Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2

Format Xbox 360

Developer Ubisoft

Publisher Ubisoft

Genre Shoot 'em Up

2 Comments

It's not even a year since Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter marked what some would call the Xbox 360's first 'proper' next-gen release, and here we are standing in a rather modest French office, looking at the freshly-churned and even more spectacular-looking sequel - and it certainly looks primed to deliver plenty more of the Mexican-blasting splendour fans of the first game enjoyed.

"In terms of story-line it follows on from the first game," content producer Olivier Dauba told us. "The remaining rebel Mexican forces are gathering along the US border. Most of the remaining civilians are there and the US government has gathered intelligence that a weapon of mass destruction has possibly been sent there by rebels from Panama."

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Another day's work for the Ghosts then, who have been sprung back in to action for a 72-hour undercover mission to help gain control of the border city of Juarez, and attempt to uncover the rebels' Uncle Sam-aggressing plans.

"Moving the conflict towards the United States isn't a very big challenge for us; Juarez is only a stone's throw from El Paso, Texas," pipes in Dauba. "During some parts of the game the player will have to cross from Juarez to El Paso and back, so it will create some very interesting tension."

Exploring the Ubisoft Paris workspace, littered around are trinkets of the studio's previous titles (Red Steel and cell-shaded FPS XIII), 24 DVD box sets and copies of Counter-Strike - all obvious influences over GRAW2's exceptionally swift development.

On one designer's monitor I'm shown GRAW 2's new character class system, which lets you mix and match the Ghost team with Snipers, soldiers and the new medic class, who can heal other team members even before they're sparko on the floor.

"Now," chirps in Dauba, "you don't have to wait for when [a teammate is] shot down lying on the floor to heal him. It's good when you're in a critical situation yourself as well - let's say your life is red, you can call your medic and he will get you back to full life."

At this stage it's apparent that this new strategic team swapping is going to be a big part of GRAW2; as one team member points out, picking a medic over a sniper for your team could be the difference between having to sneak up to a packed-out enemy position, or simply running in guns blazing with your doctor dealing out the meds.

Moving over to a neighbouring office desk - one with a disturbingly detailed Darth Maul bust perched atop a computer monitor - it's obvious that fancy character class shenanigans aren't the only new tricks GRAW 2 has to offer. Booting up a small tech demo (minus a number of the sequel's graphical effects), the finely-goateed developer demonstrates the boosted Cross-Com 2.0 - an updated version of the first game's soldier tech, for those not up on their 1, 2, 3.

The Cross-Com system was widely regarded as one of the first GRAW's biggest touting points - essentially a small picture-in-picture display window in the corner of the player's HUD, displaying the view of teammates, tanks and airborne drones under their command - excellent for scouting ahead and assessing the battlefield as quickly as possible.

While this worked well, your view of the action was always somewhat limited by the small size of the dingy display window, and noticing this Ubisoft has conjured up a new full-screen display feature for the sequel, which it is calling the 'Full Command View'.

With the click of a button the goateed Frenchman to my side switches into first-person, manoeuvring his airborne drone and getting a view from above the trees in explicit detail. From here he easily spots an enemy soldier concealed on a neighbouring rooftop - something that would've taken far more effort in the first game's miniscule window.

Switching back to the vanilla over-the-shoulder soldier view, the Ubisoft expert proceeds to whip out his favourite rifle, line-up with the newly-appeared bad guy cursor and send him packing all the way to Tom Clancy heaven.

But playing hide and seek with Mexican ninjas isn't the limit of this newly-expanded Full Command View either; you can also use it to more-precisely order around your tanks and support units, directing them to manoeuvre and attack in full-screen and far more efficiently than before.

It's a small but very welcome change - and from what we've seen of the Full Command View it certainly looks like it's going to make battlefield-scouting and strategic mischief a whole lot more intuitive.

Eager to move me on, I'm then taken away from the bustling floor of the development studio, up to a plush oak-laden loft space guarded by one of many Peter Jackson's King Kong statues scattered around the Ubisoft building. The prominence of the gigantic CRT television and dramatic lighting suggests that this will be the real meat of my trip to the Paris studio, and my suspicions are confirmed when associate producer Sebastian Dore appears to guide me through the new technical hallmarks GRAW 2 is touting on the Xbox 360 - what they call "next-er gen".

"We're trying to make the second game much more alive," says Dore, pointing out the flowing smoke and fire in the destroyed Mexican town of Juarez. "We want the cities to feel like there were actual fights in it - actual combat in the city. In terms of art direction you can already notice that everything is made to be much more destroyed; the buildings are destroyed and we are using a lot of particles to show a lot of things flying through the streets - things burning around and stuff like this."

Already in its early development stage GRAW 2 is looking significantly improved visually over the first game, with particle-powered fires and Call of Duty-style smoke blowing through the streets.

It's impressive how far the Xbox 360 has come graphically in just one year - 12 months ago the first GRAW offered one of the most impressive showcases of the console's technical prowess, but it's admittedly looking rather aged now that games like Gears of War are out and about flexing their graphical muscle. Thankfully, GRAW 2 looks to bring the series back up the speed.

The game's list of technical goodies includes real-time dynamic shadows and lighting, bumped-up character models, dynamic fire and smoke effects, weather simulation and all sorts of fancy lighting including something the game's producer is calling "god rays", which looks quite impressive as he shows it in action refracting through the leaves of an in-game palm tree.

Another scene shows a small church being attacked by an apache helicopter, a hail of missiles exploding in an impressive display of particle and smoke effects, with shards of debris scattering from the impact zone and whisps of smoke swirling under the craft's propellers. Quite simply, it's one of the most impressive explosion effects we've yet seen in a game - but look for more on that in our upcoming technical feature.

So it's looking mighty fine in the technology department, but it's all about how GRAW 2 actually plays.

With interviews and a particularly croissant-heavy lunch out the way, my time at Ubisoft Paris was almost over - except for one quick stop at the company's impressive sound studio, where the soundtrack for GRAW 2 is currently being mixed.

"The score for the first Advanced Warfighter was nominated for many awards, but we didn't win any," I'm told by the GRAW 2's resident sound engineer. "This time we want to win some."

And it certainly wouldn't be a surprising feat; sitting in front of an intimidating digital mixer with more buttons and dials than most Bond villain doomsday bunkers, I'm given a preview of some of the sequel's soundtrack; an epic orchestral score with all the flair and production value of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Like the first game GRAW 2's soundtrack is a dynamic affair, switching between increasingly intense tracks depending on your alert status, how many buildings you've blown up and what's going on in the story.

The man at the dials demonstrates this with a number of heightened alert tracks, starting off with mild tension and progressing all the way to percussion-filled pant-whetters. Oh yes, GRAW 2 is definitely primed for aural stardom.

Bags packed and every last pastry crumb hovered, I exiting through the Ubisoft barricade hungry for more. There's still plenty to talk about; the un-manned ground drone 'M.U.L.E.' with its mobile cover and weapon station, the expanded Red Storm-developed co-op and multi-player modes, the new wide-open rural environments - and yet it's all left for another day.

Still, you can find out the rest of what we do know in our technical feature and exclusive interview, landing on CVG this week - stay tuned.

Andy Robinson