Ghost Recon: Island Thunder

Tom Clancy returns with more conspiracies, more guns, more soldiers and another corrupt government to overthrow.

Shoot to Kill

Tom Clancy, eh? He certainly doesn't sound like the sort of person who likes Commies, dictators or Nazis. I get a kind of 'anti-terrorist' vibe from playing his games and I reckon that he would rather slit his own throat rather than choose to play on the terrorist team in Counter-Strike.

This theme continues in Ghost Recon: Island Thunder - an expansion-pack-that-isn't-an-expansion-pack to the original Ghost Recon game. In a move that will no doubt go against Tom’s extreme right-wing, capitalist loving ideals you do not need the first Ghost Recon game to play Island Thunder, as it is a standalone product.

Paranoia

Damn, I forgot my sandwiches

Cuba in the year 2008. Castro died in 2006 and so far only groups of thugs have taken charge of the country. The civilians are worried, elections are coming up and one group is trying to bully their way to power, blah blah blah blah BLAH! Mr Clancy, can you please chill out and take off your tinfoil hat? You are scaring us with your paranoid delusions, although they do make for some very good video game material.

Island Thunder needs to be filed under 'hardcore' or perhaps even 'deadly serious'. It's a rather slow game and you need to be very careful as you progress through the levels as one shot from an enemy can take you out.

You actually take control of six soldiers who are split up into two teams of three. You can switch between each soldier as you please, with the remaining two soldiers on your team following you around. However, you can give orders to the other team, which allows you to attack the enemy from two different angles.

Shoot to Kill

Blow things up

The AI of your fellow soldiers is actually pretty good. They usually spot enemy troops before you do and will have probably shot them before you have even stopped picking your nose. Giving orders is simple enough and is done via an in-game map. You choose which team to give the order to, mark out the route you want them to take and that’s pretty much it. You can also tell them how aggressive to be, tell them whether to fire at all encountered enemies or only if they are attacked first.

The mission objectives are all pretty similar, with many of them merely requiring you to eliminate all foes in a certain area, although a couple require you to blow up a tank - but that is about as deep as it gets.

To be honest, Ghost Recon is not about the mission objectives it is about tension. If you go running in and try to mow everything down quickly then you will die. To win in this game, you have to crouch or crawl your way around and then zoom in on the enemy from a distance. Creeping round a corner to be suddenly confronted by a wandering patrol can be very panic inducing...

Spare the Musician

The wife locked me out again

The first thing you notice about Island Thunder is how much better it looks than the original. The whole game looks much sharper, with all the colours being brighter and more vibrant than before. Even the animation has been redone and it is all the better for it.

The game is just the same sound-wise as it was before. There is no music at all during play, though the radio speech from your fellow soldiers is clearer than before. Gunshots sound better and so give the weapons more impact when fired.

There is not really much to say about Island Thunder that hasn't been said about the original Ghost Recon. This is no bad thing, as Ghost Recon was good and this is merely a small update rather than an actual sequel. There are only eight single player maps, although you get twelve multiplayer levels as well.

Online play is a better experience than before, mainly because the voice communication has been vastly improved and you can also see the name of who is talking. You can now see how many respawns you have used and also see how much time is remaining in a timed game. Sadly, the in-game menus are still dreadful and you still can't see what game the people on your Friends List are playing.

Recommendation wise, it is an easy choice. If you liked Ghost Recon then you will like this as it is merely more of the same. The low price (it can be had for around £15 brand new) and overall improvements make this hard to ignore.

Editor’s note - The reviewer for this game was found shot dead in his home. Tom Clancy was unavailable for comment.