Ghost Recon Online Review

Competitive Cover-based Third Person Shooter is a new thing for me. I've played Cover-Based TPS before like Gears of War and Mass Effect but never played a competitive one where I play against human players. On top of that, I never played any of the Ghost Recon games. So, will I like Ghost Recon Online? or would the game be too alien for me to get into?

Apparently I love this game and it plays just great. The design of this game also fit what I really want from competitive games, which is to prioritize teamwork and tactic. This isn't a game where you can just run around like an idiot and hope that you have a better reflex than your enemies. This is a game where you have to make use of cover, carefully maneuver yourself on the battlefield and try to outflank your foes. It is really-really satisfying for those who likes to think rather than only relying on their reflexes.

This doesn't mean that the game doesn't require any skill to play. Shooting accuracy is still important, it's just you have to think more about positioning and the usage of your devices to effectively support your team. You could be a very accurate sniper but if you can only snipe people from afar your team aren't going to go anywhere near the objective. Use your Oracle device and reveal enemy positions. If you're an assault, charge forward with Blitz and knock down the enemy and let your team mates finish them or use HEAT to screw them up and make them susceptible to a fast assault from your team. Under heavy sniper fire? move forward with your Specialist and their Aegis device. The usage of each device and team work will win the match, not just shooting accuracy.

The devices in the game are designed very well to make players work together and I like this fact a lot. The fact that the game is objective based and not just a team deathmach is also a big plus for me. I really like having to think about how to outmaneuver the enemies and how to take back control from a captured point.

The gunplay in this game is great, definitely very satisfying and pretty easy to handle. Each weapon types are useful on different situations and maps which will make you think about which weapon to use for a particular situation.

I'm a bit worried about how higher level equipments are straight up upgrades rather than sidegrades though(all armor are upgrades while only some weapons are upgrades). This could create a gap between higher level and lower level players. However they might balance that from the matchmaking system but I can't be really sure about that. From my experience however the normal matches are quite balanced with higher level players not really that much stronger than lower level ones.

Overall, Ghost recon Online is a very satisfying Cover-Based TPS. With good gunplay, team-based gameplay and more tactical than your usual shooter, GRO is definitely a must play for those who likes shooting games.

Check it out at:
http://ghost-recon.ubi.com/ghost-recon-online/en-US/home/ (NA server)
http://ghost-recon.ubi.com/ghost-recon-online/en-gb/home/index.aspx (EU server)