Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike - Hands On Preview

In 2013 the crack Ghosts team will head off to Mexico City to rescue the US President in Advanced Warfighter, but twelve months before those events (to be unveiled on current â?“generation machines as well as Xbox 360 this Winter) they head to the mountainous central Asian country of Kazakhstan, where a Pakistani warlord has assassinated the countryâ??s President.

This is very much the â??Black Arrowâ?? of Ghost Recon 2 as Summit Strike doesnâ??t require players to have a copy of GR2 to play this so-called expansion pack. Developers Red Storm Entertainment have tweaked some elements of the various engines from the original title based on player feedback, and like the Rainbow Six 3 expansion pack, GR2: Summit Strike has a recommended retail price of £19.99, which given the eleven new single-player missions, and a raft of multiplayer maps (including six exclusive to Summit Strike) seems very reasonable.

Red Storm has spent a lot of time tweaking with some of the graphical details in the game to increase the level of atmosphere in Summit Strikeâ??s environments, which range from icy mountainous conditions right through to the finale â?“ the deserts of the Kazak badlands. Throughout the game the various weather conditions (emphasised in the contrasting locations) such as the sandstorms of the desert, really help to build up a strong ambience that increases the level of tension felt by players as they make their through the landscapes. On the subject landscapes, Red Storm has also spent time creating levels that are far more open than those in the original Ghost Recon 2, with multiple mission objectives and routes allowing players to choose their own path through the respective wildernesses.

Besides the Campaign mode, Summit Strike will include a series of Muliplayer and Quick Mission modes that look set to further boost the longevity of the game. If having a whole new single-player campaign, a raft of new weapons, six exclusive multiplayer maps, and improved weather effects werenâ??t enough, Red Storm has also developed two new multiplayer game types: Helo Hunt and Armour Strike, with Helo Hunt also featuring in the Quick Mission option. Helo Hunt sees gamers take on waves of gunships (thatâ??s armed to the hilt helicopters to you and I) with nothing but your wits to save youâ?¦besides the rocket launcher and heavy mounted machine gun of course. The Helo Hunt is a really fun gametype that looks set to be played by gamers a lot, much in the same way that we have done during the last few weeksâ?¦The second gametype, Armour Strike, sees gamers tasked with destroying the opponentâ??s tanks with a laser designating gun â?“ leaving the soldier in a vulnerable condition. Both of the new modes add new facets to the gameplay found in the multiplayer options of Summit Strike carried over from the original version of Ghost Recon 2.

Baring in mind that this was a preview build of the final game, there were one or two AI issues, one in particular where members of the Ghost team would (for some strange reason) stand immediately behind the playerâ??s character Mitchell as he fires a rocket at a target. The fact is, that for a team of supposed crack special-ops team, itâ??s surprising that a) they contemplate standing behind a person about to fire an shoulder mounted rocket, and b) that theyâ??re shocked to discover themselves to be seriously injured as a result of standing behind a person who seconds before had in fact fired a shoulder mounted rocket. Other than that, the game so far plays exceptionally solidly with the AI of the helicopters improved over Ghost Recon 2 (hence the inclusion of Helo Hunt), and itâ??s plain to see that certain elements such as the weather effects are acting as transitions for the franchiseâ??s evolution to Advanced Warfighter.