So, another week, another tactical online game for the PS2, this time in the form of established classic Ghost Recon, its new title being Jungle Storm, referring the new 8-mission campaign included in the game. Sadly, that is about as new as things get around here.

Along with the new missions, set in Columbia, you also get the chance to play the Island Thunder campaign (which was released a while back) which spans 8 missions, but if you've ever played a GR game, then you'll know that the game takes things real slow, so you won't be moaning about the lifespan. Done properly, this game will take a while.

The missions are fairly linear in nature; go to a certain point, eliminate the enemies there/extract someone/secure an object, get to extraction, repeat… but are done in such a way that it doesn't really feel as if you've already played this kind of mission before, and so hold your interest.

   

GR's gameplay is a Marmite thing for most people-you'll either love it or hate it. There's no health bar per se, and only a couple of direct hits can spell the difference between a clean sheet and man down (and maybe an hour of backtracking to complete the mission perfectly, keep your team intact and reap the benefits of their experience) - Ghost Recon games don't reward cowboy antics - run in all guns blazing and you'll die a very quick death. The enemy AI is pretty smart, proning and finding cover when taking fire, peeking out from behind cover to return fire.

As for your five teammates (divided up into two squads of three), well they are a bit more hit and miss. Order them to advance around a building, and 3 times out of ten they'll just run into the corner and keep running into the wall until you tell them to stop. At other times, you can order them about the map, and they will basically kill every enemy on the map for you. Neither option is much fun, and the inconsistency can be a little frustrating at times.

In-game, nothing much has changed, and some of the elements that made the original GR's what they were still remain. The game, due to its stealthy nature, and "it's a little too quiet…." Soundtrack, create a very tense atmosphere, having you flinching at every shadow and piece of moving shrubbery, and having you slowly peeking around every street corner in the urban levels.

   

But with the good, there is inevitably bad. One addition to the gameplay is the ability to use the headset to order your squads around, instead of fussing about with waypoints and maps; but this system is even more fiddly with very few options available, meaning that you find yourself needing to use the waypoint system, otherwise your squad would walk straight into an ambush (if they moved at all).

The graphics have not been improved, and now look very dated compared to other recent games of the genre, with 2D objects and fuzzy textures in places, and occasional fogging and pop-up, making it quite hard to play. The newest feature for this game, and something that will attract people other than fans of the game is the addition of an online option. This would generally add to the lifespan of a game by its inclusion, but this time, it has put me off. For starters, the gameplay is completely different online. No-one stays back in the shadows to slowly pick off enemies here - they run full-pelt at anything that moves, with the old "spray and pray" method, which is a little disappointing. You can have up to 12 people playing online in one room, but unlike SOCOM 2, where rooms are full to the brim, you'll be lucky to find a room with 8 people in, which is the problem with any online game- the mode is worthless if there aren't enough people to play it. Voice chat has also been disabled, apparently to keep game speed up, but after complaints, Ubisoft decided to enable it - sadly, it rarely seems to work properly anyway. You do get to play with our friends across the Atlantic this time, but the server that you use to do so also has problems, with lag, disconnections, and a lot of online bugs which should be fixed, but probably won't. Overall, the online option feels like a quickly made add-on, adding to the general fragmentation of the game.

   

Those who don't fancy playing online, or don't have broadband, can still have a multiplayer bash, playing in co-op missions with a mate, or against each other, but with only two of you, it seems a little stale due to the slow pace of the gameplay.

All in all, Ghost Recon: Jungle storm doesn't feel like a complete game. It may have all the elements associated with a GR title, but the gameplay is a little too slow and docile, and the graphics too dated to hold the interest of the casual gamer, and for those who like the genre, there is nothing much that they haven't seen before.