Advanced Warfighter, GRAWwwww yeah! :rock Options

[Crushinator]

Finally, one of the games that clenched my purchase of the 360 and then got delayed to kindgom come is in my grasp! Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) is a fine start to a kickass VG month, especially on the 360.

Basically, it is a tactical squad shooter set in the near future (2013) in Mexico City. On the verge of a North American military peace accord between Canada, the USA, and Mexico, terrorists strike, killing the Canadian prime minister, and putting the American and Mexican presidents' lives in danger. Your elite Ghost Squad has to bust in and save the VIPs, quell the terrorists, and get back some secret technology they have stolen.

The gameplay is an over-the-shoulder view similar to Resident Evil 4, but a lot faster paced. You can run, strafe, slide, go prone, and even hold your breath when you aim for more accuracy! The game is fairly realistic in terms of survivability, so if you aren't taking cover, you are toast. Takes a bit of getting used to, but it makes the game a lot more cerebral than most other action games.

The near-future setting gets you access to a lot of spiffy technology, HUD displays on your helmets, sattelite maps, enemy tracking, CYPHER scout drones, gun-cams that let you peek around corners, and other toys. You can also direct your team using the D-pad to attack or take cover, or move to certain points on the tactical map. The game allows you to select from a variety of specialists for your team, so you can adjust your strategy to bring along grenadiers, snipers, or whatever.

Just some first impressions as I was only able to put in about 4 hours today:

+Awesome presentation, graphics, animation and sound. Easily the best on the 360. (Till Oblivion )
+Controls are pretty simple for the large variety of actions you can perform. A lot of context sensitive commands make everything flow nicely.
+Huge selections of weapons, and lots of variants for each one too (i.e. scope, grenade launcher, silencer.)
+Cool story that kicks into the action right away, no bullshit. And instead of boring briefing screens between stages, you actually ride in a chopper/APC in real time and the CO briefs you as the next area loads while you are travelling. Sometimes you get to shoot at stuff!
+I tried some offline instant action (multiplayer kinda thing with bots) and the maps are huge as hell. There's only 4, but they are massive. It seems that you can play co-op missions online as well as on split screen/system link as well

-Where's the civilians? There's plenty of cars and shit to blow up, but I thought I was in one of the most densely populated cities in the world?
-Your team mates can be kinda dumb sometimes. Maybe I don't have a full grasp of the command system yet, but when I point to a wall and say attack the enemies... I mean stand BEHIND the wall not in front of it and get shot to hell.
-No pilotable vehicles. You can get support from choppers and tanks, and command them around with the strategic map, you can only fire from them during some of the segueway missions.
-I don't have broadband so I can't play this badassery online I can only imagine how great 16 player matches are on GRAW.

All in all, it feels like GRAW is the first "real" taste of next-gen gaming, AAA class in nearly all respects. Go pick it up with a full Crushinator recommendation!