Ghost Recon: Future Soldier Multiplayer Beta Analysis

They're soldiers. In the future.

Another Tom Clancy game is upon us, my brothers and sisters. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is coming soon to a console near you, and if you've pre-ordered you might just be playing the multiplayer beta.

Those of you who are not playing it will be getting an analysis of what is being offered to us playing it. I have to say, right off the bat, that I am a little disappointed.

When you log in you only have access one multiplayer mode (with two variations of said mode) to play. The game shows you that there are other types of multipalyer, but you only get to try out the one mode in the beta. It's like seeing the dessert tray but only getting to choose chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

I have yet to actually be logged in to a successful version of anything but the Conflict mode of the game. The other is a Saboteur mode. Conflict is where the two teams compete to complete certain objectives on the map before the other team. Hold down a position, hack intel, that sort of thing. Saboteur is described as your standard demo mode where one team has a bomb and the other tries to stop it from detonating.

There are classes to choose from including Scout, Engineer, and Rifleman, which you can level up, and weapons are upgradable for each loadout. That is not what I am going to be talking about right now though - but it is really cool to be able to do that.

Futuristic cover-based combat.

I am going to be talking about the multiplayer mechanics as a whole and why they are really, really bad. I hope a lot of changes are made before the final release of the game, otherwise I will be sticking to the co-op modes and rarely ever setting foot in these.

Future Soldier focuses a lot on the "future" aspect of war. You have multiple ways of finding out where the other team is and using technology to your advantage. While I appreciate the occasional method of rewarding a team by showing them their enemy for a time, I feel there are way too many opportunities and methods of doing this.

You can throw sensor grenades to see if there are enemy soldiers there. You can stun an enemy soldier, hack his suit, and then see where his whole team is. You can even set up a tiny camera that will tell you when someone walks by it. Call of Duty rewarded you for doing a good job with this perk. In Ghost Recon, after you reach a certain level or have the gear, you can use it instantly and completely annihilate the other team.


I have been on both sides of this. I have seen my team crush another when we knew exactly where they were and ripped them apart. I have also seen five of my team get blown to bits by a single grenade because a sensor grenade showed them all holding a single position close together. It is a good mechanic, I just think it has the ability to be so overly used that it will become not as exciting as it is meant to be and a complete and total cheat.


This game is all about teamwork. If you don't have that, if you and your team are incapable of actually speaking to each other or knowing the basics of covering someone when they go to an objective, you are completely screwed. Just pack it in. Seriously.

Team up or get taken out.

Multiplayer here is not for the lone wolves. You will get hunted down and massacred that way. On the flip side, if you and your team can successfully coordinate your efforts you will do absolutely grand. 9 times out of 10 I have been on teams where I will go and try to complete an objective and will get shot from three different directions with my team nowhere near the target. However, the best games have been me trying to protect someone three other guys trying to complete the task at hand with a huge map-wide firefight occurring, which is incredible.


There is also a definite separation between characters who have very powerful weapons and those with low starter weapons. This is common in all shooters' multiplayer games that have a tiered weapon reward system. Ghost Recon just seems to be that the better the gun is, the less shots it takes to kill a person. Not to mention clothing upgrades and whatnot.


The absolute worst part of the game had to be the tactical spawning. This has been used in other games with widely varying degrees of success. Three times I spawned with a guy that was labeled "Out of Combat" and "Ready," and as soon as I spawned someone turned the corner and blew us away.


There is far too much going on in Ghost Recon to accurately assume it is safe for you to spawn with a teammate unless they are they are a few meters away from a spawn point or you know for a fact that the area is cleared. Otherwise, just stick to the spawn point.

It felt a little bit like mobile spawn camping. A sniper could, in theory, have someone in his sights and then see someone spawn behind that person and take both of them out. Or a person could see another player, wait for a person to spawn, and then shoot them for the double kill bonus. It's just a little ridiculous.


I'm saddened that Ubisoft didn't let us play any of the co-op modes in the beta, and equally saddened by the maddening meat-grinder that multiplayer seems to be. I will continue to play it as it is, and will test out the complete version when the game launches. Hopefully it will be better, but if it isn't that will definitely hurt the score.