The perfect Tom Clancy style FPS (not just for consoles!)

Or perhaps just the perfect FPS period

from JoeUser Forums

Please note, while this article discusses games from the perspective of having played on the Xbox 360, it isn't just about console versions of these games.  It is about the FPS genre, or the subset of the genre that some might refer to as "Tom Clancy style" games.  It is meant to be general in nature, and not specific to just the console games.

I'm sure that many may prefer other FPS games (Unreal Tournament, Half Life, and more come to mind), but again in this case I'm referring primarily to games like Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, and Ghost Recon.  (And perhaps comparing those games to others like Call of Duty, or Halo, etc.)

Also, please bear in mind -- as usual -- that you may see this article in places that seem "out of place" because of the distribution system that JoeUser and the other StarDock sites employ to publish content originally posted in one area in multiple areas of their affiliated sites.  This particular article was originally posted in the JoeUser.com Gaming -> General Discussion area.  As always, if you don't find yourself interested in the content here, please just skip it and move on to another article or forum post that is more interesting to you.  Thanks!

When I first got my Xbox 360, one of the games I very much looked forward to getting and playing on it was Call of Duty 2 (COD2).  It was a classic FPS (First Person Shooter) in the World War II timeline.  It featured a single player "story" mode to play through, as well as open combat online modes that let players compete against other players in team modes and individual modes.

Call of Duty 2 was a good game, with decent graphics, but all along it seemed to be lacking in some areas and it frustrated me in points badly enough to make me cast it aside in favor of playing other games.

Later, UbiSoft put out the game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW).  GRAW was a slightly futuristic FPS that involved squad based tactics in a good mix of open and closed areas.  Notice I said good, not great.  Unfortunately though, GRAW was fairly universally recognized by most players as being too difficult for much of the game, with an imbalance in the number of places where players could heal up/rest, etc., versus the number of enemies they would face.  The computer controlled (artificially intelligent/AI) squad members were notoriously stupid, would easily get themselves killed, and/or leave you exposed to imminent danger while you were trying to heal them so they'd be available a few minutes later in an even tougher section of the mission.

GRAW also featured a completely different mindset to it's play when compared to COD2.  COD2 was much more run and gun, versus the stop and pop SOP (standard operating procedures) cover modes that were required for use in GRAW.  In GRAW players were very much required to find cover, stick to walls and other objects and peer out from the cover points to squeeze off controlled bursts and earn kills in more stealthy and controlled manner.  COD2 was much more stick and move oriented.  Fire off a burst of shots and keep moving to look for other targets, or keep moving to get away from others playing the same style coming after you.

... more in the comments area.  Please continue reading there.

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Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top

... continued from the original article.  Thanks for continuing here.

The graphical environment in GRAW was also much more modernistic, and seemingly a lot more photorealistic.  When playing the game on an Xbox 360 you'd have a hard time believing you aren't watching a real life action movie.

Much later UbiSoft released the latest in the Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six series: Rainbow Six Vegas (R6V).  Playing Rainbow Six Vegas was so natural, so easy to just start playing and so easy to control that I felt like I was in heaven when playing the game.  It has the best elements of the FPS genre, and uses the most naturalistic and player friendly cover system ever implemented in any of these type games.  While some Gears of Wars fans may differ, it is -- by far -- the easiest and most common sensical cover system I've ever encountered and is so smoothly integrated into the game that as soon as you start playing you feel completely immersed in the game play and feel like you are in total control of your virtual representation that is on the screen.

My friends and I played many hours of R6V.  Many, many hours.  Thanks to the very smart foresight of the development team for implementing their Persistent Elite Characterization (or whatever that third word was) or PEC, gamers were rewarded with a ranking system that rewarded continued game play with promotions to new ranks, new armor, clothing, and weaponry that was unlocked and other bonuses that encouraged also encouraged that continued game play.

If a few other games (*cough* *cough* Crackdown *cough*, *cough again* Guitar Hero II *cough*) hadn't come out and flooded the market with a wealth of gaming choices, my friends and I would probably have kept on playing R6V until we were all maxed in our rankings, and even then, we'd still be setting up regular matches to keep on playing.  It's that much fun, and is that well done.  The only thing besides the wealth of other gaming choices that slowed us down was a growing sense of boredom with playing the same maps (areas) over and over again.

As things slowed down with Crackdown, and before GH2 came along, UbiSoft released a second edition of GRAW, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2.  It provided new areas to play, a new single player story mode, and seemingly in response to complaints about the first GRAW game, was more tolerant, more forgiving to players, and slightly easier to get through.  (Some said perhaps too easy, and too short relatively speaking).  It too featured some great mutliplayer team modes, including some co-op campaign modes that are great fun.  My friends took to the game in much the same manner as we had with R6V and contented ourselves with GRAW2 while waiting for promises of new maps and some new gaming modes to come to R6V via an expansion.

While we played GRAW2 together, we all marvelled at things that were done right in GRAW2, but we lamented other things that we really liked from R6V that seemed to be missing in GRAW2.  GRAW2 was and is a good game, but not a perfect game.  Not as good (to us) as R6V.

This got us all talking about what would make the perfect FPS game for us.  How could UbiSoft (or others that might follow) come up with a better game for us to spend our time and money on?  Here's how: combine Rainbow Six Vegas, the cover system it uses, and it's urban combat (SWAT like) tactics with the open area tactics and maps of GRAW2.  Make a game that takes the best features of GRAW and GRAW2, and put it together with the best features of R6V and you would probably have the perfect FPS game.  Perhaps you could mix in a bit of the Splinter Cell: Double Agent gaming modes to add elements of stealthy hand-to-hand combat modes.  Modes and missions such as kidnapping or stealthy assassination of terrorists that would then lead to the SWAT like tactics, which then eventually lead to the open area tactics.  If all of this was in one game, it would perhaps be the ultimate Tom Clancy game.

Having said all of this, and mentioned UbiSoft's (and their partner/subsidiaries) a few times, I'm not even sure that the type of game I'm talking about would ever come from Ubi.  It might come from one of their competitors, it might come from them, or it may never come.  I hope the latter isn't the case, and I hope eventually someone puts out the type of game I'm talking about here.  If so, they'll get my money fast and I'll again be occupying my time for hours on end.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Rainbow 6: Raven SHield was the last Tom Clancy shooter that was really "tactical" in any sense. It's a shame that such a fun series has decided that the path to mainstream sales is to dumb itself down to the point where it's virtually indistinguishable from any other FPS on the market.
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Fairly nice history of Clancy games in the past, however you will find that many don't share your sentiment.

Many of us who have been playing the R6 and SC titles have been very unhappy with Ubisofts latest offerings. Both appear to have been "adjusted" to accommodate a more twitched based community. Both titles have become much more run and gun and much less tactical and strategy minded.

While this does appeal to those who complained that these games where too hard, many of us who enjoyed the challenge from the more thought provoking forebears have generally panned R6V and DA.

Personally I hope (but highly doubt) that Ubisoft will do an about face on the new spin they have put on these two franchises and will go back to the slower paced more tactical type of gaming I have come to love.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I heard about it one or two years ago that the latest R6 game had become a standard run'n'gun then tactical shooter. It's really sad that all games end up being the same....

Seems it's true what Warren Spector said....the games industry is dying....