Ghost Recon: Future Soldier’s chief weapon is fun…fun and creativity. Its two weapons are fun and creativity…and excellent graphics. Its three weapons are fun, creativity, and excellent graphics…and wonderful sound. Its four…no… Amongst its weapons… Amongst its weaponry are such elements as fun, creativity, excellent graphics, and wonderful sound. …I may have been watching too much Monty Python and playing too much Game Dev Story recently. That does not, however, make any of what I said less true.
I am not a fan of Call of Duty. I am not a fan of Battlefield. I’m generally not the biggest fan of the more realistic army-style shooters. Between Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, however, I’ve found two war shooters that I am genuinely excited about. I’ll start with Gunsmith.
Gunsmith is an absolutely phenomenal feature in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier that allows you to customize your weapon piece by piece, using your controller or using voice/motion through Kinect. While the functionality itself is great, it’s really the way Kinect control is implemented in Gunsmith that makes it shine. Using gestures, basic “point-and-click” motions, and voice commands, you can disassemble your weapon and begin interchanging available parts smoothly and easily. Want something customized for a certain mission? Simply say what you want, and Gunsmith will provide, ranging from “Randomize for range,” “Randomize for close combat,” and “Randomize for Badass.” And yes, “Randomize for Badass” is an actual randomization command. I believe it was an assault rifle with a shotgun pump and taser attachment.
Now to the game itself. Like I said, this kind of game is generally not my thing, but between Gunsmith and the absolutely incredibly co-operative play, I’ve been converted. As you would expect in a special ops game, teamwork and co-operation are key elements of gameplay, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier handles these elements flawlessly. We managed to slip in for a four-player hands-on, consisting of myself, Lindsey, Thom, and a friend of Vinny’s, Korey. There’s not a lot that I can really say about the game other than…it’s really, really good. The graphics are excellent, the animation was smooth, the gameplay itself was entertaining, and the co-operative mechanics were functional and unobtrusive.
There are far too many good games coming out in a very short time period. Early 2012 is going to be packed full of fun, and Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be on the forefront of that wave of entertainment. Count on it.
