Well executed mechanics and thoughtful strategy makes Shadow Wars an addicting game.
An unstable political climate is brewing in Russia. Leaders are in a desperate attempt to win an electoral race. One of the candidates has his own alterior motive to bring back Russia to his former glory. On a black operative mission, a group of American Ghosts are split up after a crash landing in Kazakhstan. As they push through the country, they encounter an ally and learn piece by piece the devious plan of this official. This is Shadow Wars.
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars is a turn-based strategy RPG. You control a total of six squad members, each with their own unique class and abilities. Duke is a soldier with a shoulder mounted missile launcher. Richter plays the role of the beefy gunner with a Gatling gun. Saffron is the ever-ready medic, while Haze shoots from afar with his sniper rifle. Mint is the mechanic, an expert at hacking and planting explosives while also deploying turrets and drones. The recon Banshee is perhaps the deadliest of the bunch, dealing critical blows from her combat knife as she sneaks up on her enemies using optical camouflage.
Shadow Wars is a game that punishes carelessness. If any one of your squad members die, it's game over. This forces you to plan ahead and move your team forward with caution. Your strongest soldier might not always be good to send out ahead, because he might become too vulnerable. An integral part of the strategy lies in support fire. Several units will back each other up and return fire if they are in proximity of the unit being attacked. It's a great way to deal some damage on the defensive to wear down your enemies and make it easier to win on the next turn.
To aid in your battles, each squad member will earn Power Points after executing an action, and Command Points for holding down flags at the beginning of each turn. When the PP meter is 100 percent, that unit can execute a special move such as Rapid Strike, which increases the damage of the first attack and lets you execute another move right after, or Power Blast which increases the damage of a grenade. There are three special actions that require CP. For three CP, you can do a Power Charge that grants everyone on the squad 20 PP. Reactivate costs six CP and grants another turn to a unit that has already acted. For a whopping 12 CP, you can call in an airstrike and completely decimate everyone in the strike zone.
The single player campaign can easily run you over 20 hours alone. The missions contain a lot of variety, such as straightforward neutralization of camps to search and rescue attempts. You might also be able to enlist the help of soldiers that you saved, adding a significant amount of firepower to your side for that mission. Some missions can be rather long, extending past an hour, while a few can be over in a handful of turns if you play it right. Each mission also has primary objectives that must be completed, and some have optional objectives as well. Each time you successfully complete an objective, you're given a star.
It's highly encouraged that you do the best you can and earn all the stars from each mission. They act as experience points and can be spent on attributes such as increased health, more body armor, special attack bonuses and stronger weapons. Each unit can be awarded a maximum of two stars per upgrading session, so this prevents the player from inadvertently imbalancing their squad. You can also earn Persistent Elite Creation points or PECs by completing missions on different difficulties. The harder the difficulty, the more PEC points you earn. These allow you to rank up and earn promotions.
As you're working your way through the campaign, you'll unlock Skirmish Missions. In Skirmish, you're given missions with specific criteria and scenarios. You may have to hold off enemy advances with just a group of snipers, or you may be a squad of injured recons trying to keep each other alive by not being detected and killing off the enemy one by one. It brings a new dynamic to the game, because it causes you to change your thought processes. The strategy required is a lot different because your squads are never mixed up well like they are in the campaign. Also, there are multiplayer missions so if you feel like playing Ghost Recon Shadow Wars with a friend, you're welcome to do so.
The weakest aspect of Ghost Recon Shadow Wars is the presentation. The storyline in of itself isn't very thrilling. It's atypical to political action thriller novels you'd find on a five dollar shelf in a book store. Because it's clear that the story isn't the game's focus, there's no real need for a strong narrative as well. Cutscenes are mostly simple motion comics or a quick flyby of the playing field you're about to enter. All the dialogue is text and there are no voice overs as well. The only way you feel attached to your characters is by making sure none of them die, since that would result in a game over.
Make no mistake about it. Shadow Wars does not flex the 3DS's muscle at all. Everything from the environmental detail to the special effects could have been performed on the original DS. It's even harder to appreciate anything visually because of the simplistic nature of the genre. With that said, this is one of the games that benefits greatly from the 3D effect, albeit on a much more subtle level. The 3D gives the environments some much needed depth, making it seem like you're looking straight down into the screen at everyone. The cutscenes even look cool in 3D, although nothing really jumps out at you.
The sound effects are nothing much to speak of. Gunfire has no punch to it, and explosions and other effects don't really rock the 3DS's speakers. The only time you hear voices from any of your characters are when they grunt or yell from being shot. The only way the game's audio immerses you is through the music. The soundtrack is great to listen to and gets you into the spirit of the game. It's even thematic at times, being mellow and faint during a sparsely populated snow covered battlefield to sounding more like computer generated music when you're infiltrating a lab.
The single player campaign is as lengthy as the game's name, and this gives Shadow Wars a huge one up over the rest of the 3DS's launch titles. There is enough content along with the Skirmish and Multiplayer Missions to easily recommend the game for forty dollars. The only thing that might make you hesitant about paying full price for the title is whether or not you really need to be entertained by voice acting and cinematics. One last thing you should know is that it's heavily reported the game crashes with the wireless on. If you're a fan of turn-based strategy games and have a 3DS, this title needs to be in your collection.