Review
Introduction
On a recent digital sale on the Xbox store, I spotted two backwards compatible Xbox 360 titles: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 1 & 2, from Ubisoft's famous Tom Clancy series. I'd missed out on them back in the day, although I actually own a physical version of the first game for PC.
I tried tried playing it back in they day, on barely capable hardware, never got far and since then forgot about it. Typical trait of the time it was released, the PC version is actually a somewhat different game to the console version.
However, let's focus on the two Xbox 360 versions here.
I've always enjoyed Tom Clancy titles, with their tactical element and lean towards realism, giving them a little more gameplay depth and authenticity than a typical shooter. These GRAW titles base themselves around the concept of the future warrior program to the U.S. armed forces, where soldiers get information in real-time about the battlefield, through a small screen in their glasses.
This fast communication helps keep all the soldiers, and units like tanks and aircraft, updated frequently to get an overview of what's changing on the battlefield. The in-game tech and equipment in these games reflect the real life testing program, albeit in a not so distant future.
So, with the back story out of the way, let's review each title, from 2006 and 2007 respectively.
Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2006 (Xbox 360)
Released: 2006 (Xbox 360)
GRAW lends the typical presentation style from a Tom Clancy title in the 2000s. Bringing back memories of countless hours of Rainbow Six Vegas. More often than not, the story is told through a small screen in the upper right corner, typically while your team is being airlifted to the next location in a helicopter. This screen typically depicts either a mission coordinator, an officer in charge or some news flash from TV.
Although it sounds simply presented, lacking the expensive cutscenes you expect from a typical story driven title, it works depicting the war breaking out for the actual soldier on the ground. There's no individual main character focus here, just a team of soldiers, with a believable scenario taking place as you progress.
Playing GRAW so long after it's release made it charming seeing the story progress as you went through missions in these small, video calls popping up in your hood. They add more substance and understanding to what's going on than the overused radio chatter in many other titles.
The clichè army general is charmingly short fused, yet grounded in his direct and unfiltered orders and angry rants. The newsflashes give us an insight to how the world is seeing the war unfold from the outside. It's a simple, but effective, way of telling a story that lies far outside the reach of you as a soldier, yet it very much concerns you in the thick of the war zone.
The main gist of the plot is that Mexico setting up an agreement between themselves and the U.S. to stop drug smuggling. While the Mexican president is about to sign the deal, you're sent in as a member of the secret Ghost Recon unit to stop a smuggling deal of military electronics equipment unfolding at the same time. Unsurprisingly, things go sideways and a more concerning set of events are uncovered. Resulting in having to protect the Mexican president as he's plotted to be taken hostage and a coup of their government begins.
From there, things evolve into a global threat as the U.S. president has to be rescued and in the progress his nuclear armament suitcase is stolen. To stop a full-on nuclear war, your team are sent deep into the shit, so to speak, with the task to take down the rebels.
It's a classic, grand scale, plot for a Tom Clancy story, yet it always seems believable in the way it's presented. Also, the tasks you need to complete are more believable military objectives versus a one man show in a typical action title.
GRAWs gameplay takes a realistic approach to combat. Not only do you have to take care of yourself, a few bullets will straight out kill you, but you also have to command a team of three other soldiers. Unlike Rainbow Six 6 Vegas, from the same era, there's no automatic healing here. Plus, commanding your soldiers require a far more tactical approach. Leaving them open, in the middle of a street mid gunfight, will quickly put an end to their lives.
This requires you to order them into firing positions and prioritise certain targets through the course of a mission. This realism is further pronounced by gunplay requiring precise shots, it successfully conveys the difficulty of actually hitting enemies in real life from a distance.
While doesn't touch the height of realism, like the earlier Ghost Recon titles, it sits far closer to old-school, tactical shooters. In this console version of GRAW, you're aided by playing it in third person, allowing you to peak around corners. You can switch to first person too, the PC version is locked to it, but I'd recommend playing third person for a clearer view of what's happening.
Bringing up your sights to shoot, which for younger players might seem off-putting, reveals there's no 3D gun model in front of you. Only the aiming reticles are shown on the HUD. At first, it seems strange, but many realistic shooters worked like this back in the late 90s and early 2000s. It gives a clear sight to fire, without a massive gun model taking up screen space.
