Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon | Nintendo GameCube

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Command a small force in Eastern Europe

Ghost Recon places you in command of an elite American military team in Eastern Europe in 2008. Russian rebels have seized power in Moscow, and the Ghosts are sent into a growing crisis before it becomes a wider war. The GameCube campaign gives that operation 15 missions, combining movement through the battlefield with specific tasks for a small force of soldiers.

You see the action from a soldier’s first-person view, but your responsibility extends beyond one character. The GameCube version puts two squads of three under your control. You can move directly between members of that six-person force, changing the soldier you are using when another position or weapon becomes more useful. That gives each mission both an individual shooting problem and a team-management problem.

Build the team for the mission

Riflemen, snipers, demolition experts and support specialists fill different roles. Before entering the field, you select the soldiers and their weapon-and-equipment loadouts. A balanced group can cover several kinds of encounter, while a more specialized team gives you a stronger answer to a particular task. Sniper weapons and explosives are examples of equipment that can change who you want handling an objective.

During a mission, switching soldiers lets you use those choices directly. Rally orders send teammates toward a point you identify in the environment, giving you a simple way to bring the squads into position. The useful question is often which soldier should be controlling an angle now and where the other team should wait, rather than just which target is closest to the crosshair.

Read the terrain and threat display

Outdoor terrain, buildings and longer sight lines give the Ghosts space to move and search for enemies. The GameCube controls include weapon zoom, aiming assistance and an onscreen radar that helps identify threats. The threat display changes how you approach an unfamiliar area: you can use its information alongside the view through your sights to decide when to advance or prepare for contact.

The highest difficulty allows you to turn off the threat detector, making visual observation more important. On the standard settings, the radar and targeting feedback give you more information as you move the squad. In either case, organizing the soldiers and choosing a suitable weapon remain central parts of the encounter, especially when different members of the force are covering different positions.

Unlocks and ways to revisit a map

Completing single-player missions opens specialist soldiers for the roster. Those additions provide another reason to work through the campaign and reconsider the people you take into later assignments. Mission, Firefight and Recon are the play types identified for this release, offering ways to use its battlefields beyond simply following the next story objective.

The North American GameCube release also supports two-player local split-screen play. You can face one another or work cooperatively against computer-controlled enemies. Campaign levels become available for co-op after they have been completed in single-player, so the solo operation also opens material for a session with a partner. A second GameCube controller is required for two people to play together.

Military atmosphere and a local campaign

Equipment noise, wind and distant vehicle sounds give the outdoor operations an audible setting, with an orchestral score framing the military action. Soldiers’ equipment and camouflage distinguish their roles visually. Ghost Recon’s focus is directing a compact force: choose its people, assign equipment, move it across the map and take control of the member best placed for the next task.

The modes described here run locally on GameCube, and a GameCube Memory Card saves campaign progress. The combination of a six-soldier force, mission-specific loadouts, unlockable specialists and two-player split screen makes this release a team-oriented tactical shooter with both a solo command role and local partner play.