Ghost Recon: Future Soldier: Now you see me. Now you don't!

     Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be part of an elite military team? What if that team was equipped with some pretty nifty weapons, gadgets, and super sweet camouflage? Well then you'd have the Ghost squad of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. You play as a member of a team and that's exactly what this game is about...teamwork. You will rely on your team through the entire game. Thankfully, your teammate A.I. is pretty good. If you are downed your team will quickly respond and come to revive you. They do a really good job of staying behind cover and remaining undetected too.

     Encase you haven't played any of the Ghost Recon games, you will not play this like other standard military shooters. If you try to run into the open, guns blazing, and try to be Rambo you are going to loose very fast. That's one of the enjoyments I found with this game though. You have to stop and look at your surroundings. Get a lay of the land and figure out the best way to reach your objective. This is really fun to do thanks to the cool gear you will get to use in the game. The first piece of gear that everyone remembers about this game is the active camouflage that allows you to blend in with your surrounding. It has the effect like in the Predator movies. This will let you sneak past enemies or get the perfect drop on them.

     Getting the drop on your enemies is the next, and my most enjoyable, part of this game. You call pull off a synchronized shot with your squad. Using a drone you can hover above the area and can see where all the enemies are located. You can then select what enemies you want to target, mark them, and then wait for your three teammates to lock onto them. Once they are ready and you have your target marked the magic begins. As soon as you shoot your teammates will do the same, and all four targets drop. This never gets old! Also if you are in a large gun battle you can still select specific enemies you want your squad to focus on. Again, thanks to the solid A.I. this very effective.

     The campaign of Future Soldier is a blast to play through. The story moves along at a good pace where you never feel like things are moving too slowly or too fast. There are moments that you'll need to be extra stealthy and sneak past enemies. Then there are moments where you'll be shooting out of helicopters, blowing up vehicles, and engaging in large fire fights. The campaign has a very cinematic quality to it that makes you want to keep playing. Oh, and did I mention you can play the campaign in four player online co-op? The co-op works very well in this game and is a must if you have some buddies to play the game with.

     Multiplayer was kind of a let down for me. My biggest complaint is that there is no team deathmatch mode. I know some purists say this is not the style of game to have a traditional deathmatch mode, but to me that is my mode of choice. The multiplayer mainly consists of team based objective modes. While capturing points/objectives are not bad modes, they just aren't my cup of tea. If you're a fan of the popular "horde" mode then you can play guerrilla mode. This allows you and three friends to fight waves of enemies on different maps. This is the multiplayer mode I enjoyed the most outside of campaign co-op. Also, if you enjoy customizing your weapons you will be in heaven. There are tons of ways to customize every little part of your guns.

     If you play the Xbox 360 version and own a Kinect you can play around with motion controls in the gunsmith mode. Gunsmith is where you'll be equipping and trying out all the additions you can place on your weapons. With the Kinect you can simply say what part you want to change and swipe your hand to move the gun or select parts. You can even take the gun apart and put it back together by putting your hands together, move them apart, and put your hands back together. It actually works well and it fun to mess around with. You don't have to own a Kinect to use gunsmith though.

     Graphically the game is a mixed bag. During actual gameplay the character models and environments look good. As soon as there's a cut scene they look just plain bad. The texture on their faces look off and sometimes the lip syncing doesn't match quite well. Sometimes the environmental textures look a little bland too. Overall, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a good game. I really enjoyed the campaign and the co-op is a great addition. Due to the lack of team deathmatch I didn't find myself really getting into the multiplayer part aside from the guerrilla mode. If you're a fan or a complete newbie to the Ghost Recon series I think there's enough here for you to enjoy.

Final Verdict: 8/10

Written by: Alter Ego 83