set of ruins, and open areas can leave you vulnerable. On Xbox Live, there's a lot more than just graphic improvements - you get every game mode featured in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, with the addition of the Juggernaut-style Seek and Destroy game type. In S&D, The first player to get a kill gets the Future Force armor and the solo mission M29 — with the camera and the grenades and the mwa-hey — and becomes the target for every other player in the game. When the guy who's "It" gets taken out, the one that scored the kill becomes It, and so on. That's on top of GR2's robust co-op mission play that's perfect for split-screening with friends.

Now get out there and practice your stealth moves—you'll need them!