GRAW is the latest addition to the rapidly growing Ghost Recon series. Ubisoft, like most companies, decided to make the game for every system with online play (except the poor Gamecube). However, considering the Xbox 360 is the new hot stuff in town, Ubisoft focused on that version a lot more, as opposed to the "old generation". The result of that is obvious.

The only good thing this version of GRAW shares with its Xbox 360 counterpart is the name and story. You are Captain Scott Mitchell once again and you are thrown into action. This time you are in Mexico where some evil terrorists captured the US and Mexican president and killed the Canadian one. But wait! There are supposed to be four Ghosts in a team, right? Well, in this game, it is you and your mentally handicapped partner, Ramirez. Bravo team (the other two guys) will sometimes come and help, but they aren't a lot more intelligent.

Let's take a look at the graphics. They are, to be quite frank, unacceptable. The buildings are un-interactive, and bland looking. Character animation is a joke. Imagine this: you are playing Doom 1 and Wolfenstein 3D in the early 90s, and you see those characters that move rather unrealistically. Let me ask a question: how on Earth could Ubisoft make GRAW's characters move in such a way, in the year 2006? Given, the figures aren't sprites, but in 3D, but their movement scarily enough resembles these two classics. Watch a video, and you will know what I mean. Fire and explosion effects are poor too, but I am not surprised. The game starts lagging when there are only a few people on screen. It's quite hard to see what's on the screen, because there are just so many things on the HUD. A mini TV screen where you can see people, map, weapon that you are using, team mate's life, and some more. Not to mention the Rainbow Six-ish helmet that is also a distraction. The game is permanently in first person, which makes you wonder why Ubi included selection of skins before you start the game, since you will never freaking see it anyways. Not to mention it seems even more of a Rainbow Six rip-off.

The sound department is alright. Weapons sound good, the music is not bad either, and voice acting is great too. Too bad that these don't make up for the lame visuals department.

The game requires no strategy. Seriously, all you need to do is duck (oh yeah you can't go prone), cover and fire away. Thankfully, weapons are accurate so you can shoot the enemy rather fast.

To extend the life of this game, there is online, but seriously, why would anyone bother? It is a limited and small "thingy" compared to not only the 360 version, but any other game.

I can't tell you guys how long the game is, since I haven't beaten it, or plan on doing so. Sorry, but I just don't want to waste my time on a game I think is garbage, and turn me off the 360 version more and more. Missions aren't very long (about ten to twenty minutes), and aren't hard at all. To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if you would quit after a few minutes (!!!) of playing, and return the game to the store you got it from. GRAW is horrible, and it seems Ubi did not learn from the mistakes of the second game. Whether there is an awesome 360 version or not, GRAW for the PS2 is a terrible game, that should have been aborted. It's not even worth it if you get it for free. Don't bother even looking at the cover of the game.

Apr 23, 2006 | 0 comments
Mate Bors