Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - Previews


	Platform PC, Playstation 3, Xbox 360 Genre Shooter Publisher Ubisoft Developer Ubisoft Paris ETA Q1 2011
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Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

The Ghost Recon series is actually one of my favorites. For some reason, I'll fall back on Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 when I can't make up my mind about what to play next. So, I was a little excited about Future Soldier at E3.

I had successfully insulated myself from any information about Future Soldier so I experienced the demo with no expectations.

During a time frame that's "sooner than you think" Future Soldier equips the player with camo along the lines of what the Predator or Snake wears, allowing a lot of

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movement using stealth options. In the very short demo, the hero character snuck around a dried-up lake to take out a number of bad guys, killing them stealthily. The cautious approach was intensified when the enemy broke out the infrared.

Giving and receiving orders during this tip-toe approach seemed to be done with minimal

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effort. Not having anything on-screen to indicate what was happening, I base this opinion on surreptitious looks at the demonstrators button presses.

The demo switched to a much more action-oriented setup, with a helicopter landing/delivering goods, some sniper action, then an up-close and personal encounter with plenty of awesome explosions and destructible cover. Plus, mini-robots! It was more than enough to allay my fears that Future Soldier had been turned into a classic Splinter Cell game.

The main point of the demo, at least what I was able to glean, was to provide an oblique glimpse at what a 4-player co-op experience might be like. It's a feature that is being promised; I only wish I'd seen that shown.

(NOTE: Maybe I misheard the 4-player co-op bit but I'm going from my notes made during the demo; the fact sheet lists only split-screen co-op as an option for the campaign.)

Some of the information about the game I only gleaned upon reading the "fact" sheet. Like the exoskeleton thing that grants the Future Soldier extra abilities that offer "unparalleled physicality and lethal expertise in melee close combat are now at your disposal." That might have just been drowned out by the noise on the show floor, but the fact sheet also provided some other info like:

Join the Ghosts as Kozak, a fresh recruit whose elite unit is the United State's best and only means of retaliation when a nationalist coup unseats Russia's legitimate president.

Experience multiple aspects of the war from the unique perspectives of a high-level bodyguard, an engineer, a civilian and more.

Instantly coordinate combat against 360° threats: link-up with your Ghost teammates in a formidable formation at the push of a button.

Move-and-shoot-as-one with your friends or AI teammates with no training and no complex orders system.

Benefit from your teammates' high-tech abilities and combine them to unleash the power of an army at the pull of your trigger.

Link-up for heated 8 vs. 8 adversarial matches and combine the four balanced class abilities, plus drones and individual gear.

Seamless ranking progression in Single, Co-op and Adversarial modes: unlock multiple rewards for your Ghost or your Clan.

The only release date for Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is Q1 2011, but from the very small pieces of the game that were shown I can't help but think that will be pushed back. The demo ran just fine and it managed to "wow!" me, but I'm a little dubious about some of the features simply because they weren't shown in any capacity.

- Aaron Simmer

(July 9, 2010)