Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (Xbox 360)
By: D_Litch
GRAW 2, the sequel to the hugely popular GRAW, was released under a lot of scrutiny. Some called it GRAW 1.5; some called it "cashing-in"; others were just happy to have some more tactical goodness. While this game may not be evolutionary, it does improve on GRAW's strengths and fixes some of its weaknesses. The story takes place 2 days after the events in GRAW. Still in Mexico, the U.S. Army has its hands full with Mexican rebels. You take control of Captain Scott Mitchell - the same cranky Ghost you've grown to love - and his squad of expertly trained soldiers ranging from Anti-tank Gunners to Marksmen. You have been assigned one mission: stop the rebel forces from launching nuclear missiles.
Let's break it down.
General Gameplay
If you've played GRAW, you'll groove right into GRAW 2. If this is your first Ghost Recon game, you'll have a learning curve of about 25 minutes ahead of you. The controls are tight and your aim will feel true. Once you've mastered the squad controls, the game takes on another level of complexity. The general squad movement control for all units map to the up/down of your d-pad; this is both good and bad. The bad is that sometimes you'll charge ahead thinking your squad is right behind you and they will still be at the last place you told them to regroup. This problem is due to the lack of a "follow" button. There is only "go to" and "regroup" commands. While this layout never actually hindered my game, it was a little frustrating at times. The cover mechanics work out nicely, and you will always feel as if you are safe in cover (I never was shot through cover during my playthrough).
The Cross-Com system is what makes this game so unique. With the click of a button, you can see through your current supports' eyes. While an awesome feature, it does make the game a lot easier; almost too easy. You never actually have to leave cover during most missions by simply giving all of your orders through the Cross-Com system. While I loved this feature with all of my heart, it takes away much of the difficulty in the game.
Tech Specs
This game looks and sounds fantastic. The score is excellent and sets the mood for each mission. The graphics in general are great, all of the animations are fairly smooth and the character models look nice as well. The graphical effects that blew me away were the sun and light effects. During one mission in particular, you will find yourself running through a cemetery filled with mercs at dusk. The candles on the headstones are spooky and give the graves a bit of personality. The sun, whether it's setting or rising, looks great too. The gun sounds are fairly realistic and the general voice-acting is good. This is definitely not a game where someone used existing textures and recycled sounds. Everything here looks and sounds top-notch.
Game Rage
There are some moments where you might feel the urge to kick something. On one occasion my squad decided to stop shooting the enemy and only responded to my commands by saying "Can't see him!" or "I don't understand!". They all were mowed down by the enemy standing directly in front of them and I was killed as well. Don't get me wrong, the AI is lightyears better than GRAW, but it still doesn't compare to Rainbow Six:Vegas' spookily intelligent squad AI. The online play causes a few moments of anger as well, but I'll touch on that in a bit.
Bedtime Rating
Not much blood to speak of, but the realistic crumpling of bodies and the words screamed by terrorists (and your own squad) are not appropriate for the younglings. This might not be a game you'll need to pull your shades shut and lock the door to play, but you might want to cut the speakers down as the rebels have potty-mouths.
Butt Groove
The campaign will probably take most people around 7 hours to finish (even on the hardest difficulty). While the campaign is good, it won't hook you in like some of the other Clancy games. The multiplayer is this title's bread and butter and you will find yourself playing for way more than 7 hours.
Multiplayer
When you have an awesome connection hosting and 12-16 of your buddies in a room this game can't be beat. Unfortunately connection issues plagued a lot of PGL rooms. Even with just a few people (4-6), you might have trouble getting people in the room, and keeping them in. When the game is stable, the modes are a blast. GRAW 2's multiplayer consists basically of two separate parts: Co-op and versus. Co-op consists of campaign modes (missions you complete with up to 8 people), elimination modes (kill "x" number of AI rebels), and territory modes (you attempt to hold a spot while rebels swarm you). Basically, the co-op mode rocks.
Versus is great too. The maps are mostly balanced and it's fairly difficult to play dirty (spawn camping, etc.). The modes are fun and the game can be a blast but the connection issues are even more prevalent here. Expect to only play 4v4 unless your host is packing at least 20mbps.
In the end, GRAW 2's multiplay is a blast. Connection issues aside, this is one of the best multiplayer games on the Xbox 360.
Achievements
The achievements here are fairly straight forward. Kill "x" number of guys, beat the campaign on every difficulty, etc. But I don't think this is a bad thing, the achievements are balanced well and the are all attainable with a week or so of consistent online play and campaign play.
Category Rankings General Gameplay 
Tech Specs 
Game Rage Bedtime Rating Butt Groove Multiplayer Achievements Overall Couch Count: 4 out of 5 
Linear Mode
