Benchmarkcheck: Ghost Recon Future Soldier

It's easy for the player to develop a sense of superiority while navigating the different campaigns in the game, as there are various types of aid available. It's possible, for example, to assign enemies to one's three (autonomously acting and quite intelligent) team members and have said enemies eliminated simultaneously via the push of a button. This feature is quite handy on one side, but on the other, it diminishes the value of the game itself. We are not even talking about the overly powerful stealth-mode here. On the lowest level of difficulty, it's possible to move around for minutes without having to fire a single shot.

In dire situations, pressing the space bar activates the "take-cover feature", which works similar to other action games (Max Payne 3, Mafia 2 etc.). The character then hides behind the nearest suitable object. Since the character can't take a lot of hits (even as a "recruit") in the first place, this function is an absolute necessity. Technical gadgets, like spy drones and sensor grenades, help out the soldier. Control is easy and smooth. Speaking of smooth: the developers obviously spent a lot of time trying to get the animations right.

We find the plot and the various characters less convincing. Despite the (frequently included) interim movie-style clips, the main characters appear somewhat lackluster. The uninspired terrorist-arms-dealer story line (including the expected heavy dose of patriotism) lacks suspense and unexpected twists.  At least there's some change in scenery as the Ghosts travel around the world.

As far as gameplay is concerned, Future Soldier is decent, but not top-notch. Like other action games, it reminds us a bit of Call of Duty, although the meaningless "grouse passages" are kept within reasonable limits. Even though some areas tend to appear a bit steril because of poor level details, we like the atmosphere overall. The crisp sounding weapons and good English commentary lead to an enjoyable experience overall. We applaud the fact that the creators included quite a few civilians moving about in the various levels.

When we compare the game to the genre's top contenders, we feel it falls a bit short. Future Soldier is not a standout in any particular area. The only features that differentiates the game a bit are the extensive weapons arsenal and the 4-player co-op mode.

Save for impressive particle effects (smoke etc.), the game engine "Yeti" can in no way compete with Cry Engine 3 or Frostbite 2.0. Many of the surface textures are missing details and the facial expressions of the characters (which are otherwise solidly executed) are lacking. Additionally, some of the interim-sequences look outdated. Since there is no AF option, distant details are not preserved. 

What makes matters worse is that the game engine is not very well optimized. Not only are the hardware requirements stringent (more details to follow), but performance is glitchy. It didn't matter if we used VSync or not: even on high-end PCs the frame rate dropped occasionally when running on version 1.2.