Given Rainbow Six on the PSP got a decent score, albeit reviews slated the game as being really short, how does this game compare?? I've never played any of the Advanced Warfighter games, just the first four Ghost Recons (1, Jungle Storm, 2, and Summit Strike). I know this series (AW) is doing excellent on the next gen machines, and am curious as to how the PSP incarnation holds up.

Finally caved in and got it. Not too impressed. Graphically, you can see the polygons stick out similar to the quality of say, Starwars Battlefront II on the PSP. Not terrible, but noticable. But it's on the PSP, so I can accept that. (I still play PSX games without hissing at graphics)

Anyhow, the gameplay pisses me off. Aiming is a bit slow, acceleration wise. Also, that ugly halo style reticle, and the yellow color, just does not capture any military kind of feel. Control wise, other than the shite acceleration on aiming, isn't too bad, but you can't really customize controls, which is a downer.

Movement wise, the character (Scott Mitchell I presume), is freakin' awkward. His head seems stapled at a particular plane of physics, and every time you move or run, it stays perfectly still, practically breaking his neck while his body wobbles to provide some sort of moving animations. It just looks wrong. First person isn't too bad, but save for the lack of a gun model, (even a transparent low-tech polygonal model would have sufficed), the aiming still gets you. You're forced to lock on to enemies for every minute action. On top of that, enemy AI is as basic as it usually is in Red Storm developed games.

Really dissapointed. I've had major complains about the Ghost Recon series, since the very first game hit the PS2. I owned the first, and then Jungle Strike, and then Ghost Recon 2, and then Summit Strike. After that, I gave up, but for some reason figured the PSP version had a chance. The series has strayed far from being tactically team based, and team class/performance oriented, and I never liked that. The AI has never been improved much at all, and in areas it'd seem like it is, it's all just scripting. Visually, they've gotten better, but in all other areas they've just taken the back seat. I sincerely hope Ubisoft choses a new developer for the GR series. Personally, i'd choose Sierra, those guys are knockin' out awesome title after awesome title. They seem to have a sort of exclusivity deal with Universal though.


In any case, this game isn't dirt horrible, but since I freakin' love military games, this one falls flat on its face compared to, as you mentioned 'One and Only, Syphon Filter, and MGS: Portable Ops.

I'm still comitted to beating the game, and i'll likely just hack my way through it with custom firmware programs (given my experiences with games in the past, I can pretty much judge all gameplay aspects while i'm playing, even if using a gameshark or codebreaker/alt cheating device to play).

That said, my PSP can take screenshots of the game, so i'll provide shots to this game's profile section so you can at least check the graphics out.

One thing I really liked about the graphics however, is the bloom lighting. Similar to Mercenaries and SWBFII/LegoSWII. It's not true bloom lighting, but it does just fine for a PSP title.



Edit: GAWD! The coding is pretty amateur.
On the second or third mission, you have to escort some buddies from a downed chopper, to an evac chopper. Once you get to the evac chopper, if you (as you would realistically) decide to stay near the evac chopper and provide cover fire (there are incoming enemies), the cutscene that occurs no matter what - showing the enemies arrive, also has them open fire on the chopper during the cutscene. While the chopper has infinite life, as do any comrades nearby (since it's a cutscene), they are unharmed, but if you stay there, guess what. YOU DIE. Tank rounds, .50 cal, and AK fire.

WHAT THE *bleep*!?!?!?!?

God damned Red Storm.


Yeah, you can get past this by not providing cover fire for the chopper (after the cutscene ends, it can likely take damage again), and stay somewhere behind a tree like a good little MIA trooper, you won't get mauled by the enemies.

This message was edited by raijin1999 on Sep 02 2007.