It’s been a really slow month for gaming, so I picked up a couple MMOs since it’s the only thing my computer can handle right now. I really liked PlanetSide 2, but it wasn’t working out with my PC–they didn’t really get even decent framerates on medium (20) so I dropped it and moved on to some other shooters, which eventually led me to Ghost Recon through my friend’s blog.
And what will your play style be, sir?
From the beginning, you are treated to three classes to choose from–without much info if you hadn’t watched or read anything about the game beforehand.
You have your classic rusher, sniper, and the inbetween; I would say that the class system doesn’t take any risks, but after a few games, you can customize your gun so much that you can be whatever you want for every class.
So what are the points of the classes than? One of my favorite features in Ghost: the special ability that each class gets at level two, two for each class. These abilities are represented as high tech weaponry, what the original Ghost Recon: Future Soldiers was all about.
Whether it’s Recon’s oracle revealing the locations of nearby enemies, or Specialist’s Aegis shield that covers them and their allies as they rush the opponent, every single ability plays a role in the match–and a good mix of all those abilities leads to a rock-solid team.
A Tactical Joy
Ghost is still in open-beta, so there is always the chance that they will add deathmatch modes. But if a Call of Duty fanboy (you all know at least one) told me he was going to play this game, I would laugh until my heart stops than look up at him, “Oh, you’re serious?” This game is not about gettin
g kills and racking up your streak–there is either one or many points that you have to get ahold of to win the match, and then you have to stop the opposing team from stealing it.
Initially, I was turned off by the lack of a deathmatch mode, but when I played my first match, all of those doubts disappeared in a blink of an eye. The mixture of different players and special abilities always keeps you on your toes; you don’t know if an assault is coming to rush your ass off, of ir you’re going to be one-shotted by a sniper as you run for cover from a special ability that damages your equipment and makes sparks fly from your helmet (by the way, it’s hard to do pretty much of anything with electricity IN your head).
Ghostly Fun
Overall, Ghost is a amazing game to play when you got a few hours to kill, but it comes with its problem like anything else. Texture pop in is a regular occurrence everytime you walk around a corner (have you ever tried to flank someone, only to run directly into a wall that literally came out of nowhere then find yourself at a dead end?).
After a few games, you can get enough money to upgrade your gun, but after that it’s hard to get that amount of money again unless you cough up some real cash. This also connects with how long it takes to find matches–sometimes you have to wait 15 minutes, and if it does take that long, you’re probably thrown into an ongoing game because a guy quit. They may also have to make the skill range larger with you confronting the guys who can one-shot you while you five-shot them.
I give Ghost Recon Online a 8.5/10, with a recommendation that you go and download it right now (not on Steam yet); it’s free to play and that’s a damn good deal for something as amazing as this game.
You can check out my friend’s blog for a list of MMOs you can play, but he also does PC builds for specific things he just made a MMO build I believe you can play any MMO on max with good FPS on that build
Published: Jan 28, 2014 03:15 am