Ghost Recon: Future Soldier - The Beta

We live in an age where first person shooter games basically reign supreme in the video game industry. The runaway success of the Call of Duty franchise and the subsequent clones of the game has been nothing short of astonishing. Left in the dust are the games that actually require more focused team strategy in favor of more in your face, run and gun style tactics. Quite frankly this is something that I have missed. In the X-Box 360's infancy Ubisoft delivered a third person shooter that combined team tactics and smooth, responsive gameplay into an exciting package known as Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (and it's sequel GR: AW2). It's been a long time since the Ghost Recon series has seen the light of day. While Future Soldier was announced almost three years ago it has seen numerous delays to its release date. At one point Ubisoft was even promising access to the Future Soldier beta for those who pre-ordered Splinter Cell: Conviction which was released two years ago. Nonetheless, Ubisoft held up their end of that bargain and here we are in April of 2012 and I have received access to the beta via my purchase of Conviction. Not only is there a beta but the release of the long delayed game is finally within reach as Ubisoft plans to unleash the game on the public in May. With that aside, lets talk about the beta itself.

The beta rolled out on April 19th to the X-Box 360 and for Playstation Plus members. While I am a PS-Plus member I have decided to play on the X-Box 360 simply out of preference. The beta itself is only a 1.3 gb file, giving you immediate access to the Conflict game mode. Conflict pits two teams in an objective based round lasting roughly 15 minutes. The objective(s) rotates throughout the match to different locations on some fairly large maps. The goal of each round being to claim the objective and hold it for a certain length of time and in turn earning your team a resupply cache. There's also a breach style objective which has you tracking down an enemy EMP and disabling it before it can go active. So there is some variety to the objectives and where they end up on the map. It helps create a sense of controlled chaos as teams rush about the map to secure each point and fend off the enemy.

In terms of gameplay, Ubisoft has taken more of a class based approach. The base classes you have access to in the beginning of the beta are the Rifleman, the Scout, and the Engineer. Each class has its own set of weaponry of course, though the equipment and grenades are pretty much the same. The grenades vary from flash, emp, frag, and smoke while the base equipment is a camera monitor that can reveal enemy locations when set up. Things get a little different once you venture into the primary and secondary weapon categories. For instance the scout is going to be more mobile than the rest of his teammates and engage the enemy from a distance or from short range. For this the scout has access to two initial choices for a primary weapon in the form of a submachine gun(for your close quarters and mid-range combat) and a semi-auto rifle for long distance recon and engagement. The Rifleman appears to be more versatile in terms of combat as they can choose from an assault rifle or a large machine gun which is good for a variety of ranges. From the looks of it the Rifleman will be good for suppressing fire as well as general combat depending on which primary weapon you take. Unfortunately as of this writing I have not had the opportunity to try out the Engineer class but at a quick glance it appeared to be more geared towards close quarters combat with a short barreled rifle or shotgun to choose from as your primary weapon. The Engineer also seems to be the class that's better used for acquiring intel on the enemy team, which is very important to team tactics; more on that in a few.

As far as secondary weaponry goes, it appeared that it was generally the same for all of the classes. At the outset you only have access to two secondary weapons; a pistol or a stun gun. If you're wondering why a stun gun is included, let me tell you that it can help make all the difference in some battles. What I found after a game or two of adjusting to the controls and really getting a feel for the game is that intel plays a big part of the game. Now the Engineer class has specific equipment such as a UAV for acquiring enemy positions and helping the team plot out their movements across the map. The good thing is that this isn't wholly exclusive to the Engineer class as any member of the team can help acquire enemy intel. And this is where the stun gun particularly comes in handy. The range of the gun is very short so it takes some getting used to but once you actually put an enemy down with it you can hack into the system. This will light up the map with enemy locations for you and the rest of your team for a brief period of time. Just remember that collecting intel is a two way street and that the enemy team will be attempting to do the very same tactic so keep an eye out for your teammates and take out enemy players attempting to hack your team's system. Needless to say it adds another layer of strategy to the gameplay. 

After playing a few rounds and leveling my Rifleman to level 4 I decided to take a step back and look into Future Soldier's customization options. Unfortunately if you're big into customizing the look of your player there isn't a lot here in the beta without doing some massive leveling first. And once you do it only appears you can change the look of your headgear which is fine. The meat and potatoes of Future Soldier's customization options lay in the Gunsmith. When you access the loadout for your character you can actually customize your primary and secondary weapons just the way you want them. While some first person shooters allow you to slap a camo on your gun and add one or two attachments, Gunsmith looks to take that idea and pump it full of steroids for lack of a better phrase. Taking a look at Gunsmith under my Rifleman class, my standard ACR is blown apart and sectioned off. From here I am able to adjust and even buy new attachments for the the ACR to build it my specific wants and needs.

