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Dom Robinson reviews
Ubisoft 
- Price: £44.99
- Players: 1
- Widescreen: No
- Dolby Digital 5.1: Yes
- Xbox Live-enabled: Yes
- Downloadable content: Yes
The last time I played a game likeTom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Island Thunderis was the PC game apparently based on the filmThe Sum of All Fearsalthough the objectives were totally different and Ben Affleck was nowhereto be found (thankfully).
This episode is set in the near-future when Castro has been assassinated andyou’re going in to storm Cuba. There’s only 8 missions to this game, but theretail price is only a penny short of twenty quid, which is half the cost ofa usual Xbox game, it doesn’t require the original Ghost Recon title toenjoy it, and the emphasis is really on Xbox Live play as is with so manygames these days.
For those going online, there are 12 multiplayer maps including a new desertterrain and 4 fan-picked maps from Ghost Recon itself. Note also thatthere’s a free downloadable level in which you have to save an Oil Refineryfrom rebel forces.
The graphics are far from outstanding, looking pretty much the same as in theaforementioned movie tie-in although the other players are pretty well-definedand move adequately. Just don’t look too close-up to a wall or door.Soundwise, the Dolby Digital 5.1 effects are essentialwhen trying to work out exactly where the enemy fire is coming from, as wellas hearing planes and birds fly overhead.
It can prove incredibly atmospheric as you creep about, zooming your riflein and out, as you need to, to cap those low-lifes from a distance, and whileit can be moderately difficult to achieve your goals, the mission objectives aren’t particularly taxing here in terms of theircomplexity – go from A to B to C, securing the places as you go and trying notto let too many of the men under your control die. Some of you will followyou as you travel about, but you can also cycle through them or choose anotherif “you” die. At first you’ll no doubt try to go and wade in like John Wayne,but such foolhardyness is its own downfall.
It’s the simplicity of the gameplay that undoubtedly keeps people coming backfor more, and the addition of Xbox Live helps everyone playing that game feelmuch more closer to the action, and feel more in a position to want tohelp someone out since you can talk to them rather than just see acomputer-generated man run about.
The options to play with on Live are Co-operative, Team mode or Solo, thelatter including options such as ‘Last Man Standing’ and a ‘Sharpshooter’ matchto see who can get the most kills.
Trying this out on Live, I started with a team game and got shot pretty damnedquickly while being on the offensive team. It probably didn’t help that thoseon my team were all German and I could barely understand a word they weresaying, so no wonder I seemed to go it alone. This game should really allow a’search by country’ option. However, once I was dead I was able to spectate asone of my fellow comrades and see the world through their eyes.
I can be bloody hopeless at games like this, so anyone seeing me home, homeon the terrain, don’t fire too many bullets in my direction…
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
PLAYABILITY
ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.