The game maybe not so GHOST RECON to the fans, but it's still a great game and totally worth playing.
Not many FPS games boast multi-path or open levels, especially the city missions. You can find that's what GRAW is good at. Do not assume open or multi-path levels mean just having more than one choice to complete the mission. If these choices are similar, it's better to have a linear level. But in GRAW, you will face very different things in each way. Your choice will be like: using a fixed gun against lots of enemies; or ambushing an enemy vehicle. Sometimes you'll face very tough guys but it's a short way to your destination and the other way is easier but it takes more time. This kind of balance is good for you to try different methods to do the job but won't get very frustrated in either way.
GRAW tries to offer as many kinds of gameplay as possible. In the first level of chapultepec park which is also a lonewolf level, you can ambush enemy vehicle, plant C4 onto the anti-air artilleries, order helicopter to blow
up a gate (it's weird C4 cannot do it though), trace moving vehicles in a scrambling area (where your hud won't help you much), and destroy scrambling device. In the end of this level, you have to endure until the Bravo team comes, and you will face helicopters during this time. It's surprised to see the enemy elite force roping down from one of the helicopters. They changed the park a lot but it's still immersive. There's much more than that in the whole game, ordering tanks and artilleries, Bravo and Charlie support, escorting the president or US tanks, to name but a few. You cannot say all the gameplays are great and enjoyable but they're absolutely not bad.
Various gameplays and lots of choices, that's not enough. You'll find sometimes you choose not to finish an optional objective, it will affect your later gameplay. For example, if you don't manage to ambush the enemy vehicle, it may meet you at somewhere else. That's definitely good for the replay value.
Enemies are much smarter than other games including previous GR games. You can find they will approach you if they have the advantage and they will keep the distance if you have the advantage. It's hard to tell what the advantage is, but you can feel the enemies can decide smartly whether they will approach you or not.
The sound is great, the in-game music is terrific. I'm impressed by the quick tense tempo when I escort the president and that's a huge relieve hearing the main theme when Bravo comes to save me at the top of the park.
I think the good things above are the reasons you should own the game but if you want to love the game heartily you have to accept the following facts.
There're some consistency flaws like you don't choose C4 but you can always plant them when there's a static objective to destroy.
You have only one teammate which means Ubisoft can focus more on his AI but he sometimes seems to be a little stupid. That’s very disappointing.
You can hardly face more than 6 enemies at one time and the frame rate will drop when there're more than 4 enemies.
The graphic is not terrific but it's ok. You will find some buildings or trees pop up in the distance, but that doesn't hurt very much. Usually you can see far enough. The hud is not so futuristic as 360's, and the night vision is useful but doesn't look so good.
The auto save will bother your shooting. The videos on the upper right corner are more annoying than entertaining.
The loading will take a while but you can watch some videos telling the story. The big open level is kind of a reward for your patience.
There're still a lot to play in multi-player modes, but I cannot say they're better than GR2.
If you still love Ghost Recon 2 or Summit Strike, and are not ready to accept ANYTHING not like the previous GR games, you'd better not even rent GRAW. Not sticking to the traditional GR style may cause Ubisoft lose some series fans, but this game will surely attract some other players becoming a NEW Ghost Recon fan.