Cost: $50
System: Xbox 360
Rating: Teen (Blood, Language, Violence)
Players: 1–4; up to 16 via system link
Online gameplay: 1–16 on Xbox Live
Reviewer: Erik Sofge

The Details: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) is a realistic first-person shooter, putting you behind the sights of the weaponry and gear of the army of the very near future. Set in the opening days of a civil war in Mexico City, circa 2013, GRAW presents an optimistic vision of the U.S. military's Future Force Warrior (FFW) program, the Pentagon’s real-life plan to further integrate infantry with support elements on the ground and in the air and with each other. (Although not quite as blatant a recruiting tool as the U.S. Army's free PC game "America's Army," this a decidedly gung-ho game.) On a number of missions you're given a VTOL UAV, which can be directed to hover over enemy positions and to designate individual hostiles. In real life, this thing doesn't even have an official. Also ripped from the Pentagon’s playbook is GRAW’s arsenal: Every weapon you’ll level is either a real design (such as the Crye MR-C, a caseless, bullpup-configuration assault rifle that only exists today as a nonfunctional mockup), or just on the verge of deployment, like the SCAR, a modular assault rifle designed to replace the M-16 and the M-4 for spec ops personnel. But it seems that defense budgets are no less realistic in the future, so don’t expect to find the powered exoskeletons, directed-energy weapons and nanotech-enabled defibrillating bulletproof vests of full-blown DARPA fantasies. This game puts a heavy emphasis on old-fashioned gunplay, small unit tactics, and a compelling storyline.

The Experience: For fans of tactical first person shooters, especially the Ghost Recon series, GRAW is as good as it gets. The graphics are expansive: During a stunning UH-60 Black Hawk door gunner sequence, the sprawling mass of an increasingly war torn Mexico City unfolds just beyond the chain gun barrel. The subtle details are just as impressive: Government buildings shimmer in the oppressive heat, oily smoke from shattered cars rises in columns on the horizon, and, when a swarm of hostile fire is buzzing by your head, the screen quivers and fuzzes out, like a TV losing reception. And while the data overlays that help pinpoint enemies and objectives might seem a little too impressive even for the year 2013, the crisp red brackets indicating targets such as an approaching tank do their job to aid game play, contrasting sharply with a sea of crumbling shacks and unpaved roads.

Your squad consists of you and three other troops. Your team members’ billets vary with their weaponry (i.e., grenadier, gunner, rifleman and marksman). Ordering your squadmates is simple, and fast—you can point at a location and, with one button press, tell them to go there. Or if you can point at an enemy and order your team to fire. You can also tell them to fall back to your position and follow you, and you can set them in two engagement modes—Recon, where they will point out hostiles but only fire when fired upon, or Assault, an aggressive, weapons-free stance. They'll use cover, watch out for flanking maneuvers, and even announce when they're reloading. They'll also get hurt, sometimes requiring a quick patch-up to get back on their feet. And they can die—as you lose enough squadmates, your pool of available personnel gradually dries up. So it's in your best interest to watch their backs, and not simply order them into a hail of gunfire because you're nervous. Or because you're a jerk. As for your own weaponry, you carry a main weapon, such as an assault or sniper rifle, a sidearm and various flavors of grenades. Picking up enemy weapons is possible, but keep in mind that the enemy doesn’t have nearly the defense budget you do.

Calling in support elements, such as Bradley tanks, Apache gunships and even a Stryker armored vehicle, is confusing at first, but easy to master. While they might seem like quaint plot devices, ushering you from one harrowing fight to the next with devastating firepower, these weapons systems can be taken out by hostiles. Coordinating attacks is essential to survival.

The relatively seamless progression from one mission to the next (punctuated by a helicopter or APC extraction before immediate redeployment in another part of the city), is a welcome exception to the all around tired action game cliche of the cut-scene. Sure, you can't open fire while being briefed in a Blackhawk, but you can still move your head and look around, maintaining an interactive sense of gameplay. And GRAW wisely avoids slickly-edited, cinematic sequences with graphics that seem better than the actual game. GRAW never breaks character. And setting the game in Mexico—not the obvious the Middle East, North Korea, or faceless post-Soviet Eastern European state—shows more creativity than most military action games can muster.

Online play, with live players rounding out your squad, is even better than the single-player campaign. The game really comes alive when you fill the battlefield battalions of frantic, panicking humans—especially during cooperative missions (as opposed to head-to-head deathmatches). Who knew the fog of war could be fun?

The Downside: GRAW—like real wars—can be a real pain. Two or three shots and you’re dead. Reloading takes as long as it should. And just try to hit anything when you're running—super human you are not. Although Ghost Recon veterans will find the game controls familiar, the game’s interface is dizzyingly complex. For new recruits, on the other hand, there's a relatively steep learning curve, and even basic maneuvers, such as switching quickly from a standing run to a full-stop crouch, to a standard, iron-sights aim, and then zooming in with a scope can be frustratingly difficult. Some weapons, too, are complex—enough to switch from burst to single shot. It’s a choice that actually matters, especially when you're engaging targets at a distance (burst and full auto are about as effective at taking out distant targets as yelling really loudly). And the producers made a valiant attempt to mimic the human elements of battle (while aiming with the scope you can even hit a button to hold your breath, steadying the crosshairs for a limited amount of time), greatly increasing the game’s difficulty. Add to this tactical elements such as the "CrossCom" feature that lets you switch between commanding your squad mates to designating targets for an air strike, and the GRAW experience begins to feel less like an arcade and more like an exercise in complex multitasking. Which, of course, is is the whole point: There’s a reason why they say war is hell. The very same qualities that have garnered GRAW a devoted following can also make it unbearable for the uninitiated, or the impatient—or anyone who doesn’t want to complete the videogame version of basic training. Love it or hate it, GRAW is an intentionally complicated and difficult game, an equation its creators hope will it as close as possible to the real thing—or, at least, as close as anyone can reasonably stand.

The Audience: First-person shooter fans who want the usual—a large helping of virtual gunplay—with a double order of military realism.

The Bottom Line: For a fan of the genre, it's hard to imagine how this game could be better. But, like a really good cigar, it’s easy to see how the uninitiated could hate it. GRAW is a brilliantly conceived take on near-future warfare, with stunning graphics, game play and replay value (especially with cooperative play on Xbox Live). But beware: this is a game where one well-placed shot can kill you, and where patience and tactics are as important as lightning-fast hand-eye coordination.