Warfighter Online Refined

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ 2 has refined, upgraded, and expanded on virtually every online feature from its predecessor, to say nothing of the new layers of functionality it has added to the Xbox Live® experience. Considering that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter™ set the bar for online options on Xbox 360™ less than a year ago, this is a bold achievement.

Co-op stacks the odds in your favor.

All in Place
Let's start with the fact that nothing of GRAW's already impressive original online play has been removed. Each game mode and game type remains, so if you were a fan of the original, you'll feel immediately at home. If you're unfamiliar with the basics of GRAW online, you can familiarize yourself with them here, as this article will focus primarily on what GRAW 2 brings to the party.

Clans at Last!
At long last, a top-tier shooter has embraced clan support on Xbox 360, allowing you to band together with your friends to do battle as a team. No more hoping that random players will match up against you and your buddies, and no more frustration hanging out in the lobby waiting for one last player to join your game.

Instead, simply gather your clan members, and find or create a match. Once you join the match, your clan-mates can use the new Find My Clan option to join you. Even better, you can now create a Closed Match and challenge a specific clan to battle.

In addition to playing in clan matches, being in a clan gives you the opportunity to create your own team identity, including a logo, a motto, team camo patterns, and even messages of the day for your teammates, as well as posting a URL for your clan website.  

Mayhem, destruction … glorious.

Editable Identities
Though similar to last year's version, the Edit Identity features boast a few differences worth noting, including all new faces and new accessory options, different default gear for each class, and finally, female soldiers!

Time of Day
The Chapter 2 expansion for GRAW introduced differently lit versions of classic maps, but in GRAW 2, each of the all-new maps come with two default lighting settings. Whether it's changing from midday to midnight, or sunny to overcast, you can always keep the atmosphere fresh.

Game-Type Expansion
Of course, Ubisoft, the developer of GRAW, is not one to let a sequel go by without evolving the available game-types. Here are a few of the highlights:

•  Takedown: This sub-type of the Team Elimination mode turns classic strategy on its head by randomly assigning Officer status to a member of your team. If the Officer dies, the opposing team scores extra points. If your Officer kills an opponent, you get three times as many points as a regular kill. This requires you to strike a delicate balance between protecting your Officer, and letting him earn kills.
• Team Mission: This new mode pits an attacking team against a defending team with the help of A.I. troops. The attacking team must place three of five demo charges on set areas to succeed.
• Co-op Objective: Taking the moniker of Ghost literally, you must work with your teammates to scout out locations on the map without being spotted by the enemy. Any enemy you kill will reduce your score.

Keep your teammates at full health.

Multiplayer Achievements
The original GRAW was notorious for its hardcore multiplayer achievements. Those who laid claim to Heavyweight (10,000 kills online) or World Champion (the top spot on the Universal Leaderboard) can attest to that. GRAW 2 is less challenging in its achievements, but only slightly so. Here are some examples:

• Enforcer: This achievement requires you to drop five enemies within a thirty second span.
• Ruthless: Get 500 total kills in your multiplayer career for this achievement. Co-op kills don't count.
• Ultimate Defender: Survive an hour-long Co-op Defend match against wave after wave of dozens of enemies. Use the eight-man co-op limit to your advantage. You'll need all the help you can get.
• Perfect Co-op Campaign: Similar to GRAW, you can score an achievement for each co-op chapter you can complete with all the primary and secondary objectives.
• Solo Veteran: Claim the top spot on 10 Solo matches, and this 25 point achievement is yours.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 defines evolutionary next-generation game design. Every facet of the multiplayer experience has been polished and refined, with small additions and tweaks added to an already excellent experience. In some cases, such as with clans, GRAW 2 is even breaking new ground on Xbox 360, proving that just a year can bring fundamental changes to online play.

Article by Ryan Treit