To say this game is visually appealing for most gamers would be an understatement. A lot of time and effort obviously went into the game’s development. The area of Washington DC is expansive and beautifully rendered with a lot of post-apocalyptic areas to explore and enjoy. The characters are deep, and the story will definitely lead you to make meaningful and decisive choices as you follow the initial plot and try to help the survivors make it through. The detail to each thing is incredible and well worth it for those who enjoy exploring. There is very little left of this game that isn’t rendered to allow you to lose yourself in just the sights alone.
Of course, some of us here are even more dragged in and we may over scrutinize due to our knowledge in creating the art of a world in a video game. There are some minor glitches and if you are one of the few wh0o likes to watch every little thing, you may find yourself flinching here and there as characters words don’t particularly seem to match what their mouths are doing, but it is easy to overlook if you just let go of the little things and look at the bigger picture as it is. With so much going on and so great of an amount of detail poured into this game, one can’t expect perfection at every turn.
What makes this game impressive? The little details definitely do. Everything is beautifully textured so that you can tell the roads are rough, the clothing is old and worn looking, the buildings are crumbling from both battle and lack of care. Peoples bodies aren’t smooth or flawless. From the missing limbs, to the colored teeth and even scars in areas, the artists didn’t miss a thing on making sure these characters are trying to survive in a world where the everyday sanitary items and things were taken for granted are simply scarce and so you aren’t going to have the ability to clean up and look your best every single day- if at all. This is often a missed detail in post-apocalyptic games where almost all survivors have perfect teeth, clear eyes and appear bathed and in clean, unblemished cloths. Of course, this is a Tom Clancy game, and we have come to expect more realism when it comes to anything with that name tagged to it!

Of course, you would expect the gunfire and explosions to be grand in a game based on warfare, and it is. Each gun has its own semi-unique sound to its fire and it’s rate so that you can indulge in testing each effect as you please, and the same goes for explosives. If you like your bangs and booms, you will get it from any Tom Clancy game you pick up really.

The sound effects of movement and breathing will also draw you in when you are going about either in a stealth mission or simply trying to get from point A to point B. You have the effects of boxes being opened and equipment like computers, disarming any style of missiles or bombs and even when characters move things or toss things. These are all expected. What really counts are two things- the music and the voice acting. If either is completely lacking in a game, it is one of the first things a gamer will note- especially when traversing long stretches or viewing a cutscene.
While the music is soft for most gameplay, it can be changed via the menu to be more easily enjoyed. Though as gamers, most of us realize that as awesome as the music can be, it can also make things hard to hear when you are navigating any type of battlefield. They did awesome with the composition to this game, it adds atmosphere and emotion that is well worth having and set at a minimum it would not be too distracting for most. What is impressive is that if you choose to minimalize this to do your best gameplay, if you choose to listen to it on its own, outside the game, it is great inspiration for other tasks- such as writing. Not all games can supply a score that allows you to enjoy it outside of the game, but this one certainly does.

When it comes to voice acting, there are a lot of recognizable game actors, so you may recognize a few, which often is exciting for those of us who enjoy picking up on the minor details, yet again. The good news is that most of it make sense, so you won’t feel like you suddenly kicked out of the atmosphere when someone starts talking to you via radio, or during a cutscene. The emotions are proper, and it doesn’t leave you feeling as if they are reading lines they don’t really know one get from a piece of paper. Again, if we got anything like that from such a big name as this game has on it, we would have been highly disappointed.

The initial gameplay is highly engaging for the player for this one. The first game had a lot of intriguing setups, but some of the mechanics just seemed the slightest bit off. The team caught this and for the second game, those initial quirks appear to have been resolved. The type of gun you choose will affect your aim and how quick you are to respond, and even the reload time for putting in new ammo is different. There has even been a great deal of praise in regard to how the controller reacts in your hands with vibrations as you fire. You will feel differences from one gun to the next, both on and off the screen.
The mechanics don’t stop with your weapons after all leveling up has to mean something, and since you do actually level up, this was implemented by skills or traits your character accrues through play. Depending on how you set up your character will change what types of weapons you are better at, how good you are at catching onto things in your environment and even how high a level of weapon you can get.

While the weapons do have their own class of level points, they cap off at a certain point, and after you reach that, the only way to raise the value is in how well you developed your characters specializations. Certain skill sets allow you to modify your weapons, ammo and other items in the game. This will become increasingly important if you intend to do after story PVP in the Dark Zones.

The Dark Zones are where things really start to lose their uniqueness, unfortunately. While there are a few new weapons and modifications, the level cap is the same and you don’t get anything more powerful after a while. The set-up is almost identical to the first game, and many players found this rather disappointing. Then again, this game is new, and the chance of updates and new features being added online is high. Mass online player games are becoming the favorites of those who enjoy warfare games, and because of that, many new releases come out with only a basic set up because adding to it over time is easy through the servers, and the deadlines don’t have to be as rough on designers and artists to give you more over time rather than all at once. A few players have complained of some minor bugs in the play, but again, patches can be implemented as well and over time those bugs will be fixed as they add new things to the gameplay.

