Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm
Hands-on details with the game that will make you forget previous Ghost Recon foibles.
Published: February 22, 2004
Raise your hand if you played Ghost Recon on the PS2. How'd you like it? Okay, now raise your hand if you played it on the Xbox. And how'd you like that version? Yeah, us too. Ubi Soft's lobotomized port of Ghost Recon for the PS2 lacked just about everything that the Xbox version offered, namely online play and a usable interface. Luckily, the boys and girls up in Montreal listened to all the fans crying foul and will soon answer it with Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, a sequel that not only addresses past problems, but adds a whole hell of a lot more for PS2 gamers looking for that tactical FPS fix.
Set none too distant future of 2009 nine, the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has opened the floodgates for would-be successors to claim rule over the island nation. One of the key figures in the power struggle built up around the dictatorial void left by Castro's demise is a Colombian drug cartel that are more than happy to finance a revolt in order to get a puppet into power that would bend to their will when the time came. Unfortunately, the U.S. isn't especially keen on this, and has already sent in the Ghost Unit, a cream-of-the-crop squad of Green Berets (which are already an elite division of the U.S. Army to begin with) to clean things up. They do, of course, because as any of the Ghosts would surely tell you, failure isn't an option, and the warlord installed by the cartel is taken out, leaving Cuba open to a public election.
Flash forward a few months and a few thousand miles to Columbia, where the cartel, lacking a dictator of their own design in Cuba, has decided to seize control of things a bit closer to home. In retaliation to the U.S.-backed operations in Cuba, they execute a series of surgical detonations that hit all across the Columbian capital of Bogotá, attacking the American-allied government and the American embassy itself. The government, understandably, requests a little help from the U.S., and once again the Ghosts are dispatched to take care of the problem.
If any of this storyline seems a bit familiar, it's because most of it has already been lifted from the earlier Xbox release of Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, and in fact all of Island Thunder's single-player campaign will arrive intact from the Xbox release, along with an all new campaign created especially for the PS2 version that cleans up the whole cartel mess. The combined single- and multi-player maps from the Xbox release mean a massive amount of gameplay for PS2 owners that, while forced to wait for a decent PS2 release, should see more than enough to make up for it when the game is released.
Much of the problems nagging the earlier PS2 Ghost Recon release have been remedied, including a much improved interface and cleaner visuals. Ubi Soft has implemented not only USB headset support, but limited voice recognition, meaning SOCOM buffs now have a second option for voice-directed order-giving glee. While the system isn't nearly as detailed as SOCOM's -- the commands are mainly relegated to support and backup orders, with the focus on you the player actually carrying out the key actions -- that doesn't mean your squadmates are useless. The simplified command set actually frees things up quite a bit, allowing you to blow cover as seen fit by taking the shots first. Movement commands can still be orchestrated, however, and often it's as simple as directing your squadmates to your crosshairs, though getting around objects is still a bit of a problem for the relatively brainless AI at the moment.
Better still is the inclusion of online voice support, meaning all of the game's 31 multiplayer maps (a sizable chunk carried over from the Xbox version) and 10 multiplayer modes (including -- woo hoo -- co-op play) can allow for some seriously strategic play. Ladder and ranking systems will be implemented to track online player IDs, and actually functions worldwide from what we can tell (as do online games, which could lead to interesting matches with people screaming at you in a multitude of languages).
Things are still a bit on the sketchy side, but the build we played around with was quite early (from late last year, actually, though it's taken us forever to actually preview the game), so we're hoping that an updated build will fix some of the problems with things like AI pathfinding and voice recognition (though, in the game's defense, none of us are especially fond of enunciating when we speak, but I'm willing to bet few gamers are). Still, while some of the nighttime missions are still tough on the eyes, the daytime campaigns seem much improved, with brightened palettes that make distinguishing objects far, far easier. Level designs seem to have gotten a bit more organic as well, though things are for the most part still rather angular and plain.
