I have a copy of the original Ghost Recon for the PC lying around here somewhere, but I’ve never really gotten into it. I played a lot of the Rainbow Six series, but the game seemed just generally too slow and plodding to be exciting, and since I expected much the same formula with Ghost Recon I never really gave it a fair shot. I happened to go into EB today to check out the new games, and my co-workers suggested picking up the latest game in the series, Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, so that I could play them online that night. I took a gamble and picked it up, but in the end, it was a purchase well-worth it.

Let’s get one thing straight from the get-go: this is not a game to purchase if you do not have the Xbox Live Online service. Yes, you can play it offline, but this is a game designed to be enjoyed online. The single player mode of the game entails you and your unit of five other men being sent to the island of Cuba to protect the new elections that are taking place after the death of Castro. It’s up to you to destroy all the rebels’ attempts at harassing the locals into voting against democracy: and the only good way to stop a rebel is with a barrage of bullets. It’s like a game of hide and seek, except that the seeker is armed to the teeth and the hider is about to die.

So the game sets you up as the leader of a group of special soldiers called Ghosts. One can assume from the title that these are troops whose job is to go in undetected, eliminate a threat, and come home alive with no one the wiser. While I’m sure the terrain painted with blood and the bullet casings from advanced American weapons will leave people suspicious, it really doesn’t matter to operations in the grand scheme of things. Anyhow, it’s all up to you to direct your unit, as one false move can mean the death of your whole squad, and yourself. Fortunately, there are only three commands you can issue to your team and they’re very easy to deliver, getting rid of much of the micromanagement issues that can plague this genre.

Even better than the few commands are how responsive the AI is. Your teammates will take cover behind trees and rocks and conserve ammo until they can pop off the best shot against their target. While they don’t do a lot of the stuff real-people can do online, your squad is never a nuisance throughout the games eight missions. Ultimately though, the enemy AI is what matters most and it’s all together fantastic. Enemies will lay prone to avoid getting hit and occasionally enemies will try and flank you when you’re fighting off a swarm of them. They run for cover inside buildings and hide from you, waiting to shoot as soon as you peek your head around the door.

Like I said before however, this title is meant for Xbox Live players, no doubt about it. I’ll be honest with you to tell you that for the most part I avoid the service as I find that the numerous amounts of young kids on the service really ruin it with their obnoxious attitudes. No one seems to want to simply have fun playing games anymore, and people seem to jump on you for making little mistakes. So, I play only with a few guys that I know are good people, mostly people I work with.

I must say that I haven’t enjoyed a game online nearly as much as I have Island Thunder in a long, long time. This is probably because of the fantastic modes of play. There are nearly a dozen different modes that you can play online, with my favorite being Co-Operational Firefight. In this mode, you and a team of five other guys roam the sprawling levels searching and eliminating any enemy you come into contact with. Usually there are around 50 per map, and with only six of you, teamwork is of the essence as you fight to survive. In a very close second place, my next love is from the Defend the Base Mode. This mode is really cool, because it makes you feel like you’re actually under attack. Swarms (and I mean swarms) of foes come running at you, and it’s up to you and your teammates to keep them from taking the base. Other modes include standard versus type modes and the ability to go through the games missions co-operational online.

These modes are all wound together with a solid (if not dated) graphics engine. The game is a direct port of the PC version of the title that came out a year and a half ago. While it looked great then, now the textures seem repetitive and the character models are pretty blocky. Weather effects prove to be the games strongest point graphically, with rolling fog and rain really showing off what the engine can do. Regardless of any of these problems, the graphics serve their purpose, and there’s never a moment to complain about them when you’re wandering around the vast levels of the game.

When walking along through the plains, valleys, cities, and battlefields of Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, one cannot help but notice the eerie silence caused by the lack of any music. It all seems a bit boring as you wander about: until suddenly a bullet whizzes by your right ear and you collapse to the ground or behind an object as a barrage of bullets from enemies behind you. The 3D sound effects in the game are very well-done, and a necessity for a title like this. The ability to use the microphone on Xbox Live is good too, and because you have to push a button too actually, it prevents a lot of random chatter and makes the experience more immersing.

Ultimately, the decision to purchase Ghost Recon: Island Thunder should come down to one thing: whether or not you have Xbox Live. Xbox Live gamers will find that it’s a great game to play online, but I think a lot of non-subscribers will find the game not worth the price-tag. If you absolutely want to play the series, try and get your hands on the first game as the single player is much better. If you’re a diehard Ghost Recon fanatic who has to have it all, then pick it up too, as it’s basically an enhanced version of the first.