| System: Wii |  |
| Dev: Next Level | |
| Pub: Ubisoft | |
| Release: November 16, 2010 | |
| Players: 1 | |
| Screen Resolution: 480p | Blood, Language, Violence |
There are also a few "stealth" levels, but these are both misguided and infuriating. They're misguided because the entire concept of stealth is incompatible with a rail shooter; if you can't decide where to walk, you can't carefully sneak around your enemies. Perhaps the developers could have given players a little more leeway when it comes to movement in these sections, or at least emphasized shooting out the lights or something, but nope. All you can do is walk slowly between cover and shoot the enemies with your silenced gun really, really quickly -- which is where the infuriating part comes in. Even with a bullet-time power-up, some of the stealth sections can take countless tries; if everyone isn't dead in a second or so, one of them lights a flare, and the mission automatically fails. It's really hard to keep playing this game when, on top of being so underwhelming in general, it makes you want to snap your Wii-mote over your knee.
There are a few smaller irritations as well. While the AI isn't too bad most of the time, we did encounter some enemies who didn't react while we shot their friends in front of them, and sometimes they wander around as if waiting to be shot. The friendly AI is quite good, but every once in a while your companion will fail to hold his own against a helicopter or a group of enemies in a stealth mission.
If you're bored and patient enough to finish the twelve single-player levels (which should take you maybe six hours), you might want to check out arcade mode, which presents you with various scenes from the game and challenges you to get a high score. You can compete with friends locally and post your scores online. Unforunately, there's no online multiplayer.
The controls are another plus. The game is compatible with the Wii Zapper, though we went with the Wii-Mote/Nunchuk configuration. Perhaps the only problem with this setup is that you can aim the cursor while your character is still hunched down behind cover; it kills the challenge when you can aim precisely when you're not even in danger, then score a headshot in a split second.
In the end, the problem with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon is that it's just not any fun. It must be difficult to make battle boring, but somehow, the developers have succeeded. There are some ideas here we'd like to see implemented in a better package, but aside from that, we can say without reservation that you should leave Ghost Recon off your Christmas list.
By
Robert VerBruggen
CCC Freelance Writer
Game Features:
Assassin's Creed III Preview
Dragon's Dogma
Ghost Recon
Borderlands 2
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two
Lost Planet 3
Happy Birthday