by Kyle - February 1, 2005

The story begins in 2007 when a United States' ship is struck by a North Korean missile killing everyone aboard. A week later, the United States' Ghost is called into South Korea until the President finds out what exactly happened outside the coast of Japan. Ghost is a United States covert unit. You enter the game as Ghosts' commander and begin to make your way into North Korea.

Slightly Above Most Others

Ghost Recon 2 contains the basic first person shooter controls. Therefore, there seems to be not much difference by switching from James Bond to Ghost Recon 2. It has a decent story line that can be followed by viewers of all ages. The difficulty however, would make it fit better for older people who have a gaming experience.

There is a lot more you can do in Ghost Recon 2 that you can not do in many other first person shooter games. During missions, you have the ability to crouch and lay down on the ground while sniping your opponents. When you're behind an object, you can lean the top half of your body to each side to see slightly around the object to minimize your chance of getting spotted or shot.

Did I mention the scenery fits in with everything surrounding it? Going from mission to mission I've noticed that nothing is out of place in this game. In the third mission, you are coming through a small area of trees and each of your opponents are hidden within the scenery just like they would be in an actual war. They hide when they are reloading and only come out to fire at you.

Unlike previous Tom Clancy games, your enemies are much more life-like. In several missions, they're seen talking to one another before you move in. They also are much smarter in combat terms. They get out of the line of fire when they are reloading. I've also see some of them take off running when you get near him. While you shoot the others in the area, the enemy that had run off, might sneak up behind you and start shooting.

Evolution Almost Complete

As far as graphics go, Ghost Recon 2 has far from evolved from its predecessor, Ghost Recon. Watching the introductory for any mission is like watching any animated film. On the other hand, the in game graphics could have been slightly better. A few small details in this category were over looked but nothing that would decrease its rating.

If you look back at previous Tom Clancy games, it almost looks as if Ghost Recon 2 has no relation to any of its older games. After seeing how bad Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Lone Wolf was, I was a little skeptical about purchasing another from the series. Now that I have played Ghost Recon 2 I have seen very little relation to Lone Wolf. The enemies actually look and move realistically as if you were looking at a real person.

The biggest mistake you can make about deciding on whether or not to purchase this game is basing it on one of the earlier games in its series.

Almost Soundtrack Quality

The sound on this game was extraordinary. It sounds at times that the music for Ghost Recon 2 was playing straight from a music CD. There are other parts where the game's sound declines in quality. If UbiSoft could have worked a little more in their audio department then things would have fit together a little better.

The sound effects in this game match everything that you do and that goes on. Whenever a member of your team dies you hear a sad sounding trumpet solo come on. Also, the sound of the firing matches the weapon being used. Half of the time I could tell which gun was being used before looking down at the name.

Other in game sounds are very nice, I heard birds chirping and thought the noise was coming from outside until I played this at night and continued to hear the chirping. If you listen closely, the sound effects of Ghost Recon 2 will amaze you. You can hear things like, birds chirping, crickets in the grass beside you, and enemies talking very faintly. As far as the enemy chit-chat, it is very hard to figure out what they are saying but you can still hear a faint noise.

Patience Is the Key

This game is very amusing if you have the time and patience it takes to learn and get good with it. The easiest difficulty seems much too hard for what it's set at. Most other first person shooter games don't take nearly as much talent for a starting difficulty.

The enemy seems to be quite accurate as far as shooting is concerned in the first difficulty setting. Another downfall of this game is the mission load time. Loading a profile take a matter of seconds but for loading a mission I've had to wait up to almost three minutes.

After of while of learning the controls and the basic game play, this game becomes quite addicting. It seems to grab a hold of you when you first die and makes you want to keep trying until you get past the area you were killed in.

Entertaining For One Person

There are quite a number of things that would bring this game down. For one, there is multiplayer but only for those who have the network adapter and a broadband connection. For those that don't, this can be quite costly. On a lighter note, if you enjoy playing single player, then you will enjoy playing this game. I am personally glad I bought this game. It was been a wonderful and entertaining experience for me.

The Choice Is Yours

If you're someone that likes a good challenge with a good first person shooter story line, then this is the game for you. You will definitely enjoy the storyline, graphics, and everything Ghost Recon 2 has to offer. If you're someone that hasn't preferred first person shooter games or doesn't like anything of a very hard difficulty, then you should at least try it. You can rent it (which I recommend) at your local store for a cheap price, play it for a bit, and then decide if you want to purchase it or not.