Developer: Ubisoft
Publisher: Ubisoft / RedStorm
Genre: Shooter / Action
Rating: T (Teen) Blood / Violence / Language
Supported Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox, PS2, PC
Note: This review only covers the 360 Version

When I finally got my 360 in early February, GRAW was one of the first games I knew I would pick up. Despite being a real challenge, I loved the original Ghost Recon and was devastated when Ghost Recon 2 was not available for PC. First order of business was actually finding a location that sold the darn thing, a task I did not expect to be much of a challenge. But wandering through one of the largest malls in the northeast it became painfully apparent that I was not the only one who wanted the game, not by a long shot. So two hours later and after quite a bit of walking I finally found a store with a few copies left in stock and snagged one before anyone else could beat me to the register. Without a doubt the bright green 360 cases are worth mentioning, even with a few games your library radiates an intense glow. Inside the awesome green case you will find your standard game DVD (of course) with an instruction manual with your basic legal squabble, instructions, and paltry introduction to the storyline. Most people can probably run right past the instruction manual; between the training scenario and in-game instructions it’s very intuitive how to play. Winning on the other hand is quite a bit more challenging. Also within the case you will find an Xbox live gold trial.

When buying games for the Xbox there would be quite a few titles that included Xbox live gold trials; it was not anything uncommon and made a good deal of sense from a marketing perspective. Xbox live is one of the greatest selling points in Microsoft’s console series, and with the 360 it has been improved leaps and bounds. But when I saw GRAW included a 2-DAY trial I was a bit shocked. Sure the console came with a one-month itself and I had planned on purchasing it for a year, but 2 days? Seems hardly worth the nifty little card it was printed on. While on the topic of Xbox live, I will mention the live features listed on the back of the retail box. GRAW allows you to play with up to 16 players on live, a reasonable number with the maps; so spawn killing generally is not as bad as some military shooters like Battlefield 2. In addition they added a "co-op" mode which does not have near the depth of your standard campaign but can really add replay value (by co-op they mean battle out the scenarios with up to 16 pals). Both multiplayer and co-op have voice communication, a must for multiplayer these days. Of course like most 360 games additional content can be added in the future through the Xbox live network. We’ll take a look at the live system more in depth further down.