Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (3DS Review) by Austin D.

Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft
System: Nintendo 3DS
Release: March 27, 2011

April 13, 2011, by Austin D. - Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is amongst the launch line up for the Nintendo 3DS. Shadow Wars is a turn based strategy game based on a Ghost Recon military force trying to stop some corruption in the Russian government. It also features the evolutionary 3D effect of the hardware, but is this enough to merit owning a copy?

The game begins with a politician in Russia trying to be elected the leader by executing a plan to 'sabotage' the current leaders popularity through attacking bordering countries and framing the current leader. The player's goal is to control a Ghost Recon squad and put a stop to the plans of the antagonist. The first mission starts with the squad flying to a location in Ukraine but gets shot down by a force unknown to them.

2D image of Nintendo 3DS game.
You crash near ruins and find out that some squad members have been thrown from the carrier into unknown locations. The player then goes through a tutorial mission to learn how to play the game. You have a set number of team members that you control one at time. The player must move their characters around the map and attack the opposition or accomplish a set objective.

Each team member has a set arsenal at their exposal. There are snipers, tatical knives, turrets, and gattling guns amongst a variety of other weapons. Some weapons (such as grenades) have limited amounts of ammo. Once you run out of these weapons you must pick up an ammo box on the map. There are also health boxes that the player can pick up to replenish health.


2D image of Nintendo 3DS game.
After each match, you obtain Stars that you can use to upgrade and 'level up' your characters. Each Star that a character is given will either increase health points, upgrade gear, or provide some other type of enhancement. A character can only be given two Stars at a time, and the only characters that can recieve a Star are ones that you used to complete the mission.

The player has a chance to change their character's equipment before each mission. Each character can have a primary weapon, a secondary weapon, and some form of armor. Each piece of equipment (weapon and armor) can yield a special effect for the character such as giving health points or reducing the distance they can move per turn.

The characters have a specific job type that they perform such as Engineers and Medics. One type of job is Recon that yields the special ability of camoflauge to characters of the job type. This 'camo' allows for the Recon's to be able to go anywhere on the map and not be fired upon. The only way for a Recon to become targeted is for an opponent's character to become positioned directly beside said Recon.


2D image of Nintendo 3DS game.
The game features an odd type of multiplayer mode. Each multiplayer match is very similar to a campaign match but there is no networked play (i.e. online or local wireless) which makes each player have to share a single 3DS system. This puts a sense of confusion into the player at the beginning of each turn because they do not know how the other player moved their characters. Overall, the multiplayer is enjoyable but could be greatly improved upon with the addition of networked play.

Alongside Campaign and multiplayer is a third type of match that players can undertake. These matches are called Skirmish Missions. Each Skirmish Mission belongs to a certain category (i.e. Training, Battles, and Challenges) and is a single player mission. Each mission holds a different set of objectives and challenges which adds to the replay value of them.

The Verdict

Sound
7/15 - Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars features a rather simple soundtrack. Each weapon and attack has a different sound but feels very fimilar to other games of the type.

Graphics
13/20 - The graphics look like they are from the DS era. The 3D effects add a good amount of appeal, but with relatively low resolution sprites the 3DS hardware is not done justice.

Appeal
23/25 - The game has great appeal with it being easily the longest of the 3DS launch titles. The Skirmish Missions are great fun and provide hours of enjoyment and the Campaign is composed of a ton of missions.

Gameplay
37/40 - The controls are simple to understand but the level of strategy involved in accomplishing some objectives proves to be challenging. With a large amount of strategies available, the player would have to play for a long time to exhaust all possibilities.

Overall
80/100 - Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars is sure to provide hours of fun for those who are fans of turn based strategy games. It has many hours of side missions which prove to be very enjoyable.