Jungle Storm still has a way to go before we can really pass judgment on it, but if some of the game's more nagging bugs can be cleared up and the online play stays as solid as it appears to be now, we could be looking at a very serious alternative to SOCOM for gamers that are looking for something that's a little closer to Counter-Strike on the PS2. We'll have the final verdict when the game ships next month.
Set none too distant future of 2009 nine, the death of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro has opened the floodgates for would-be successors to claim rule over the island nation. One of the key figures in the power struggle built up around the dictatorial void left by Castro's demise is a Colombian drug cartel that are more than happy to finance a revolt in order to get a puppet into power that would bend to their will when the time came. Unfortunately, the U.S. isn't especially keen on this, and has already sent in the Ghost Unit, a cream-of-the-crop squad of Green Berets (which are already an elite division of the U.S. Army to begin with) to clean things up. They do, of course, because as any of the Ghosts would surely tell you, failure isn't an option, and the warlord installed by the cartel is taken out, leaving Cuba open to a public election.
Flash forward a few months and a few thousand miles to Columbia, where the cartel, lacking a dictator of their own design in Cuba, has decided to seize control of things a bit closer to home. In retaliation to the U.S.-backed operations in Cuba, they execute a series of surgical detonations that hit all across the Columbian capital of Bogotá, attacking the American-allied government and the American embassy itself. The government, understandably, requests a little help from the U.S., and once again the Ghosts are dispatched to take care of the problem.
If any of this storyline seems a bit familiar, it's because most of it has already been lifted from the earlier Xbox release of Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, and in fact all of Island Thunder's single-player campaign will arrive intact from the Xbox release, along with an all new campaign created especially for the PS2 version that cleans up the whole cartel mess. The combined single- and multi-player maps from the Xbox release mean a massive amount of gameplay for PS2 owners that, while forced to wait for a decent PS2 release, should see more than enough to make up for it when the game is released.
Much of the problems nagging the earlier PS2 Ghost Recon release have been remedied, including a much improved interface and cleaner visuals. Ubi Soft has implemented not only USB headset support, but limited voice recognition, meaning SOCOM buffs now have a second option for voice-directed order-giving glee. While the system isn't nearly as detailed as SOCOM's -- the commands are mainly relegated to support and backup orders, with the focus on you the player actually carrying out the key actions -- that doesn't mean your squadmates are useless. The simplified command set actually frees things up quite a bit, allowing you to blow cover as seen fit by taking the shots first. Movement commands can still be orchestrated, however, and often it's as simple as directing your squadmates to your crosshairs, though getting around objects is still a bit of a problem for the relatively brainless AI at the moment.
Better still is the inclusion of online voice support, meaning all of the game's 31 multiplayer maps (a sizable chunk carried over from the Xbox version) and 10 multiplayer modes (including -- woo hoo -- co-op play) can allow for some seriously strategic play. Ladder and ranking systems will be implemented to track online player IDs, and actually functions worldwide from what we can tell (as do online games, which could lead to interesting matches with people screaming at you in a multitude of languages).
Things are still a bit on the sketchy side, but the build we played around with was quite early (from late last year, actually, though it's taken us forever to actually preview the game), so we're hoping that an updated build will fix some of the problems with things like AI pathfinding and voice recognition (though, in the game's defense, none of us are especially fond of enunciating when we speak, but I'm willing to bet few gamers are). Still, while some of the nighttime missions are still tough on the eyes, the daytime campaigns seem much improved, with brightened palettes that make distinguishing objects far, far easier. Level designs seem to have gotten a bit more organic as well, though things are for the most part still rather angular and plain.
Jungle Storm still has a way to go before we can really pass judgment on it, but if some of the game's more nagging bugs can be cleared up and the online play stays as solid as it appears to be now, we could be looking at a very serious alternative to SOCOM for gamers that are looking for something that's a little closer to Counter-Strike on the PS2. We'll have the final verdict when the game ships next month.
