GRAW 2 Review
GRAW2 has decided upon it's target audience, so if you are not a fan of the original's brutal difficulty and story, you're not welcome to this party
As far as sequels go, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW2) does not disappoint. It’s more of the same really, so if you are a fan, you will be happy. And if you aren’t a fan, then you will probably avoid the sequel, so technically you are happy too. A pretty happy situation GRAW2 creates. The developers and publisher of the original GRAW are back, and so is the reviewer (me!). I will be making some references and comparisons to the original GRAW, so I advise you read my review of GRAW before proceeding. You should play the games in proper order, after all. But if you have no idea what’s going on, and decided to start with the second game against all advice, then power to you – you’re playing the worst of the two.
In GRAW2, much like the original (see, here I go with the references!) you take on the role of Capt. Mitchell, leader of the Ghost team sent in to diffuse various conflicts around the world. The story picks up pretty much after the original game ended, and this time you spend the game around various locales in Mexico, as the conflict that started in the first game rages on. The plot actually feels like a rip-off from a season of 24 (TV show). You are continuously in pursuit of some rebel forces who stole a nuke from the Middle East and plan to deploy it in Mexico, or worse, the US. Along the way you will discover that not everything is what it seems, and to be honest the twists aren’t exactly shocking. Many of the characters from the original game are back, including the voice actors. The little video window in the corner is back as well, as it will broadcast your missions and commands to you. This time it’s been done a lot better, with all characters appearing in 3D with odd looking backgrounds. Live video is actually taken from the real world, so that further adds authenticity to the story. Overall though, the story feels rather flat – it starts off running and keeps a straight and dull pace until a short, but well-done climax. It ends in a bit of a cliff-hanger too, but you can pretty much guess what happened if they announce another game in the series. There are only a handful of missions here, a couple more than the first game, but surprisingly they took a lot less time to finish overall.
Similarly to GRAW, here you are tasked with completing a mission with your team, which varies in size without much explanation. One new addition to the game is that each mission now provides you with a good map before you start, and you can even sometimes choose between 2 different insertion points. The loadout options are pretty similar, with 4 item slots and a weight limit for you and each Ghost member. This time around, there are a lot more weapons to choose from, and they all come with a very descriptive text menu. However, gone are the accuracy and damage meters, so it’s pretty well a guessing game selecting the best weapon for the mission, unless you’re a gun specialist in real life. Customization of weapons is back as well, but again it’s difficult to make decisions when you do not know what immediate impact they will have. You also have selection of team members to take with you before the mission, a step to the series feature of Rainbow Six. Each member has their own picture and bio, but they all sound and behave identically in-game, so you wonder why developers thought you’d even care who goes along for the mission.
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