Tom Clancy has brought more than his name to the Ghost Recon series. The incredibly popular author has designed an entire alternate world that guarantees the maximum amount of international intrigue and a globe with enough hot spots to keep the bullets flying for decades. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon™: Island Thunder™ brings the action to Cuba, which is even more chaotic and dangerous in Clancy-land than it is in real life.
Ghost Recon: Island Thunder starts from the premise that the Cold War never ended … or, at least, it didn’t have the definite end it did in our world. In the chaotic remnants of the Soviet Union, violent mobsters and jaded military men brutally tried to hold on to the power they once had. These Reds can make things very uncomfortable for the rest of the world. That’s where the Ghosts came in, liberating Russia from a resurgent Communist regime in the original Ghost Recon. Now, however, the battles have spread around the globe.
It’s a jungle out there.
The Ghosts are the cream of the U.S. military crop, highly trained, highly disciplined, and devastatingly effective in combat. In Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, the Ghosts go to Cuba, long a source of trouble for the U.S. It’s a communist country with close ties to the USSR, it’s less than 100 miles from our shores, and then there’s that Cuban Missile Crisis. Fidel Castro, Cuba’s longtime ruler, has also engaged in a war of words with us, and many Americans feel that if he were gone, the U.S. and Cuba could rebuild their shattered economic and political relationship.
Ghost Recon: Island Thunder begins with the death of Fidel. With the strongman out of the way, other powerful factions from within and without are attempting to seize power and take over the state. Well-armed and well-funded drug cartels would like to turn Cuba into their new HQ, factions within the country want to take Fidel’s place at the peak of political power, and blood runs in the streets. Armed soldiers, criminals, and rebels alike swarm across Cuba, looking to shoot anyone who tries to interfere with their grab for power.
This ain’t no beach resort.
The Ghosts drop into this mess with one overriding goal: to ensure that Cuba’s people are allowed to freely choose their next government. Practically speaking, this means they have to take out the factions that would disrupt the voting process (or worse, harm the voters) and keep the streets and jungle paths safe. The first mission in the game, for example, tasks the Ghosts with cleaning all the bad guys out of a plantation near a suspicious supply drop, even going building-to-building to make sure they’re all dead. As the squad leader, you’ll need to field teams have the right mix of skills and the right equipment to accomplish your missions. Note that the Ghosts, like their name suggests, prefer to get in and get out without being seen and with a minimum of resistance.
But, don’t mistake Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunder for a stealth adventure. Most missions involve the total elimination of the enemy, even when your job is to protect innocent bystanders. The mission objectives are precise, so the Ghosts must be also. From the plantation, your squads move on through an enemy camp that needs to be taken out, then rescue a downed air crew, destroy a surface-to-air (SAM) missile battery, seize an airfield, blow up an ammo dump, rescue key civilians, defend a polling place from armed soldiers, and capture enemy brass. It’s all in a day’s work for the finest soldiers in the U.S. Army, even if no one will publicly admit they exist.
Election Day war zone.
All this excitement is set against a detailed and painstakingly designed world, so the firefights and the hostage rescues all take on a larger meaning in the context of America’s struggle to contain international lawlessness. The story you get from the game’s single-player campaign and the multiplayer madness on XboxLive will largely depend on you and the tactical decisions you make. Here’s to a happy ending.
