Ghost Recon Preview

2008. Russia is being governed by a militarist, ultra-nationalist regime, which starts aggressively arming subversive groups in ex-USSR countries in order to use them as an excuse for a later invasion. This brings Russia into an open conflict with NATO, and this is where you enter the stage in the role of the commander of Ghost Recon squad, a formation loosely based on the US Army's Land Warrior program.

Do not sleep on duty Captain!

Ordering search by two's!

Ghost Recon is a part of the Rainbow Six legacy, but isn't exactly a part of the series. It's a hyper-intensive squad-based tactical action game that takes place almost entirely in outdoor areas... The old planning interface, used in Rainbow Six, has been replaced by a more immediate and intuitive command screen within the game itself. There are also some characteristic elements that have been added in order to provide clearer distinction between the members of your squad. Many AI improvements, novelties in mission design and an impressive improvement in graphics will also set the title ahead of its predecessors.

As for the single player campaign, it contains fifteen missions. The controls in the game are almost completely customizable, but the game will nevertheless give you some training, where newbiews would be taught the basics of movement at the obstacle course, learn how to use rifles and pistols at the small-arms course, discover everything about using demolition equipment, and more. The missions will be versatile: Eliminating the Georgian rebels, rescuing a pilot being held hostage, demolishing a bridge, escorting a tank through a city etc... A few missions will switch the typical roles in the Rainbow games and put you on the defensive - defending a bridge, for example. You may even find yourself stumbling upon a UN garrison that's defending a railroad crossing against Russian attack.

The single player missions will all take place in a 400x400m area, which imposed some guidelines to the developers. As they said, the "biggest problem" with vast outdoor maps was "probably inappropriate line of sight." There was a threat that the game becomes a pixel shooter, where you and your enemy are separated by a stretch of open land. The team was afraid that the open nature of the maps would eliminate the fear gamers experienced walking around corners or opening doors in Rainbow Six. That fear, however, has been replaced by another kind of tension. Walking through a highly exposed area brings its own kind of anxiety. The seconds you spend between spots of cover are likely to be as tense as any you experienced in Rainbow Six. The team has intentionally composed each of the levels as a series of connected areas suitable for "more intense, close range combat" and separated by buildings, hills or trees. And as many of the maps include buildings and other structures, there should be no shortage of close-quarters excitement for anyone.

After you heard the briefing you get to choose up to six soldiers to distribute among three squads, as well as determine which weapons and equipment they'll carry. I don't have to mention that your choices here are crucial for mission success - a well balanced squad is a first step towards the glory (or at least a guarantee that your teammates won't get wasted in the first ten seconds). An extra feature is that successful missions will unlock specialists who are able to use weapons standard soldiers can't.

One of the main aspects where the new, improved AI can be seen in action is the totally revised command system. In previous games, you had to outline a basic plan before you even got to the mission site, which was an inappropriate solution once the frantic shooting started. That has been replaced by an "on-the-fly" command system. You can open a satellite map of the area at any time and see the position of your team. You can easily issue movement and firing orders and set the rules of engagement directly from this map. Your teammates should operate a lot more independently. The missions are created to reward players who coordinate the efforts of the whole squad, rather than relying on individual action. There is more: you can control your troops' movement and rules of engagement by using the hotkeys: Simply select a squad and press a key to have that team hold its position, advance cautiously, or advance at all costs. Used in combination with the rules-of-engagement commands: Recon (don't fire), Standard (return fire and take advantage of target opportunities), and Suppression (fire at any area where enemies are suspected to be), you can perform various tactical maneuvers. The only thing you can't do is determine what position the soldiers will take as they move, which will be done by the AI. Setting waypoints is an extremely simple point-and-click task to do on the command map, and when the soldiers arrive at their destination, you can assign a firing arc, perfect for suppressing enemy fire from a particular direction as another squad advances.