Tom Clancy's games continue to be my favorite for military action. Ghost Recon does not disappoint. As an old fan of the PC games Rainbow 6 and Rogue Spear, I was more than eager for more of his games to come out on game consoles. The possible 6-man, 2-team setup places a good deal of strategy on the game player in single player or multi-player mode. Multi-player mode allows for both cooperative and head-to-head modes, similar to the PC versions of Tom Clancy games. Since I just finished playing Medal of Honor I will make comparisons to that game from time to time.

Stats
Memory Card usage: 17 blocks
Levels: 3
Missions: 15

Visual / Audio
The visual effects in the game are fairly good with smooth motion while moving. There have been a couple of day light missions that are still hard to see while in buildings. However, using the night-vision goggles helps to brighten things up. Night missions using the night-vision goggles exclusively are very good. I'm willing to consider the possibility that my day mission troubles are a result of a bad TV. When I get my new one I'll update this review if it makes a difference. I really enjoy the video clips that are played at the end of each completed mission. There have been a couple that were so clear it is hard to determine if they were computer animated or true video. The audio lives up to the Ubi Soft standard of great music tracks (at least in my opinion). Sound affects are also very crisp. As mentioned, it has a realm of realism that gives you a "ear ringing" if you have an explosion too close to you. There have been a couple of times when I haven't heard a grenade go off after I threw it down a stairwell or alley. I haven't determined if this is caused by a dud grenade or a bug in the programming. But to be fair I thought I'd mention it.

Likes
One think I really like about this game is the option to play multi-player cooperative missions. You and another player can each have a 3 man team and cycle through to control in first person any of your team members at any time (given they are still alive). Then of course, if you wish to pit your skills against your friends you can also play head-to-head combat. During a mission you can open the map and edit the way-points of both teams, give the teams movement commands such as hold, advance, and 'at all costs.' While editing the way-points on the map you can also adjust the direction of their fire, for example at a particular building or down a road. You can also influence the firing with recon, supress, or assualt. All of this enables the player as much or little strategy as desired. Game play is smooth whether walking or running. Movement is controlled by both sticks, one for actual movement and the other for looking/head direction. Posture is also controlled by standing, crouching or laying. Laying is very nice in minimizing your chances of being hit, but makes movement more cumbersome. (I wish Medal of Honor had this) I also like the radar scope that shows when enemies are within firing range. This may make it a little too easy and unrealistic, but easier in choosing if you want to avoid or assault.</p>

Dislikes
One think I haven't found as an option is the ability to jump. Strange considering all the other posture and movement options. In team selection I recall on the XBox being able to select the type of soldier you wanted (demo, support, sniper, rifleman) and then it would simply list the soldiers that fit into that category rather than having to cycle through the entire list. It just seems to be a little more cumbersome on the GameCube version. Focusing and targeting is much more difficult in my opinion than (for example) Medal of Honor. It would have been a nice feature to add a button that would make stick movement less drastic similar to Medal of Honor's left trigger action. I have also found the zooming out a bit cumbersome. To zoom in is a quick tap of a button, but to zoom out requires you holding the zoom button and pulling back on the c-stick. Up to now in the game play I have been less than impressed with the enemies. For example, in Medal of Honor the enemies would use anything in their arsenal: grenades, rockets, sniper rifles, hand guns, etc. So far all the enemies in Ghost Recon have simply used standard assault rifles. Also sometimes team members tend to get in the way. For example when trying to clear a house I'll often open the front door, move to the side and throw in a grenade. Sometimes a team member will walk around the side and either get killed in the blast from the grenade or by being shot while standing in front of the open doorway. Another problem: while the person you control is always in front, if you switch men, the old guy will turn around and walk back to you, often times just standing there with his back to the enemies that are even on the scope. Maybe a more intelligent team member engine would have been nice. **New** I have had the game freeze on me several times. I tend to believe it is the game itself rather than my box since none of my other games have this problem.</p>

In closing... I really enjoy the game and can only hope that as I advance through the levels and missions that the enemies become more realistic as they did in Medal of Honor. I should point out the enemies do a good job of starting to move after the first shot is fired. They will also crouch and lay on the ground to shoot at you, hide behind rocks or gather more enemies and charge you. Ghost Recon is very realistic in that your men can only take a couple of non fatal hits before being out of action, your men fatigue (don't try to run the entire time). If a man is directly behind you when you use a rocket you could kill him with the blast. Other realistic effects include ringing ears if a blast is close. As you use your men on different missions they earn points that you can put to improve their leadership, weapons accuracy, steal, or endurance. This is a nice feature so your characters actually develop through the game and become better. You can also run out of ammo if you don't ration appropriately, there is no running around and picking up ammo. If your mission calls for a demolition, protect your demolition man!

Recommended:
No