However, gun models aside, what's harder to get used to, is the slow aiming pace. This is no modern, twitch reaction, shooter like Call of Duty. Here you have to pull the aiming reticle, at a fairly slow pace, around the environment. Thus, requiring even further planning of your attacks before actually engaging the enemy.
Once in battle, you aren't some super soldier with lightning quick speed and the ability to gun down hundreds of enemies. The slow pace is deliberate, requiring tactics and keeping your head down, before popping out of cover and firing a shot or two. It quickly depicts the intensity and vulnerability of actual combat.
Another difference, between typical indoor shooters, is that GRAW has large, open city streets to roam. Adding a decision element of taking different routes and flanking the enemy. in addition are enemy vehicle encounters, making your job on the battlefield a lot harder.
Discovering an enemy tank feels just as intimidating and dangerous as you'd expect from real life. Luckily, there are missions where you can order a friendly tank at your disposal, keeping your team safe and snug behind inches of thick armoured steel, while protecting the tank from rocket launching rebels on rooftops. It's just as intense, and satisfying, as it sounds!
I was pleasantly surprised by this game, I'm glad I got to play it on modern hardware. Originally, it shipped with an uncapped framerate. So, while the Xbox 360 bravely tried to keep a fairly steady 30 fps, my Xbox Series X locks it to 60fps! Making it a far more responsive and smoother experience.
Sadly, it's not an enhanced backwards compatibility title. So, it's locked to it's old, and rather rough, 720p resolution. Albeit with a free 16xAF added, aiding the large flat surfaces found throughout the large levels.
Although, big open titles like this from the earlier days of the seventh generation look sparse these days, it showcases some lovely sunsets and colour schemes you'd expect from Mexico. There's the infamous yellow filter from this era, however, GRAW uses it subtly and it lends itself well to it's location.
I'd probably have enjoyed this game even further in coop and multiplayer back in the day. Nevertheless, it was still a solid experience, with a completion time around eight to ten hours. It's no easy playthrough, by any means, but it feels rewarding when getting through and surviving another battle engagement.
The dated and slow pace might be off-putting, and the bare-bones story presentation, but it's a neat middle-way between the new and old, so to speak. Not as intimidating as the even older Tom Clancy releases, while at the same time not giving all the benefits of automatic healing and super fast shooting reflexes, of the post-COD4 era.
Recommended, but it's not for newcomers of the genre. A pleasant throwback and surprise for my fondness of shooters and war settings in general. My best moments were in the heat of battle and actually feeling extremely vulnerable with bullets whizzing past, knowing that every one of them can instantly kill you.
Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2007 (Xbox 360)
Released: 2007 (Xbox 360)
The sequel to GRAW picks up directly after the first title. It's a continuation of the story, straight after where the first one left off. So, not a sequel to pick up if the first title didn't entice you. However, for the fans there are neat upgrades that make this sequel even better than the first!
The training section, a great place to start in either GRAW, is fleshed out and require the player to perform newly learned skills in an actual combat scenario. From the get go, the the controls have been streamlined and feel less robotic than the first game. It depicts, in hindsight, a more modern third person feel, yet retains the classic Ghost Recon elements.
GRAW2 is presented in the same fashion as the first game, with small videos in the upper right corner progressing the story as it unfolds around you. Although, this time around, the picture quality of these clips have been vastly improved.
The story continues the unrest of rebels in Mexico, where it's discovered they possess a nuclear bomb. As you progress, the rebels are lead by an organisation that hires in skilled mercenaries, thus resulting ramping up the difficulty later in the game.
Variation is taken up a few notches. More missions now involve vehicles, gunner seat tasks from attack helicopters and a lot of battles in changing daytime. Night battles challenge the player with limited vision and look considerable better than the first game.
This time around, your A.I. teammates have been vastly improved too. No longer do they just stand straight up in the middle of line of fire, here they'll do their best at getting to cover nearby. The attack helicopters are more present in missions too, especially later ones where the size and magnitude of the battlefield is raised up a bar. The surveillance drone is vastly improved, with easier control and ways of spotting enemies far away.
