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Platform:
Xbox Genre:
First-Person Shooter Publisher:
Ubi Soft Developer:
Red Storm Entertainment ESRB:
M (Mature) Released:
Q3 2003 Support AE! Buy Games Here:
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Tom Clancy’s Ghost
Recon: Island Thunder
Score: 8.4 / 10 |
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Pros: -
Intense multiplayer maps and action -
There’s a liberal need for actual thinking and strategic planning to
succeed -
Variety of soldiers and accompanying weaponry to fill you elite
force’s roster
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Cons: -
Graphics can be very underachieving at times -
AI has its low-I.Q. moments -
Too few single-player levels don’t use the great plot and Tom Clancy
storytelling touch to its fullest potential
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Related Links: Review: Metal Gear Solid 2 Substance (PS2) Review: Rainbow Six 3 - Raven Shield (PC)
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"I wouldn’t consider scooping Island Thunder unless you are a Live subscriber..."
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Ubi
Soft’s Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon has been one of the biggest selling
titles for the Xbox to date, primarily for its stellar online
capabilities over Xbox Live. Hot on the heels of the incredible success
of that game, Ubi Soft has released a follow-up title -- an
oxymoronically described “stand-alone expansion” -- Tom Clancy’s
Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (IT).
The
game has a new Tom Clancy-driven storyline (unfortunately not delved
into too deeply) revolving around the death of Fidel Castro and a
politically unstable new Cuba in the year 2010 requiring the services of
Ghost intervention for its single-player campaign missions. But with
only a handful of new levels for single-player gameplay, it’s hard to
call IT a “stand-alone” title worth $40US. Fortunately, the game
earns its price-tag by yet again standing on its own as a multiplayer
romp, providing some of the best online team, cooperative, or solo
shooting game fun in any title on either a console or PC today. Making
a return tour of duty is a handful of the original game’s most popular
multiplayer maps, which sort of explains the “expansion” in its
description. Despite having a really good premise for a story, the
multiplayer gaming is what IT is all about. This is another game in the
mold of Unreal Championship for the Xbox where the short single-player
game is more of a practice facility to learn the game’s controls and
jungle, desert, and Cuban urban street levels you’ll be playing while
online.
Those
single-player story missions come in real handy, however, especially if
you are a rookie like myself that doesn’t have any experience playing
the original game. IT, like the first Ghost Recon, requires a lot of
tactical strategizing to control the two three-member Ghost platoons,
Alpha and Bravo, which you order around the map. You must plan either
one of both teams’ movements while personally controlling one team or
switching between individual platoon members to successfully complete
the mission. The ultimate goal on top of completing your objectives is
to avoid sustaining any casualties, which isn’t always easy,
especially on IT’s harder difficulty levels. In addition to the strategy elements, there are just the basic controls of moving around and using weaponry that require some acclimation. Veteran first-person shooter players will become familiar with its control schematics rather quickly, but there are a host of controls to master for every button, trigger and control stick on the Xbox controller. You must be able to move, shoot, switch weaponry, reload, open entryways, use a binocular-like zoom (to see faraway landscape and roaming individuals), and stand, crouch, or crawl to avoid getting killed. Featured
in IT is some spectacular visual and sound effects on the flipside of
some disappointing graphical weaknesses, especially considering the
award-winning renderings seen in another Tome Clancy game, Splinter
Cell. The environmental visuals on the varied levels are not anywhere
near standard Xbox quality, with too much blurring fogging effects used
to compensate for the game’s poor anti-aliasing capabilities. However,
there are a few graphical touches of greatness. IT’s soldiers are well
detailed. Not Splinter Cell excellent, but really good nonetheless.
That’s important too, because there is a huge squad of elite Ghost
members to select from, and an even bigger total to unlock, each with a
specialized skill such as demolition expert or sniper, to differentiate
between. Most have distinctive weaponry, providing a vast assortment of
options when putting together a platoon for a particular mission. Having
an array of Ghosts with a big selection of weapons to equip them with
carries over into multiplayer game setup too. Even
better than the character detail is the amazing weather effects and
environmental sound effects. Seeing convincing rain falling with
supporting lighting and thunder sounds is simply marvelous. Sound
throughout the game is exceptionally used. Background noises such as
birds chirping or planes flying overhead exponentially add to the
dripping realism of IT. One particularly impressive object sound effect
is in the abandoned town prison. When you move across the rustic scraps
of metal strewn all over, you make a very noticeable creaking sound. On
this map in multiplayer matches, paying attention to the sounds of the
creaking metal make it easy to place your enemy in the room and target
him for a kill shot.
IT’s
challenge level in the single-player campaign doesn't always example the
smartest AI in the jungle. Enemy AI reacts more attentively and
aggressively on the higher difficulty settings, but overall can be
shaky. The game seems to assign each enemy a specific perimeter that
controls his reaction to your platoon’s actions. If you move into an
enemy’s perimeter, he will react by taking cover, shoot at you before
you see him, or counter-attack. The problem here is that you can engage
an enemy in his perimeter by shooting at him. He will react to your
fire. But an enemy in an adjoining perimeter that logically should be
able to hear and/or see his fellow enemy soldier being attacked will
illogically not react at all until you actually invade his perimeter.
Recognizing this behavior makes it easier to defeat enemies, but takes
away from the accurate military fighting simulation IT can be in most
instances. A
uneven AI doesn’t matter at all over Live for multiplayer IT gaming,
where you square off against infinitely-smarter-than-AI ( in most cases
that is) human competitors. IT’s online multiplayer action is the
game’s meat and potatoes, a fact that the game’s developers and
publisher isn’t afraid to admit. IT is designed to be a solid
multiplayer title first and foremost. There’s an incredible amount of
online multiplayer modes to partake in too. Four cooperative games, five
team games, and four solo games give Xbox Live IT players plenty of
first-person shooting choices to enjoy. Included
in IT is a wide selection of great multiplayer maps borrowed from the
single-player game and carried over from the original game. The maps
aren’t small either. Just when you thought that one couldn’t be any
bigger, you discover a branching path to even more areas of a map. The
fogging anti-aliasing effect does crop up in multiplayer games though,
sometimes making finding an enemy particularly troublesome with
sometimes deadly results for you. I
wouldn’t consider scooping Island Thunder unless you are a Live
subscriber, because as good as the game’s story and single-player
missions can be, there’s simply not enough levels and gameplay here
for going solo. However, IT continues in the footsteps of its
predecessor by providing an exceptional multiplayer experience that not
many games can match today. -
Lee Cieniawa (September 7, 2003)
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