Platform: Xbox
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Publisher: UbiSoft
Developer: UbiSoft
ESRB: T (Teen)
Released: March 2006

Support AE!  Buy Games Here:

Be notified of site updates. Sign-up for the Newsletter sent out twice weekly.

Enter E-Mail Address Below:

Pros:

- Kinda, sorta the same plot and scenario as the 360 version

- Single player co-op campaign

Cons:

- Heavily neutered strategy elements

- Choppy framerate

- Thin multiplayer modes

Related Links:

Review: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (360)

Review: Rainbow Six 3 (XB)

Review: Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (XB)

"Even if you don’t compare it to the 360 version, the game either comes off of an unbalanced first person shooter or a neutered action-strategy sim."

The Xbox 360 launch had a considerable share of current-gen ports that were priced higher, but didn’t really show that much in the way of improvements. King Kong was the same on the 360 as the regular Xbox, with better texturing. Gun was the same except for a higher framerate. It didn’t exactly create confidence in the power of the 360.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter for the original Xbox shares the same title as the 360 game. You might be tempted to think that they are the same game.

They’re not.

The two may share the same basic plotline and similarly game mechanics, but they’ve been designed by two entirely different teams. You still play the role of American soldiers sent down into Mexico, where the Canadian prime minister has been assassinated, and both the Mexican and American presidents are running for their lives. There’s been a insurgency of rebels, you see, and you need to quell it by killing every last one of them. The Advanced Warfighter part of the title refers to the fancy visor that your character wears, which keeps track of your allies, your foes and your next objective by highlighting them with various colors. Considering how open the world first feels, it makes navigation quite easy. The entire game is viewed from a first-person perspective, and you can see your gun on screen, making it almost feel like Rainbow Six 3.

The streets of Mexico are almost completely barren, and the whole game has a washed out, dusty look. It’s hardly an attractive game, but it does capture the feel of the desert pretty well. Ubi Soft didn’t even attempt  the gorgeous graphics effects seen the in 360 version, though you could hardly blame them. Still, the animation is decent, and the sun glare works fine for the system.

Although GRAW is meant to be a combination of action and strategy, the Xbox version doesn’t pull off either particularly well. You only have a single partner at any given time, and the game has a tendency to back you into corners and toss waves and waves of bad guys

right at you. Since your tactical options are severely limited, the only thing path left is to play it as a shooter. Since a few stray shots will take you down, running through with guns blazing is a bad idea. The only way to survive is by taking cover, peeking out, and firing. Except this is executed rather poorly -- you just position yourself by a wall, hold the left trigger and move the analog pad to peek out, fire and then duck back in. Considering how other games implemented a similar feature -- like Perfect Dark Zero or the 360 GRAW, where you just take cover with a single button, which allows you to jump out and jump back in with almost graceful ease -- you wonder why they couldn’t have come up with a system that’s more intuitive.

Advertisement

There are other problems that seem to stem from the developer’s laziness. Your standard rifle only supports one level of zoom, leaving you to rely on your sniper rifle. In most games, you can hold your breath to steady your aim when sniping, but not here. The visor no longer tells you the health of your enemies, just their basic position. There are mid-level checkpoints, but the only way to actually save the game mid-mission is by hunting down weapon kiosks, which are sometimes placed in out-of-the-way areas. You can’t pick up ammo from dead bad guys either, once again forcing you to hunt down those kiosks.

Most of these issues seem to stem from the developer’s laziness, but there other technical issues too.

The frame rate tends to chug in scenes with heavier action, and given the small margin of error in many situations, this can cause plenty of problems. There’s also a mini picture which shows the POV of your companion, but it’s so choppy that you wonder why it was even implemented. Although there is an easy difficulty level, where your commando slowly regains health over time, it still ends up being a remarkably tough game. Taken together, all of these diminish the experience quite a bit.

The multiplayer is pretty standard, allowing for deathmatch or cooperative quick skirmishes. Compared to the large number of game modes in the 360 version, this is pretty underwhelming. On the positive side, you can play the entire single player campaign in co-op with two players. Oddly enough, the on-screen guns disappear in these modes.

Everything about the Xbox GRAW seems compromised. Even if you don’t compare it to the 360 version, the game either comes off of an unbalanced first person shooter or a neutered action-strategy sim. Either way, it’s not going to win any fans, unless you’re utterly desperate for more military action and don’t have a 360.

- Kurt Kalata

(April 4, 2006)

Search for Related Topics:

...More XBox Game Reviews...

...More Shooter Game Reviews...

...More Reviews of Games Published by Ubisoft...