Off the Shelf Media

I’m not a big fan of the Tom Clancy series. Ghost Recon Wildlands was fun to play with friends, but the cut, copy, and paste gameplay gets old after a few hours. Don’t get me started on the mess known as Breakpoint. But those are the latest games in the series. What about one from 2012? 

If you read my last article, you’d know Ubisoft was an honorable mention in my list of Top 5 Video Game Developers. So I figured I’d boot up the old PlayStation 3 and play Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Future Soldier, and spoiler alert, it’s a lot better and has aged well. 

Let’s get into it.

Gameplay: 2

This game is fun to play. Let’s get that out of the way right off the bat. Being a squad of spec-ops super soldiers is entertaining and immersive. The combat is smooth and seamless, no matter what option you choose. You can go in guns blazing, use your equipment or drones to give you an advantage, or use your squad mates to do all the work for you while you sit back and scroll Instagram. 

At least for the most part. There are times when you’re forced to be stealthy, and if you get seen, it’s game over and back to the checkpoint. I get why the developers forced you to go stealth. It goes with the story (even though it’s trash), and the game is called GHOST RECON. Stealth is implied in the name of the game, so even though I’m bad at it, I tip my cap to the developers for sticking to their principles. 

Since they stuck to theirs, I’ll stick to mine. Remember in my Dragon Age: Origins review, I gave Gameplay a two because of the uniqueness of their tactics system? It’s the same principle here. Having forced stealth isn’t a bad thing. I’m bad at it, and that’s a skill issue, not the fault of the developers. 

That being said, the forced stealth slowed me down significantly. There had to be a checkpoint towards the end that I was stuck at for close to an hour, and at that point, I was getting frustrated and wanted to put the game down.  

I have no problem with stealth sections, but I prefer them to be optional. I’ll try to go stealth and use my squad members to line up perfect shots before moving forward, but if there’s a fifth enemy that I couldn’t get, I don’t want to go back to a checkpoint. I want to push forward and continue to the next one.

Stealth was satisfying when you do it right on the first try, but the game thrives in using your squad. Ordering three men around took some getting used to, but if you’re pinned down, you can order your squad to open fire on targeted enemies. They also hold their own in a fight, taking out multiple enemies and helping you accomplish your mission. There are many games where you have NPC sidekicks that are useless *cough* Call of Duty *cough*, but Future Soldier gives them some spunk and grit. 

Modern games suffer from menu fatigue. Luckily, this game has a few menus, and all of them are important. You get a mission brief with a useless backstory, weapon selection, and weapon customization. 

The weapon customization is by far the coolest feature in the game. You can swap out the attachments, add a silencer, use a different sight, and so on. What makes it stand out is how the graphic deconstructs the weapon. I’m not a gun nut, but seeing how all the pieces fit together is cool, and it made me feel like I learned something. 

Story: 0

Remember the days of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2? Remember how good the story was and how memorable the characters were? Could you tell me your favorite mission from either game? I know I could, and those were over 15 years ago. 

I beat this game a few months ago, and I can’t tell you one character’s name from this game. I can’t tell you the story. I can’t tell you what any of them looked like. I don’t know who the main villain was other than the Russians.

The story starts hot. You’re in Bolivia (I think), in the middle of a mission, and you’re ambushed. You fight off the bad guys and eventually find a bomb and fall off a cliff to your death shortly after it explodes. 

Then you meet your squad and go on missions in multiple locations. There’s plenty of mission in the desert, and then the snow, and then the snow at night, and then in the woods, and then the game ends. It feels like the writers were told to set the game in multiple locations, but didn’t give them any guidance as to how they were supposed to make you go from Bolivia to Russia and have it make sense. 

There are cut scenes before and after every mission that try to give the characters some flavor, but they fall flat. The dialogue is quippy and cheesy to the point it’s worse than a Marvel movie post-2018. 

The gameplay was fun, but the story is what will bring me back to a videogame, and this game failed in every single way. It was fun while I had it, but by the time I beat it, it was a sigh of relief. 

Atmosphere: 1

The graphics hold up in 2025. This game came out in 2012, so for that time, these graphics were close to the best there was. The cut scenes were chaotic with bullets flying, minor blood splatters, loud noises of explosions, and orders from your squad. It’s easy to say we’re spoiled with cinematic cut scenes in modern gaming, but for 2012, this was a treat. 

The levels look nice, but a lot of them blend together. I’ll give the designers credit for creating long levels with multiple areas on one map. There’s a lot to explore and plenty of cover if you get in a tight spot. 

I like it when games let you go back and forth between first and third person with ease. Most of the game is in third person, but looking down the sights is preferred while in combat. There’s a decent amount of shaky cam during cut scenes, but that’s to be expected. 

Value: 2

You’d have gotten your money’s worth if you paid $60 back in 2012. I can see this game being a lot of fun to play with friends. There are plenty of other game modes like online multiplayer and guerrilla mode, which is a series of challenges like surviving waves of enemies. 

I can’t speak to online multiplayer since it’s not 2012, but I can see the potential. 

You can buy the game right now on Steam for $20. If it goes on sale for $15 or less, I’d say it’s worth it. 

Duration: 1

It took me over 30 hours to beat the campaign. I’m not proud of that and most of it is because I suck at being stealthy. I think the campaign was long enough. It was around 13 missions, and it felt like a good enough length to call it a day.

I didn’t bother playing the guerrilla challenges, but I’m glad they are there to add some runtime to the game. 

Total Score: 6/10

When it comes to Ghost Recon games, this was one of the better ones. I still don’t get all the hoopla and see why people live and die by this series, but as they say, everyone is entitled to their wrong opinion. Maybe I need to go a few years further back in the series. 

But that is a review for another day, my friends. Next time, we are hopping back into the world of Dragon Age with Dragon Age II. The first one was a 10/10. Will the second game keep pace? I’ll tell you now…no. No, it will not, but it’s not as bad as the internet wants you to think.

You’ll get my thoughts soon. I’ll see ya there, but until then, y’all take care.