Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm Review

Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm has received little attention or praise from the gaming media. Due to the lack of hype whatsoever, I expected this to be an utter failure. Thankfully, Ubi Soft has once again proven to be above the fray and ahead of the competition. Jungle Storm comes packed with a large number of game modes, including multi-player, online play, and single-player. I have admittedly not played online play, but I am quite sure that it is the same as the multi-player modes, except with up to 12 players.

I for one have played multi-player offline for hours with friends. I’ll quickly outline a few of the multi-player modes, though rest assured that there are more than the one’s described below. Firefight co-op allows you to choose a map, difficulty, time limit, and respawn count (as does nearly all other modes). The goal is to kill all of the enemies on the map within the time limit and respawn count. Last man standing is basically set up so the first to run out of lives loses. Mission co-op is obviously mission-based. You will have to complete missions, such as rescuing hostages, seizing camps, etc. Defend co-op pins you down in a specified area where you must fend off enemies for a specific amount of time.

There are a total of 16 single player missions. Two sections make up the game’s single player. Eight missions are broken up into two separate games practically, though on one disc. Eight missions are given to Island Thunder, which originally appeared on the Xbox in 2003, and the other eight missions are given to Jungle Storm, which is practically an expansion pack to Island Thunder. Before you start the campaign, a training and exercise section is available and recommended.

Both Island Thunder and Jungle Storm are set up the same, whether the menus, controls, graphics, or weapons. Two teams are assigned with three soldiers. One team is called Alpha, while the other is Bravo. Depending on which soldier you are controlling, you are the leader of the team that that member belongs to. Troop movement is tracked and commanded through the map.

Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm provides the player with a high level of customization. You can swap weapons before a mission, along with soldiers. At the end of levels, points are awarded to players. These points can be put towards weapon, stealth, endurance, and leadership attributes. Health is displayed through the image of a soldier in the bottom right and left corners, along with gun type and amounts of ammo. When the soldier is white, he has taken little or no damage, yellow means moderate damage, and red means that your soldier has died.

Enemy AI is a bit flaky. They move in a state of lag and rarely take cover. Soldiers on your team will sometimes get in the way of each other. You are required to more or less direct them at points in the game. The game begins to slow down when troops on your team are injured and move half the speed that a regular soldier would. Staying true to real-life, there are no health kits in the middle of levels and wounds will span levels, so cautiousness is essential when playing this game. Learning how to take it slow, kneel, and zoom in, instead of having gun battles within 50 feet of your enemy, is also important.

Some levels in Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm take place in darkness and require night vision. It is a useful tool and enables you to see enemies from afar. Speaking of darkness, the night levels really aren’t very dark in the first place and the sky looks like a child’s painting. When rescuing hostages, it is always a good idea to kill as many enemies as possible along the way. You don’t want your evacuees to die, you know. The levels themselves range from plantations, Cuban cities, mountainous terrain, swampy land, beaches, and more.

Tom Clancy’s video games are arguably the most recognized military titles on the market, on top of being the best selling. Quality wise, I have yet to find a bad title from the series, aside from Rainbow Six for the Dreamcast, which was practically the beginning of the series. Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm should last you ten to fifteen hours with the single player alone, including both Island Thunder and Jungle Storm. The multi-player modes will last you more than fifteen hours, and since there is a very large number of multi-player maps, most of which are unlocked through single player, boredom is non-existent in this title.