Gunsmith adds a whole new level of customization.

To get more specific, I am able to change the stock of the gun, the rail, or the side rail. Additionally I can add a scope, an under barrel attachment, the barrel and the muzzle. With the attachment credits I earned from reaching level 4 I was able to turn my basic ACR into something more akin to my play style, along with a different paint job. You can even test this weapon out right there from the Gunsmith menu by entering the Firing Range which allows you to engage in target practice with your new attachments. This is a part of the multiplayer experience that I think people will have a good time with because while customizing the look of your character is cool and all, each person has their own play style and it's good that their weaponry can reflect that. 

When it comes to the gameplay itself, it definitely takes a little bit to get used to. This is a cover based shooter and by that I mean there's an actual cover system as opposed to making your own cover behind objects within the map. In a first person shooter there's no specific cover button to hug a wall and peek out to scan the area. You kind of have to make do. In Ghost Recon the cover system is mapped to the A button (360 version). This allows you to slip into cover while an arrow marker appears as you lean out to designate the next cover point. Pressing and holding A while aiming the analog stick in that direction will send your character sprinting to the next cover point where they will immediately drop back into cover once more. It's a nifty system although at times a little clunky as there are some things that you cannot take cover against. Other times it just isn't entirely responsive, but I'm sure this is something that will be fixed before the final product hits the shelves.

One of the major pitfalls of a lot of shooters is usually the spawn system. Thankfully Future Soldier has things sort of figured out in terms of spawning. Once you link up with a team you can either spawn at a designated spawn for the team or you can spawn on one of your teammates. While this isn't necessarily a new concept, the way it's implemented is done very well. There are visible icons to show where you'll be spawning and if the area is actually safe to spawn into. If your teammate is in combat or detected, the system will not allow you to spawn into said dangerous situation. It helps prevent you from spawning and getting mauled immediately by the other team. It is balanced by also not allowing you to spawn on top of a teammate that is too close to an objective so you can't just pile into a bomb site with each spawn. It makes you work for it and that prevents the spawn system from becoming cheap.

The beta offers up looks at only two of the maps Ubisoft has in store for the final game, Mill and Pipeline. Both maps are fairly large by multiplayer standards with Mill definitely being the larger of the two. Because this is a class based shooter each map is tailored to suit the different styles of play. The added customization options for weaponry allows you to change your guns as necessary for each map which can be during during a 60 second intermission between rounds. For instance as I have been playing a Scout that specializes in long range tactics, when Mill comes up in the rotation I might change my scope and the barrel of my gun to allow me to see at greater distances because of the size of the map. This way I'm better suited to provide sniper fire and call out enemies for my team from a distance. Pipeline however might call for a short or standard barrel because the space to cover between sides is much shorter. And being this is a cover based shooter, both maps come chock full of areas to take cover and engage the enemy. Let me tell you sometimes things can get tense when you're in a perpetual standoff with the other team from behind cover and they're laying down suppressing fire or just trying to pick and choose their shots as you do the same.

As much as I have gushed about the game there are some problems and bugs that need to be ironed out. For one sometimes players or their guns completely disappear from view and you'll see a character shooting you without a weapon or a weapon without a player model mowing you down in a killcam. The other issue I have is that while the melee assassinations are great to look at and pull off, sometimes they appear unresponsive to your button press. When it works it's fantastic but sometimes it just doesn't seem to respond. Also, grenades are ridiculously effective. Grenades are a way of life in shooters and that's understood but the blast radius for them and your inability to either throw them back or evade them means that they're more than likely certain death. I think Ubisoft tried to balance this by only giving you one, unless you manage to resupply. Unfortunately the fact that evading them is nearly impossible it tosses balance out the window and it very simply becomes death from above.

Lag has also been a bit of an issue early on in the beta. The first weekend just ended and saw periodic downtime as Ubisoft ran server maintenance. Still I got into quite a few games where the lag became too much to handle and I ended up having to leave the multiplayer and attempt finding a new game. The last issue I have is how Ubisoft handles host migration which is sort of a double edged sword. I like the fact that if a host migration takes place in the middle of an objective that the game will restart with a new objective and a clean clock for said objective. What I don't like is that it will also clean the slate for your progression up to the point of the migration. For example I was in a game doing pretty well as my Scout. I had reached level 12 and I was just about 5000XP away from leveling up. I was then unfortunately the victim of a host migration that wiped my progression from the round. So far these are the issues I'd like to see them deal with and I'm sure these issues have already come up on Ubisoft's beta forum so it's possible they're already being worked on. They have a good basis for the multiplayer already. As long as it tightens up this game will be a lot of fun to play come next month.