As with all GhostStorm Gaming Reviews this one is free from spoilers, and it’s honest.

When I first saw an inkling of Ghost Recon Future Soldier back in 2010 it was just some images, and then followed a teaser trailer. After that and something I have never seen before was an image that told you about the different Ubisoft studios that were piecing together this great new game. They are Ubisoft Paris, Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft Redstorm, Ubisoft Montpellier and finally Ubisoft Annecy. I was a little worried that this game could be like many others out there that gets rushed out, full of bugs and tbh a tad boring.

2 Years on and here we are playing Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier and it’s a great game. The single player is brilliant, when you load up the game you are placed into a lobby….such as what you see when you play online in other shooters, from there you can choose up to 3 of your friends (if they have the game) and play through the game in a 4 person co-op. I unfortunately never got to use this feature as at the time of writing this I had no contacts with anyone else who had been sent this title.

Even though it has the word ‘FUTURE’ in its title there isn’t cheesy futuristic hover vehicles etc. it’s basically the same as other shooters but with cool gadgets, something that Splinter Cell fans will enjoy. When it comes to weapons there are some great combinations to make your gun unique, over 20 million in fact according to the box. With Kinect you can also customise your weapon, use your voice etc. Also as it’s a UPLAY enabled game you can unlock some cool things such as weapons and a new map to play on using the Guerrilla mode which is pretty much the same as Horde mode that is becoming popular in many of the new shooters.

UPLAY is not the only way that you can unlock new weapons etc. for use in-game but Kick Energy in the US are doing a promotion. Then there is a weapon to be unlocked by watching the Ghost Recon Future Soldier Alpha prequel, the sequel being the game itself, and then there is a clue somewhere for another weapon on Warmongers INC. You can also check out the Facebook game, Ghost Recon Commander, here. When you get the codes you have to enter them at ghostreconnetwork.ubi.com and whilst your there you can see all the other items that can be unlocked including more weapons.

The controls were great and considering that at some points there could be a big fire fight you would always find that the control mapping was spot on and would not lead you into bother, as long as you remember (A) is for cover, on the Xbox 360 it is at least. I am guessing it’s (X) on PS3.

Here are some of its awesome features that makes it a little different to most of the other shooters on shelves right now:

Cross Com:
Stay one step ahead of the enemy: Cross Com gives you real time intel projected directly on your goggles. The HUD allows you to control drones on the fly, as well as locating key enemy targets.

Optical Camouflage:
Be invisible: Use optical camouflage to move undetected through hot spots and gain the upper hand on your enemies.

Sync Shot:
Tag ‘em and bag ‘em: Use the tagging feature on the ground or by drone to coordinate synchronized attacks on enemy targets.

Cover Swap:
Stay out of enemy sight: Exploit unique cover system and swap through dynamic covers to surprise, flank and eliminate the enemies.

Hand to Hand Combat:
Become the ultimate “quiet professional”: hand to hand combat will give you brutal close-combat moves.

Over the shoulder
Relish in over 2500 animations: Your Ghost Recon character will roll, cover, slide, climb and disappear to stalk and take down your prey.

As with most games there were some bits that annoyed me.

Sometimes you would find yourself waiting at certain points on levels because they ‘computer controlled characters’ were still making their way to you. Also they would seem to turn around and go back to almost spawning point with no explanation another annoying thing was  they would just sit there and do nothing. This is frustrating because there was no onscreen clue or any voice command from the so called ‘Ghost Lead’ suggesting that you needed to kill a target before they would advance. This happened more than once and because of that some missions would take longer than expected. Some of the civilian actions were also buggy….they would run/spawn infront of your bullets for example and as we know if someone is firing a gun, you don’t run into the line of fire. They kill.

Graphics were something else too, sometimes they were amazing and on some occasions they seemed less-amazing. Another annoying factor, which is quite a big thing to me is that there is no ‘save’ option in the menu. You are forced to put up with auto save and with some missions you will be annoyed over that. Small detail to some but a big deal to some also, I think this is something others may complain about too.

Considering that there is a lot of shooters out there, and not just on consoles and PC’s you could say that it’s hard to make them all unique but I really feel that Ghost Recon Future Soldier is still unique its 3^rd Person for one where most others are 1^st Person, the only other great game that is like this is are the Gears of War titles and whereas this can be a downfall for some missions as there isn’t really a way to change your view it doesn’t make the game crap at all.

I enjoyed the storyline, even though I felt the ending wasn’t that good. I refuse to spoil the ending for you but when you see why it could’ve been different. The gadgets and the experience of being a ‘Ghost’ was great too. I suggest that whether you’re a fan of the Battlefields/Call of Duty’s or even Gears of War to still give this a play. Perhaps rent it from LoveFiLM as part of a trial. It’s definitely a title I will be keeping and playing on most often because when you can have between 2-12 people online via multiplayer it’s bound to be fun. I will also like to suggest that if you get this game and want some help during the single-player campaign then add my gamertag, SingingTurnip and I will join your team.

The score I am going to give this game is an 8/10 because as mentioned its quite unique, the graphics are cool but there is some bugs that need to be sorted out, such as the squad mate issue above.