Advanced in every way over it's predecessor
Graphically the game is much better than I expected with the engine being vastly improved from the original game and even that one didn't look too bad. Characters and environments looks sharp with the exception of some buildings though the best looking part of the game is when you see anything explode. My only other gripe apart from some of the buildings, is the lip-sync of the characters in the video feeds, because no work has gone into them to try and match lip movement with speech and the result is quite horrible.
The sound department is probably the strongest part of the entire game with excellent audio, especially the gun fire. GRAW 2 also contains a fantastic soundtrack, which adds to the whole drama of the game's single player at just the right times. Voice acting is also done to a decent level with the exception being the main character, who sounds more like Christian Bale's Batman, than a top crack army soldier.
Gameplay always makes or break a game and thankfully Ubisoft have not fallen into the sequel trap, were the developers feel they must radically change everything that made the series worthwhile in the first place. The game improves upon the original GRAW in the right areas, without taking away the core elements that we all enjoyed from the past GRAW and Ghost Recon games. Gun fights are some of the best seen in any FPS game, plus the new improved drone and cross com systems, enhances the overall feel of the game. The cover system is brilliant and much better than Ubisoft's other FPS series, though I was disappointed to see it left out of online CO-OP but I praise them for keeping it out of the other online modes for balancing reasons.
The AI is easily the best seen for the series, with a much better team and enemy AI system to work with. Your own squad members are valuable assets who can help you flank or suppress the enemy without them being killed constantly. However they are not totally perfect and on rare occasions they can ignore an order, mainly the ones to stay in cover. The enemy is much smarter then previous GRAW games and will provide a decent challenge but I do feel they could be vastly improved upon still.
GRAW 2 provides good value for money even though the single player is quite short but it is a lot more fun compared to the longer GRAW 1 single player, which became frustrating at times. Online mode has been improved upon with CO-OP a major factor in the game having a great replay value. The CO-OP missions provide a tough but fun opportunity to play with some friends online, which expands into several game modes though the CO-OP campaign is easily the superior CO-OP game mode.
Overall GRAW 2 is easily one of the best Tom Clancy games from Ubisoft and I would look forward to any future installments of the Ghost Recon series.