Sound: 9
Gameplay: 8
Replay Value: 10
Reviewer's Tilt: 10
Overall: 9.0
Well, you knew it would happen sooner or later: An expansion pack would be made for the game. And now it's out! Ghost Recon: Desert Siege takes place a year after the events in the previous game, this time in Africa. The plot is new, there are some new guns, and there are 8 new single-player missions, not to mention the 5 new multiplayer maps. Basically, if you're a fan of Ghost Recon, then you owe it to yourself to get the best expansion pack to any PC game.
Northern Africa has never looked so realistically created. The levels actually have small brush and yucca. Sand is always present, and your team AI is dressed in sand-colored clothing to match the terrain. The game is a lot more difficult because you are in open desert; you don't have the tree and shrub for shelter like you did in the last game.
This makes combat even deadlier. This game is definately harder than the first one, even though that game was already as tough as nails. You have to take advantage of any cover you have to hide in, because it's very rare to find any sort of it. You are in the middle of the desert, so naturally this is a surprise to anyone who's played the original game. There's a big transition from a forest, heavy populated with trees, to Africa, where's theres...uh, nothing.
Maybe that's the reason I knocked down the score for graphics. They seem to have gotten worse, as the textures do not sport much detail in them now. Plus, the desert gets a little repetitive looking, and by the time you're through you're almost sick of the color of sand. Miles and miles of sand...oh, and if you're lucky, you might see a dead tree. Of course, Africa actually looks like this, so I can't complain too much; they accurately created the landscape.
The game's graphics also fall short on framerate. Sure, the last game ran at a pretty low framerate, but this time when there's even a little action on screen, the game slows down really low. I honestly didn't know that sand took so much data to make the framerate all crappy (sarcasm).
Well, there's also some sound glitches too. When you start a new mission at the briefing screen, the music and the narrator's voice may skip repeatedly. No, it's not a scratched or dirty disc, it's the game. Plus, after beating a mission, it takes an awful long time to get to the character selection screen, a problem that didn't occur in the last game.
I can't complain too much about this game. After all, it's the gameplay that makes this gem shine. It may not be nearly as good as its father, but it sure serves as a nice little add on to the game after you've had enough of the first one. If you're a fan, I say pick it up. It's worth every penny, especially at the cheap price of $20. Don't pass this one up.
