I was expecting more from this game. Better stick with the first GRAW. At least is better than Rainbow Six Vegas 2.
My strongest impression from the first game in the GRAW-series was the introduction, combined with the first mission. The view was just amazing. Especially the view over Mexico City was something I've never seen before in a game. However, when I reached the ground I started to notice the engines, as well as the editors, limits. But more of that later on.
The first mission in GRAW 2 isn't as spectacular as the one in the first game though. You land with a helicopter in a Mexican mountain-village where your mission is to neutralize the rebels artillery in the area. But with the lack of a good introduction-phase, the game is aswell introducted worse. To get into GRAW 2 is still easy. You have three Ghosts for your disposal, that each are specialized in different skills, for example sniping or support.
Easily controlled - but not without problems
To control your companions there is a clever control system that is very easy to use. With help of the scroll-wheel you can either choose your entire squad or a single soldier and command them to perform various actions. The simplicity has two sides. It's easy to use but it's at the same time too limited. You can't for example order your men to crouch or take cover. The problem is solved to a certain limit by the tactical map where you with higher accuracy can control and plan on the digital battlefield. Despite the easy structure, the tactical part in GRAW 2 contains some big mistakes.
When the tactical elements practically disappear due to its limits, you can always hope that the AI makes up for it. Unfortunately even the AI has some mistakes. Even on the highest difficulty, your allies stupidity, the enemies accuracy and cynicism never stops to surprise. Luckily you can control your soldiers movement fairly, but it doesn't stop them from getting stuck in all the rubbish and junk that is spread out here and there on the battlefield.
Earlier I mentioned my objections on the maps design in the first GRAW. Unfortunately the sequel has the same problem. Even though impressive physics, huge space and great textures, they are surprisingly rigid and empty. You can't open doors or interact with the surrounding in other ways. You have for example a sniper-rifle to your disposal that is limited by the game-engine, as the enemies aren't visible at an unlimited distance, which makes alot of the point with a sniper-rifle going lost.
The huge area of the game is limited even by single-track ways and trigger-controlled events, which often is negative for tactical FPS-games. Everything isn't bad though. Some maps are designed great, and it's a delight to be in them. Still I'd wanted an increased variation on the environment, since mostly you're wandering in dirty gray and blown up city-environments. What happened to the woods, the jungle and the polar environment?
The graphics isn't the best I've ever seen, but it sure is nice. Everything from the dust, smoke and explosions to the characters is very detailed aswell as spectacular. Even the sound is great in form of a huge amount of roaring and impressive sound-effects. Sound from the weapons, explosions and everything else in the environment sounds exactly like it should.
Before every mission, you arm your soldiers and yourself with a big amount of modern weapons of all types. Everything from guns to automatic carbines. Here you will also receive briefing and objectives for the mission. The voice play is alright, but often very annoying. The mouth-movements, synchronization and quality on the computer-animations in the briefing-phase is unfortunately horrible, almost to the limit that you think it's year 1995.
Now to the most important part - the game-feeling and how the game really works. Concerning your movements, they feel a bit stiff. You can either stand up, crouch or lay down. What fits best depends on your opinion, aswell as the situation. Mostly the idiotic enemy-AI is fully unaware of your presence, even run like a madman wearing your military boots. Plus that the enemies doesn't often react when their allies just fell victims for your bullets, even though they are 50 meters from eachother. On the other hand it can be the complete opposite sometimes, so to speak having perfect accuracy aswell as predicting your actions.
A tactical shooter?
The shooting is often very intensive and adrenaline raising, but after a while it becomes very easy since one bullet often is enough to annihilate your opponents. On the other hand, the combination of imbalanced AI, an excessive amount of enemies and idiotic design-choices on maps can make it really hard. To shoot 25 armed Mexicans is very easy compared to for example ordering your men to take cover or shoot down a helicopter.
The built' in Gamespy-serverbrowser works alright, but is missing some essential functions such as filters and other important functions in order to be complete. The multiplayer in GRAW 2 lets 32 players fight in co-op or deathmatch. I thought that the multiplayer would be a disappointment, but I was surprised by it. Co-op is the most fun mode in my opinion, where four players are able to play through the singleplayer-maps. The multiplayer is far from perfect but can still be really entertaining.
My impressions of GRIN's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 are in the end positive. The brain-dead AI, the frustrating design-misses, the lack of tactical elements aswell as the high system requirements are serious issues that gives the game a reduced rating. Still, if we disregard these issues, we have a really good-looking and entertaining game along with great sound. However, next time I hope that GRIN will be better at mixing all the ingredients.