What's New

Ghost Recon Future Soldier (GR:FS), or Ghost Recon Online (GRO), sees the implementation of a revamped 3rd person cover system into multiplayer with, more importantly, sprinting. This would greatly increases the rate of the gameplay if the maps remained the same size. However, the maps have not remained the same size; they have been greatly reduced in size, rendering the pace of the gameplay frenetic compared to previous Ghost Recon installments.

This is the sharpest departure from the archaic design philosophy of the old Ghost Recon games of slow and steady tactics and deliberation; additionally, the number of classes have been reduced from 4 to 3, dropping the grenadier class, and adding abilities to each of the 3 current classes: Assault, Specialist, and Recon. Nonetheless, the tactical nature of Ghost Recon is present in many mechanics of the game. Keep in mind that this is a preview only of the beta version of the multiplayer, which is limited to only a handful of maps and weapons.

A History Lesson

I have always been a Ghost Recon fan ever since I played a demo for Ghost Recon: Island Thunder on my old, cherished Xbox. I played the same level over and over again, enjoying every second of my 1st person experience crawling, prone, through a poorly rendered field on a plantation in the middle of the jungle, occupied, or infested as it seemed, with rebels or terrorists or whoever the targets of the operation were, silently and deliberately eliminating bogey after tango with my elite squad of allies. Each run required precision, tactics, and, most notably, patience.

Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

Patience was the name of the game once again with the release of Ghost Recon 2, but this time with piecewise, tactical, and slow-paced multiplayer warfare as well as rendering the franchise 3rd person. This time around I snatched a copy for myself and Ghost Recon 2 become my premier online game until Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike, its expansion pack, fulfilled its role.

Once again, I adored the tactical nature of the franchise, where I would coordinate intricate flanks, swift feats of marksmanship, and organize would could otherwise turn into garbled miscommunication among a team of dedicated marksmen, riflemen, grenadiers, and autoriflemen. The 3rd person mechanic slowed down the action even further and really allowed Ghost Recon to hit its stride as a 3rd person tactical shooter.

Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter released with a brand new mechanic, a 3rd person cover system in singleplayer. However, the cover system never made it into multiplayer; tactical multiplayer remained, but this time the maps were modified; rather the typical sprawling jungle/desert/outdoor theme of previous Ghost Recons, Advanced Warfighter maps favored urban and more constrained warfare. The same principle dominated Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2, with a bit of a return to the wooded outdoors in some multiplayer maps.

The Cover System

Now, the precision has been more or less replaced by attempting to accurately move in and out of cover effectively, safely, and without being glued to a wall while a Recon soldier runs around the corner spraying you with a submachine gun. The cover mechanic can be cumbersome at times and downright frustrating when you find yourself inexplicably stuck on a piece over cover when scrambling to return fire at an assailing enemy.

Despite some of the frustrations of the new cover combat system in multiplayer, the cover system does fulfill its intended to purpose, lending defender's advantage to those who can be patient and move deliberately from cover to cover. In cover, your character receives multiple buffs, including reduced recoil, improved stability, and better handling, making cover a quintessential combat in long range combat.

That being said, close quarters combat can get very hectic and very disorganized very quickly. I haven't had much time with the game since I was accepted only very recently into the Beta, but close quarters combat is my biggest complaint with this game thus far given my afore described scenario of being inadvertently plastered against a wall with a baddie rushing me right around the corner. Despite my qualms, better positioning, decision-making, and mechanics have greatly reduced such frustrating situations as I get better at the game.

Interestingly, you can also go prone while in cover, resulting in a slick animation where your virtual warfighter finds himself on his back with his head against the wall, where he can quickly return fire as a small profile ahead of him or gun down a flanking enemy with resounding accuracy. I found this mechanic incredibly immersive because that's how I imagine any soldier reacting to a threat, including myself.

Devices & Abilities

Each Class has 2 devices and 2 squad support abilities available to them, but only 1 device and 1 squad support ability may be equipped at and time, and they each come with their own cooldown timer to balance the carnage. Many of this abilities, such as a supersonic shield that diverts enemy projectiles or heat emitting weaponry you can use to immolate your opponents encourage teamwork or can be used to control space, lending a refreshing Ghost Recon feel by offering diverse tactical options.