Apart from these upgrades, GRAW2 is still close to the first experience, a part two if you will, of a story and gameplay style spanning two releases.
GRAW2 brings more visual variety and effects, such as blurry heatwaves rising from the warm sand, fog and dust passing across the ground, grass and foliage spread around the battlefield and impressive lighting in sunsets. Making it stand out as more memorable visual experience than the first GRAW.
Once again, I ran this on a Xbox Series X and I'm treated to 60fps, thanks to the unlocked framerate. However, GRAW2 strangely enough, even at it's low 720p resolution, dropped the framerate in crowded fights with tons of effects and enemies.
I guess brute forcing performance, with excellent hardware, might not fix performance if it's badly optimised in the first place. Nothing alarmingly low though, and mostly it's 60fps locked. 16xAF is once again welcome for large worlds like this, with visible textures far into the distance.
Playing the two GRAW games back to back, I very much appreciated the subtle upgrades that GRAW2 had. While much the same style as the first, it felt more polished and better presented. These were the early days of the Xbox 360 after all, so I'm not surprised Ubisoft learnt some tricks going from the launch year with GRAW, to the following year of 2007 with GRAW2. This sequel feels closer to modern third person shooters.
As I mentioned about the first title, I was pleasantly surprised by these games and their middle ground between new and old gameplay design. They're absolutely worth a purchase to your modern Xbox console through backwards compatibility, especially if you've never played them and enjoy Tom Clancy war themes.
Probably an eight to ten hour lifespan on this sequel too, but combine both the first and second game and you have a lengthy playtime for this particular Ghost Recon style, before it moved on to something different entirely.
The training section, a great place to start in either GRAW, is fleshed out and require the player to perform newly learned skills in an actual combat scenario. From the get go, the the controls have been streamlined and feel less robotic than the first game. It depicts, in hindsight, a more modern third person feel, yet retains the classic Ghost Recon elements.
GRAW2 is presented in the same fashion as the first game, with small videos in the upper right corner progressing the story as it unfolds around you. Although, this time around, the picture quality of these clips have been vastly improved.
The story continues the unrest of rebels in Mexico, where it's discovered they possess a nuclear bomb. As you progress, the rebels are lead by an organisation that hires in skilled mercenaries, thus resulting ramping up the difficulty later in the game.
This time around, your A.I. teammates have been vastly improved too. No longer do they just stand straight up in the middle of line of fire, here they'll do their best at getting to cover nearby. The attack helicopters are more present in missions too, especially later ones where the size and magnitude of the battlefield is raised up a bar. The surveillance drone is vastly improved, with easier control and ways of spotting enemies far away.
Apart from these upgrades, GRAW2 is still close to the first experience, a part two if you will, of a story and gameplay style spanning two releases.
GRAW2 brings more visual variety and effects, such as blurry heatwaves rising from the warm sand, fog and dust passing across the ground, grass and foliage spread around the battlefield and impressive lighting in sunsets. Making it stand out as more memorable visual experience than the first GRAW.
Once again, I ran this on a Xbox Series X and I'm treated to 60fps, thanks to the unlocked framerate. However, GRAW2 strangely enough, even at it's low 720p resolution, dropped the framerate in crowded fights with tons of effects and enemies.
I guess brute forcing performance, with excellent hardware, might not fix performance if it's badly optimised in the first place. Nothing alarmingly low though, and mostly it's 60fps locked. 16xAF is once again welcome for large worlds like this, with visible textures far into the distance.
Playing the two GRAW games back to back, I very much appreciated the subtle upgrades that GRAW2 had. While much the same style as the first, it felt more polished and better presented. These were the early days of the Xbox 360 after all, so I'm not surprised Ubisoft learnt some tricks going from the launch year with GRAW, to the following year of 2007 with GRAW2. This sequel feels closer to modern third person shooters.
As I mentioned about the first title, I was pleasantly surprised by these games and their middle ground between new and old gameplay design. They're absolutely worth a purchase to your modern Xbox console through backwards compatibility, especially if you've never played them and enjoy Tom Clancy war themes.
Probably an eight to ten hour lifespan on this sequel too, but combine both the first and second game and you have a lengthy playtime for this particular Ghost Recon style, before it moved on to something different entirely.
