Friday Game Review! Like a Ghost!

Hello my awesome readers!

Today, I'm doing a review on Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier!
Now, this is not a full review, as I have not finished the game yet, so I won't be able to cover the story and a few other areas as much. But I can go over gameplay, which is what is most important.

Ghost Recon would fall under two categories. It's mostly a third person shooter, but it also has a few elements of an RTS. You'll be playing as one of the Ghosts in a squad of four, and you can coordinate synchronized take downs with your three computer teammates. You do this by aiming at an enemy unit and pressing the R2 button. You can highlight up to 4 targets, and once you've done this, you aim at one of the four targets and wait for a special onscreen prompt that shows when you are ready to do a perfect sync shot. You will know when you've been succesful at one of these, because a few seconds of slo-mo coolness follows after you pull the trigger.
Now, the single player campaign can also be played with your friends online, though not many of my friends actually have the game. But even if you don't play through with living, breathing team members, the AI of your computer team is very good. When you highlight an enemy unit you want them to target, they will do there best to get in position to take the target out on your signal. But they are smart enough not to give away their position to the enemy. if your team members can't get a clear shot at the target, they won't risk being discovered, and that makes game play all the better, because you don't have to worry about your team being stupid and getting detected. This makes for a great stealth based game, and you'll be trying your hardest not to be detected, so as to be able to do more sync shots. You need to find the right moment to take the shot, so as not to be detected, but you also need to pick the right targets. I often take down the enemies that are in watch towers and such, because they would likely see the ones on the ground get shot, plus the enemies on the ground are less likely to see the lone sentry on the roof get killed. Using strategies like this gets you a higher Ghost rating at the end of each mission, and there are also special challenges that add to this rating. So far, my best score was 99 of 100! :D and I felt super pro getting it. You are notified in game when you complete one of these challenges, so you can see when you're doing good. As for when you aren't in stealth mode, the game works well for the more hectic combat. The cover system is great! When behind cover, you can move smoothly to another place by simply looking at where you want to go, and when you see a icon at the destination you hold X (PS3) and your character runs to that place.
Though it is a third person shooter, hitting R3 will put you in an ADS mode (Aim Down Sights) which I found pretty cool.
There is also a guerrilla mode, which is a co-op where you and your friends work together to fight waves of enemies. Pretty much a horde mode from Gears of War. Though there are objectives to capture and hold. (I haven't played much of GOW, so I don't know if there objectives in horde mode or not. I don't remember any :P).
Gunsmith is one of my favorite parts of the game. It allows you to completely customize your weapons. Even the trigger is customizable! And it is awesome when you unlock a piece that you've been wanting to add to your gun, such as a bi-pod for better sniping. My online sniper rifle is decked out with a bi-pod, 12x magnification scope, long barrel for better range, a fixed stock, for more control, and a laser pointer for a little style :P since it's mostly used when hip firing. You can also customize things like the gas system in automatic weapons, which changes the control and rate of fire of the weapon.
As for Multiplayer, it is pretty cool! There are three classes you can choose from. Engineer, who can place things like turrets, and who also has a sensor grenade, which allows teammates to see enemy units within it's radius. The rifleman, who has stronger body armor, and uses LMG's and Assault rifles. And the class I've been having the most success with, the scout. The scout has a slightly downgraded version of the single player campaign's optical camo, which allows you to become nearly invisible. In the campaign, you are able to move slowly with the camo active, but you are only able to use it when standing still in multiplayer. Though I did see an equipment piece to unlock, that allows for limited movement while camo is active. Your use of these three class types levels them up. I've gotten my scout to level five, and my rifleman and engineer are both level one.
Game modes range from a headquarters type mode, to a sabotage type. There are a couple more, like decoy. This mode has each team attempt to complete an objective, the only problem is that there are two decoy objectives, and it is impossible to know which one is real. I haven't tried this one yet, but from what I've heard it is pretty good. The cover system works just as good in multiplayer, though there are times I thought I was hidden, but got shot anyway. This isn't anything that the game messes up, just the perception in third person.
Over all, this game has an awesome single player, and great multiplayer. It is a win in pretty much every way, though graphics can take sudden drops, in the case of the characters looking slightly plastic. Though most of the time, it is a great looking game as well.
There are also a lot of futuristic gadgets in the game, such as the optical camo, and a cool controllable UAV, but I'll have to cover the gadgets in a future post, since I haven't even seen all of them yet.
I highly recommend this game, especially for those into strategy, and stealth genres.
I give this game a 8.8 out of 10 for what I've played so far.

Hope you enjoyed my review!
Keep being awesome!
I'm That Dude.
Image from Wiki