Ubi Soft had quite a run in 2002, with some killer games born of the Tom Clancy pen. Splinter Cell was a Game of the Year candidate on Xbox, and Ghost Recon stormed Microsoft’s green machine with top-notch, squad-based action. By December, it seemed like the only thing that could stop the partnership of Ubi Soft and Tom Clancy would be the partners themselves. Turns out that assessment was just about right.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon recently shipped for the GameCube with some serious expectations to live up to. Given the networking differences between the GameCube and other platforms, it would be unfair to hold the GameCube version up to the same multiplayer standards. You’d think, then, that it’d be safe to assume that where multiplayer options would lack, the game’s single-player features would help compensate. Too bad we all know what happens when you "assume."
Gameplay
As a squad-based military game, Ghost Recon has a core comprised of intense combat and commanding/controlling your squad. Equipping your team with the right equipment is essential, and ensuring that they come out alive is crucial, because once they’re dead, you lose them for the remainder of the game.
The pre-mission screen in which you will do this equipping is as intuitive as that from other versions of the game, and the gameplay controls also translate amazingly well to the GameCube. Nintendo bashers beware: Ghost Recon will debunk the myth that the purple controller can’t handle "adult" functionality. You’ll be firing, sneaking and commanding after just one of the game’s Training or Tactical Exercise scenarios.
Once you enter the Campaign action, the game plays out as you make real-time commands to your squad or, if you prefer, take control of individual soldiers to accomplish given tasks (sniping, setting charges, providing suppressing fire, etc.). Unfortunately, this all-important action is where the game begins to falter.
For starters, where the previous versions of Ghost Recon were realistic in your soldiers’ abilities, the GameCube port is extremely arcadey. I’ve personally never been able to move any faster than one mile per hour while crawling on my belly, and these soldiers can crawl at a three- to four-mile-per-hour clip with guns drawn. Not only does this steal from the game’s immersion, but you can imagine just how fast soldiers move in a fully upright posture, which makes the maps seem incredibly small. This is a true a disservice to the size of some of the game’s 15 levels.
Adding to this "arcade" feel is the presence of an enemy-detecting radar. In previous versions of Ghost Recon, your HUD would indicate which direction gunfire was coming from, but it was up to you to actually locate the enemy on the ground. In a sense, it was a very realistic experience. In the GameCube port, though, you get a Halo-esque display that tells you not only where gunfire is originating, but also your proximity to your foes as well as to your teammates. It really dumbs down the gameplay considerably, and it takes a lot of the suspense away from close-up firefights with enemies.
And when it comes to those firefights, those too are a bit "generous" in their portrayal of reality. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of my sniping and overall aiming abilities, but I highly doubt that a single, errant shot to the elbow would really take down my foes. I also doubt that my sheer presence is enough to send enemies running into the open to be gunned down. But alas, the game’s lack of any "I" in the term "AI" makes opposing forces do just that.
Depending on how you look at it, this lack of enemy intelligence may be a good thing, because your own squad is equally dense. It would be nice to think that your elite team of soldiers wouldn’t run into walls or get stuck behind rocks, but apparently they skipped that day of basic training. For anyone who’s played the other versions of Ghost Recon and/or knows the realism to expect from a Tom Clancy game, this makes for a sad, sad gameplay experience.
Graphics
It’s equally sad to see what happened to the GameCube port in terms of graphics. I had great hopes for Ghost Recon on the GameCube, particularly after watching the opening movie and subsequent pre-mission briefings. But alas, those were just full-motion videos, and my hopes were dashed time and again upon entering each mission.
The character and environment models are sound, but the little touches that often bring those models one level closer to realism generally take Ghost Recon’s models two levels farther away. Although it’s shooting for a photo-realistic look, the game ultimately looks relatively rushed together, namely because of its monochromatic palettes and blurry textures that try to accomplish too much in too small a space. Player and NPC animations are equally frustrating, because you can tell the developers were trying to make characters move realistically but just couldn’t quite pull it off.
The framerate in Ghost Recon is for the most part steady, although you’ll get some occasional ghosting (pardon the pun) and skipping when using the scope on each gun. The night vision effect is rather enticing, though, so at least you can see your enemies pop in and out of view in a nice shade of green.
Sound
Similar to the Xbox and PC versions, Ghost Recon on the GameCube sports some nice environmental sound effects, from thunder and jets overhead to birds and creeks making subtle noise nearby. It’s a shame, then, that the gunfire and explosion effects aren’t nearly on par with the non-essential audio touches.
The music is a nice feature, though, and it reacts dynamically depending upon your situation. Eliminate an enemy or shoot at him and miss, and the music will either change pace or change altogether in a true cinematic presentation.
Replayability
Two-player co-op extends the life of most missions, but it’s a sick, ironic twist that you’ll probably end up playing co-op as much for the sheer camaraderie as you will for the sake of playing with a teammate who has some semblance of a non-negative IQ.
Ghost Recon also has some rather capable two-player Deathmatch options, as well. A particularly nice touch in Deathmatch is the immediate availability of every weapons kit in the game, regardless of whether you’ve unlocked them in your Campaign. Again, this adds to the arcadey feel, but it significantly enhances the replayability of a game that will take any help it can get.
Where the PC and Xbox versions benefited greatly from online gameplay, the GameCube version is naturally without. Although it is unfair to dock Ghost Recon for abiding by its system’s constraints, this omission hampers the game’s replayability, as it would have with the PC and Xbox versions had they not included the feature. It’s nothing personal, really, it’s just the nature of the beast: online = instant replayability.
Overall
Ghost Recon is a fantastic game that was ported one too many times for its own good. The PC and Xbox experiences are hard to top, and Ubi Soft would have done well to leave those versions alone and not tarnish the game’s legacy with a lesser port. For GameCube owners who’ve not experienced Ghost Recon on another system, this will serve as a nice introduction to Tom Clancy gaming. Like any good appetizer, though, it will leave you wanting more … and this version of Ghost Recon just doesn’t have an extra helping of gameplay or graphics to tide you over.
