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Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - Multiplayer Hands-On Mini Preview
Jon Wilcox
07/02/2006
TVG takes the next-gen tactical military shooter for a multiplayer test...
Ever since we first saw that rolling video of what was then known as 'Ghost Recon 3' in Spring 2005, the next instalment of Ubisoft's Ghost Recon franchise on Xbox 360 has been one title that we in TVG Towers have been looking forward to. Originally pencilled in for a release to coincide with the launch of Xbox 360, the game, which is being developed by a number of Ubisoft's development studios including Red Storm in North Carolina, was delayed and will now be released in March 2006.
Recently TVG was invited by Ubisoft to experience the multiplayer gametypes of Advanced Warfighter on Xbox 360 at Microsoft's London offices, more specifically the themed room known as 'The Swimming Pool', named for quite obvious reasons...
Two rows of five HDTVs partnered with Xbox 360s, ten members of the gaming press fraternity, and Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter's multiplayer mode (oh, and the Ubisoft sponsored, all-girl gaming clan, the Fragdolls.) Can you imagine the level of competitiveness that emanated in the room during the various battles and face-offs? Let's just say that one Ubisoft representative described the atmosphere as being so tense, you could cut it with a knife.
Of course anybody who's interested in the forthcoming third instalment of the Ghost Recon series will know by now that the single-player campaign is set entirely in Mexico City in 2013. Following an attempted coup d'etat by rogue Mexican soldiers, the Ghosts are called in to restore democracy and rescue a kidnapped US President taken hostage by the Mexican military; but away from the single-player, Ubisoft has also been working on bringing a very strong multiplayer experience to gamers, one that's prompted them to state a bold desire: to make the multiplayer aspects of GRAW the killer app on Xbox 360.
Integral to that is the player's online identity, which allows gamers to create their own Ghost according to a number of options including Class (Rifleman, Grenedier, Automatic Rifleman, and Marksman), and physical appearance from the various types of faces, camouflage, headgear, and face-paint available. Like the weaponry in Advanced Warfighter, the headgear and other pieces of equipment, are all based on their real-world counterparts with sheer amount of choices there to 'empower players.' Coupled with that is the military ranking system, which promotes players from lowly Private through to the upper echelons of General, as they progress and improve through the multiplayer game.
Taking the action away from the campaign environment of Mexico City, the multiplayer mode is filled with ten maps, each sufficiently different as to ensure that players will have to take different strategies and tactics for every one: Desert, Beach, Junkyard, Shipdeck, Urban, Coral, and Temple are just some of the environments created for the multiplayer modes. Each maps are different in size and topography with hillocks and barriers (not to mention the junk in the Junkyard), together with the various buildings, offering players plenty of scope for developing tactics and strategies - especially during the team based games. The variety in its options open to the player are wide and varied, and though a statistical figure of over 1300 possible combinations of gametypes may seem to be just that, the fact is that there does seem to be a high level of flexibility given to hosts. Up to sixteen players can face off on Multiplayer via both Xbox Live and System Link, with four-player support in local play (split screen.) One of the neat touches added for the split screen is that the partition changes on whether the TV is a standard 4:3 ratio, or16:9 widescreen.
So aside from the features breakdown, how does the Multiplayer side of Advanced Warfighter play so far?
In a word, intense.
Playing through some of the maps does create a high level of tension and focus, and there're occasions when the avatar is crawling on the ground desperately trying to stay out of sight from an enemy. What helps is that the level of camouflaging with the environment, especially with certain grasses and bushes, is so high that players did run past prone enemies and paid with their lives (virtual ones, obviously.) The prospect of hiding, waiting for one misguided fool to aimlessly wander by, and then fire a couple of bullets into them - without ever being noticed - is one that's going to be savoured by Xbox Live gamers within the next few weeks.
During the course of the event we sampled several of the maps and played through a few of the gametypes including "Elimination" (deathmatch), "Team Elimination" (team deathmatch) and Hamburger Hill (King of the Hill.) As you'd expect the action was pretty kinetic and it didn't take long for the body count to mount up. Making use of the Cross Com/Drone features meant that there was plenty of intelligence on enemy positions (when used correctly), and the ability to flank using that knowledge certainly came in very handy, if not decisive. Of course you can always shoot down an enemy drone, but for a lot of the time players are too focused on not getting killed to worry about these unmanned robots.
If the Multiplayer mode is anything to go by, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter has the potential to offer Xbox 360 owners a genuine next-gen experience thanks to the look and sound of the game. Despite the fact that a certain number of gametypes are based on modes from the current-gen and generations previous, the environments and the generally tense atmosphere created by the team at Red Storm are such that players may just be too focused on survival to care. Could the company achieve their desire to make the Multiplayer in Advanced Warfighter the killer app on Xbox 360? If what we've experience is anything to go by, then yes. GRAW created a sense of real world immersion that sucks you in until you're physically exhausted.
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 29th Jan 2007 13:42
Glyndwr
Date Added:Mon 27th Nov 2006 23:46
Anonymous
Date Added:Tue 17th Oct 2006 12:11