GRAW 2 Demo

For the uninitiated, that's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2. The supposedly ultra-brief demo of the sequel to last year's Tom Clancy tactical shooter hit the Marketplace yesterday morning. I set up the active download for the demo last night just before diving back into the original GRAW solo campaign.

Just an aside: I'm having trouble with GRAW. It's not that the game has a steep ramp up in difficulty as you progress through the missions, it's that the difficulty grading is so wildly inconsistent. I'm currently stuck in the Shantytown stage where I'm trying to escort a VIP out of a parking garage that's under heavy assault. The early part of that mission was a cakewalk, the difficulty barely elevated above tutorial-level. Escaping the garage, however, has been incredibly frustrating: my teammates are elite bullet catchers and nothing more and I'm provided almost no cover as I try to make a break for it outside.

Earlier missions had their share of tough spots too, mainly due to the fact I wasn't immediately aware of the controls I had over heavy armour support or I simply wasn't accustomed to the control scheme. As soon as I started getting the hang of things, BAM, they throw Mission 5 (Mayday! Mayday!) in your face. That's the night mission that sees you assaulting a castle from a chopper turret before infiltrating the castle alone. The mission was long and grueling, with spread out checkpoints and only a single area to re-arm and recover health. This damn mission nearly put me off GRAW entirely; I must have played it an upwards of 20 times before I finally licked it.

Frustrated again by Shantytown, I was tempted to fire up the GRAW2 demo but my eyes were jacked and done for the night. I'm fairly skeptical about the final game as it appears to be a quick cash-in sequel: same engine, mildly improved graphics and mildly improved play mechanics. Early demo reviews harp on the fact that other than being way too short (5-10 minutes total), it's more of the same, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. At the best of times, the GRAW gameplay is absolutely riveting.

I'll be back soon for demo impressions.