14 DAY TRIAL // 
Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon series was one of the most popular shooter franchises many years ago, impressing gamers with great installments like Advanced Warfighter and its sequel. Since then, however, first-person shooters started becoming more and more successful and many people simply forgot about the French company’s own efforts.
Now, with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, Ubisoft is making a comeback, emphasizing high-tech gadgets and tactical skills over recklessness and mindless shooting.
Does Future Soldier manage to deliver a competent experience or should it retire from the genre? Let’s find out.
Story
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is a Tom Clancy game, so the story once again takes place in a near future when the world is dangerously close to a new war between the current dominant powers, like the U.S., Europe, or Russia.
Fortunately, the plot manages to visit quite a lot of current war zones all over the world, from Nigeria, to the Middle East, Pakistan, and, of course, Russia, from its dense forests to its shivering polar bases. The plot also touches on many controversial aspects, including the morality of these missions, but its ending is a bit too abrupt.
Once again, you lead a team of four Ghosts, elite operatives that are handpicked to execute the toughest covert assignments in the U.S. military. Sadly, you and your squad mates aren’t characterized all that much, but you do get a feel of camaraderie from the dialog during missions and the short cutscenes in-between your global adventures.
Overall, the plot manages to deliver a nice enough experience that will make you care about your character and your fellow Ghosts, if you pay attention and try to follow some of the more complicated plot twists.
Gameplay
The missions you and your fellow Ghosts engage in are quite dangerous and extremely difficult. Fortunately, with this huge pressure come many cool gadgets, ranging from small drones with different gear, to sensors that can be deployed and mark your enemies. Of course, there is also some truly futuristic gear, like an active camouflage system that activates when you’re crouched, or special mobile artillery units that help you out when things go haywire.
Of course, you’ll still do quite a lot of shooting but, most of the times, this isn’t even mandatory, as you can easily get your squad mates to do your dirty work while you pick out targets and line up sync kills. These entail marking three enemies for your colleagues to eliminate, and you can even choose a fourth to kill yourself. Once you press a button, the enemies are blasted in unison and none will be the wiser, unless another enemy stumbles upon a body.
Missions in Future Soldier typically require some sort of stealth infiltration, often meaning automatic failures in case you’re detected. Fortunately, most of the times being uncovered isn’t that big of a deal, as you and your squad mates are more than capable of holding your ground in front of the various enemies. The mark button used in sync kills lets you choose priority targets when engaged in combat so you can focus on less dangerous enemies while your mates handle machine gunners or snipers.
The cover mechanics are quite impressive, as you can easily jump into hiding and then choose what other bits of cover you run to. If you’re being suppressed by enemy fire, however, your range of movement is severely hampered until the opponent is eliminated.
The camera system also feels fresh, as instead of the rock solid stability, you’ll often find your screen bouncing around, especially when you’re storming, aka sprinting to cover. While it can get a bit annoying, the extra dose of realism is welcomed and reminds you that things aren’t always so serene in combat.
Future Soldier borrows a few things from Splinter Cell: Conviction, including the augmented reality view, as the Ghosts can see details about the environment without having to enter menus and see info on their weapons and loadout.
Before every mission, players can check out their primary equipment and choose between different types of weapons. These can be further tweaked by using the Gunsmith option, which breaks down your weapons and lets you customize every little component. Fortunately, the recommendations given by your commanding officers are great for almost all of your encounters, so you might find yourself swapping some out just to reflect your play style.
At the end of every mission your performance is examined and you’re given a Ghost Score, depending on how precise and stealthy you were and how many extra goals you achieved. These range from remaining undetected to using certain weapons or gadgets.
Levels are fairly linear but certain areas can be quite open, providing perfect opportunities to flank enemies. Speaking of opponents, they’re quite decent, but their movements on the battlefield aren’t the most graceful, as you can see many of them trying out the same tactics over and over again.
There are still some glitches, however, with non-playable characters that you have to escort clipping through obstacles, but none of them are game-breaking. There are also some inconsistencies, like when your squad mates are using active camouflage but their sleeves are rolled up, meaning you can see their forearms thus defeating the purpose of the camo.
Multiplayer
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier offers a wide array of multiplayer options, from the four-player cooperative mode in the campaign, to the wave-based Guerrilla one, to the competitive Conflict one or special variations like Decoy, Saboteur or Siege.
While Future Soldier’s AI squad mates are quite decent, you’ll definitely feel more immersed in the experience when going through the story alongside three of your friends and syncing up your moves.
The Guerrilla mode feels just like the traditional Horde one from Gears of War and, while you can play it with even a single friend, you most certainly need others when progressing through the waves. Holding out means bigger rewards for your squad, so repetition is key.
Those who like shooting each other can go for the Conflict mode, where teams need to complete certain objectives while eliminating the opposing force, while those that want some more offbeat experiences can try out other modes like Decoy, Saboteur, or Siege.
All of the multiplayer options in Future Soldier are quite enjoyable and you’ll find plenty of players that know how to work as a team, especially during the cooperative matches. Sadly, there are still some exceptions and you might have your whole experience ruined by squad mates who run around aimlessly on the map or who jump stick to cover and wait for others to win the round.
Graphics and Sound
In terms of visuals, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier manages a good performance, as its environments are varied, although the colors could be a bit more vibrant to make the experience feel more alive. The special vision modes, like magnetic or night ones, offer some rather interesting visuals, but you should remember to turn them off every now and again in order to enjoy the level design. Sadly, there are some issues with the textures, as some are of a low quality, but it’s not anything too serious.
Sound-wise, the game also manages to deliver a good experience, with voice actors offering decent performances and guns sounding quite realistic. However, the soundtrack and the game’s audio in general doesn’t really stand out, which is a shame, as this aspect could’ve enriched the experience.
Unfortunately, its story has a few clichés and ends a bit too abruptly, while its graphics and sound aren’t that impressive, but Future Soldier is still a good experience despite these drawbacks.
The Good
The Bad
Conclusion