This game shines when it comes to narrative or story, but then again, isn’t this where most Tom Clancy games have their brightest stars? The only thing we had to note was just the fact that if the second game of this set is where you are walking into it, the story can drag out of you are attempting to watch it via online through different media outlets. The best way to view it is either to play it yourself or be present with the one playing the game. As with most long-play games, more often than not the videos are chopped in a way to try and let you see pieces of each mission rather than the entirety of the game. Unlike an RPG you don’t get a flow of cutscenes that will blend seamlessly together after all this is a war game, which means a lot of stories is scene by doing the missions and tedious tasks in between.
If you are coming into it with game 2 you get the main idea right away- the world went to war. Viral weapons were used to wipe out people as well as agriculture. In the aftermath, there were those willing to work together, and those only in it for themselves. You are working with the former to try and restore some semblance of order so that the people can grow and flourish again. As with any game, though, you have villains who may not always seem very deep in their reasonings- in other words, the only reason they decide to do bad is that they feel like it.
While the main narrative is well thought out, the game seems a little lacking in some respects. The stories can get repetitive and there are things that happen no matter how you approach the situation (a character dies no matter how you go about attempting to save him- even if you do 100% in stealth). It is very linear in this fashion. The expansive world and ability to explore can also be very distracting from the story as well, since not all of it is involved in the narrative and this can lead to a breakdown in the story where, by the time you come back, you’ve forgotten what exactly your mission was meant to do. You will eventually get reminders, and the cutscenes will bring you back quickly, but this is something some of us with curiosity may find ourselves falling prey to.
The main point of the story for this one is simply to get and keep a DC settlement up and running while they are being attacked by groups whose only real goal seems to be to make sure as many people involved on your side die as possible. Bosses are anticlimactic, and from what we could sit down and see of the game, they didn’t have much depth. So, if you are looking for the meaningful end of the story, you’ll only seem to get it with your allies in the cutscenes.

When you pick up a Tom Clancy, the theme is immediately evident- war. We would quote another game here, but it isn’t Tom Clancy. Each line of his games seems to take on a different approach, or a different war, but in the end, that’s exactly what you are getting. Sometimes there are other factions that make sense, and you have choices on who to go with. This does not appear to be the case here, however. You are part of the only group that seems to have any logical thought patterns left in the world. Work together, grow food, provide help to each other. Everyone else is just out to make sure that doesn’t happen.

This is an online game with multiplayer in mind. You can have friends join you in the gameplay in special spots known as ‘Dark Zones’. Here there are different goals that give you both PVE and PVP opportunities to develop your character. Unfortunately, at the time we looked into it, there seemed to be more negative than positive. It remained almost identical to the first game with only a few bonuses, and you don’t really get ‘better’ stuff by playing in the Dark Zones than you would be playing in the main gameplay areas. Of course, this can change over time, so we don’t rule out that things could get better.

While this game does offer mass multiplayer online scenarios, it seems to currently hold a lot of bugs in it as well. This is however expected, since by technicality the online side of it is actually still in its infancy months, and players can expect updates and patches as more of them take to the Dark Zones looking for groups to join or play against. So, if you are one of those willing to tromp your way through and prepare ahead of time for the eventual advancements in play, this may be the perfect time to start, as you’ll be coming in ahead of the surge and have a lot more experience and prep work is done when they do start rolling the updates through.

If you enjoy repeating scenarios and trying all sorts of combinations with skills and weapon types, your likely to find this game has a good deal of replayability to it. However, if your particular enjoyment is in getting different outcomes based on the choices you make, that isn’t going to be as much of a pull. Most of the story, as with the majority of the war-based game, is very linear. This means that there are not going to be a huge amount of story changes based on your decisions. Certain characters will always die, others will stay waiting till you decide to rescue them. There are some options that change things, but not many and we didn’t see a whole lot to suggest a completely different outcome based on them. Of course, the dynamics of how a certain character reacts to you and any requests you might make might change if you do decide not to help with personal missions or goals.

Since this is still a pretty new game, the price tag is considerable, though most games for the newer machines tend to cost the same. For a One game, being asked to pay $60 USD is typical. Given the name attached to it as well as the fact it is going to continue to offer new online playing experiences as it grows makes it worth it. Again, there are certain game lines that are always going to draw both a price tag and have the reputation of delivering- though Tom Clancy does pull its weight every time according to fans.

-Name brand
-Playability
-Variation
-Character build
-Online play
-Multi-player platform

If your love is in the war-based genre of FPS, this is going to be a must-have. We don’t tend to try and over praise any one type of game or item here on Gear Hunt, but reputation precedes when it comes to certain genre’s This game offers a great start and promises an interesting future in playability. With all that they tend to do right, it is usually worth it to grab up any title within the line- and you are always bound to find a group playing to join up with as well.