Additionally, these special abilities and devices can drastically change how you play the game. For example, as a Recon soldier, you can either use a sonar device that can spot enemies through walls and other obstacles coupled with a sniper or you can equip and submachine gun and use a cloaking device to infiltrate enemy lines and execute close quarters ambushes. This makes the gameplay diverse, fun, and affords you multiple ways to tackle tough obstacles or enemy tactics.

Map Design

Unfortunately, some of GRO's maps are remarkably linear. However, all of the maps are split up into different sections in the Conquest mode of the game, where teams are tasked with capturing a neutral checkpoint at the outset of the game and then wrestle against there opponent until all points are captured or time expires. Each exchange of ownership results in different spawning points in different parts of the map, another refreshing mechanic, like in Battlefield.

Keep in mind that these is only a small selection of maps available in the beta. Despite the linearity of some of the maps, there are often 2 axes of linearity, allowing for a complete flanking maneuver if you wish to take the time to walk down one side of the map and swing around through the other; however, you'll be sandwiched between the enemy frontline and their spawn point, assuming you even make it there to begin with, giving you a short life expectancy, but it can be worth the risk.

Although I may take aversion to the linearity of GRO's maps, it may be just because I reminisce over the Ghost Recon maps of yore with plenty of flanking options in a wide-open. Nonetheless, the map design lends itself well to teamwork, communication, and space control, which all contribute to a better, more fun, and more sophisticated and engaging game. Additionally, the axes of linearity often contain more axes such as a large framework of pillars coupled with adjacent subway tracks in an underground subway station, creating a crossfire that demands teamwork.

Gunplay

I haven't had much experience with different weapons considering the circumstances, but I will provide my somewhat initial impressions.

The Recon class feels very adaptable, but is crippled by less health compared to the other classes. You can opt to go low firepower, high rate of fire (ROF), or high firepower, low ROF in the form of a submachine gun or a sniper rifle. The sniper rifle is deadly with good positioning, cover, and a healthy distance between you and your quarry, whereas the submachine gun requires you to get up in the face of your enemies, which can be intimidating considering you'll likely be up against assault rifles, shotguns, and light machineguns on the front line.

The Assault class encompasses shotguns and rifles and has the most health of any class. The shotgun is powerful at close range but difficult to control, a nice balance between the weapon's power and gunplay, but at longer ranges the shotgun can seem inconsistent in its efficacy. The assault rifle is good for picking off mid to close range targets with the proper manual burst fire and marksmanship, but it is difficult to tap off accurate rounds at a distance in full auto mode and semi-automatic mode feels as though you can't pop them off fast enough.

The Specialist is the in-between in terms of health and carries either a light machinegun or a shotgun. The light machinegun packs a powerful punch, dealing 40 damage per shot on the default class weapon, more than an assault rifle. However the ROF is relatively low and the biggest obstacle is controlling the weapon's recoil when taking aim at a target.

At midrange the gunplay feels good, placing a heavy emphasis on positioning and cover. Long range combat can prove troublesome unless you're a Recon with a sniper rifle, which is likely intended. Short range combat feels clunky, is difficult, and can be frustrating, where it seems that whoever wins the gunfight is merely the luckier combatant. This is likely why the developers added a melee attack, which will require two swipes unless your opponent has already been substantially damaged.

Sprinting & Parkour

Sprinting is the most iconoclastic mechanic introduced in GRO. Previous Ghost Recon installments required deliberate and patient movements as you moved from position to position. Now, you can sprint, slide, dive, and jump to your favorite location. This definitely represents the biggest change in the Ghost Recon series in its fundamental gameplay. This opens up many new possibilities and fundamentally changes the game from a traditional 3rd person tactical shooter to a new breed of third person tactical shooter. You can fluidly and rapidly navigate the environment, given the proper mechanics.

This makes the game feel...different. I really have no other words to describe it than just out of the ordinary and different. It is certainly not on the level of Brink, but it's the quickest 3rd person tactical shooter around, which makes me question whether or not it should even be considered a tactical shooter anymore. Although the archetypal slow-paced gameplay and deliberate movements of a typical tactical shooter are dropped, there still are many other tactical elements to the game in the form of cover, abilities, and classes.

Conclusion

GRO is free. Did I mention that? It's worth checking out, and not just because it's free. Even though, it's free. If you're a Ghost Recon fan or a tactical shooter fan or a 3rd person shooter fan, you should definitely check this game out. I had fun with it. It certainly won't replace my favorite e-Sports games in its current form, but it could be a strong contender upon official release, or at least an amusing and worthwhile distraction from my APM-fuelled Starcraft matches.