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The sequel to the first true “next-gen” game doesn’t disappoint. Coming out a mere year after its predecessors, GRAW 2 is nonetheless another must-have for the Xbox 360. While it doesn’t have the same wow factor that its prequel had, the game still delivers some of the best visuals and gameplay of this generation.
In GRAW 2, you once again play as Scott Mitchell, a captain in the US Army in charge of the Ghosts (a Special Forces group). Once again, you’ll be going down to Mexico but this time you’re trying to stop a civil war going in Mexico between its elected government and various rogue groups. The war proves to be more significant this time around since the groups are threatening to invade the US and use nuclear weapons. This means that every mission in the game is exciting, in part due to the number of things blowing up around you.
To do all of this, you’ll engage in a number of team-based (and some solo) missions that include shooting a number of enemies and some objectives thrown in for good measure. Sometimes you’ll need to rescue someone and other times you’ll be trying to hold a certain area. There is a mixture of vehicle and on-foot missions in the game, and the on-foot missions have a solid cover system, which seems to be in vogue now. Managing your squadmates during the team-based missions is still as intuitive as ever and has actually been improved in this iteration. The game uses an advanced communication system that shows you direct full-screen video from any teammate, drone or vehicle in the game to give you a good idea of what’s going on. The game’s AI is better than before, too, thanks to great tips from your squadmates regarding enemy locations and just more general competency.
Although the single-player mode is very short at five hours, the game includes an amazingly in-depth multiplayer component. Via Xbox Live, the game has support for six cooperative missions (with support for up to sixteen players) that are entirely different than the single-player missions. The coop missions make use of the game’s new aid feature (like that found in Call of Duty 3) where teammates can revive you after you died if they get to you in a certain time period. There are also many competitive modes (deathmatch, team deathmatch, and many objective-based modes) with support for up to sixteen players. The game’s maps are very well designed and perfectly suited for larger games while still being fun to play with fewer players.
As I mentioned above, the first GRAW was the first true next-generation game. The scope of the gameplay was a factor in this but the biggest differentiator was the graphics. Although only a year has passed, the visuals have improved this time around. Since you’re fighting in many different settings this time around, the environments are more varied and the game does a good job of rendering them. The lighting and particle effects in particular have been spruced up, as have the explosions which look simply amazing. Of course, all of this is rendered in 720p with a stable framerate despite the scale of some of the environments.
The game’s audio package is just as strong. The voice acting is the shining star here thanks to the awesome voice tips that your squadmates deliver to you. The calling out sounds really authentic and really transports you into the battles that you’re viewing onscreen. The sound effects, especially the gunfire and explosions, are appropriately loud and crisp. The soundtrack is expectedly fitting, too.
As a single-player game, alone, GRAW 2’s four-to-five hour campaign is short even by new-gen standards. However, when you toss in multiplayer and keep in mind that the original GRAW is still one of the most popular Xbox Live games, the game becomes a much better investment. Nonetheless, value proposition questions aside, it’s hard to ignore that this is one the best-looking and most fun games on the Xbox 360. -- Adam Nunez, PGNx Media
---- Mar 15, 2007
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