If you're like me, you've been feeling slightly frustrated about how the recent Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six sequels are more action-movie-ey and reflex-orientated, whereas the original Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games were very tough and hardcore tactical shooters that really emphasized planning, meticulousness, and teeth-gnashing frustration. For the most part, nobody seems to be making strategy-heavy tactical FPS games any more, although I consider SWAT 3 and SWAT 4 to actually be the best examples in that genre.

However, recently I've downloaded and started playing Heroes Unleashed, which is a hardcore and awesome mod for the original Ghost Recon game. The emphasis is still squarely on strategy and tactics and your Army Special Forces guys are still running around with their mid-90s camo and "land warrior" getup complete with OICW, but the game has in many ways been made more complex and realistic while staying true to the character of the original Ghost Recon game.

The AI has been improved, and shooting accuracy has become more realistic; no more 700 meter miracle full auto shots from OPFOR to compensate for nonexistent AI. Your squads exhibit more intelligent behaviors as well regarding seeking cover, hiding from the enemy, and so on. And there is a huge boatload of more weapons. No more stupid class-based restrictions on who is allowed to carry a suppressed long arm or who can get a carbine and who can only lug around a full length rifle. It is like Ghost Recon has been given a breath of fresh air and totally revitalized for the modern tactical gamer and is now just as thrilling and awesome as it seemed the day it came out.

One of the biggest frustrations I'd had with the original Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games was how the AI opponents would pull off improbable miracle shots with superhuman reaction times. I remember how on the second or third level of Rainbow six how enemies who were supposedly a bunch of disgruntled students wielding Skorpion machine pistols would one-shot-kill my sprinting Rainbow operatives who were wearing bomb disposal outfits and over 500 feet away. At the time I started playing that game, I fortuitously had also first started learning how to operate firearms through some classes at my college, and I was struggling to refine the fundamentals so that I could hit the black on a 50 foot slow fire pistol target using a Ruger Mark II under ideal conditions. I immediately knew how ludicrous the AI accuracy was and to this day I still don't believe it really improved gameplay.

So it is especially nice to be able to go back to a game like Ghost Recon, play it through again, appreciate the solid emphasis on squad-based tactics that you tend to see shifting in favor of l33t sk1llz and twitch nowadays, and basically be able to play it with even more simulationism/realism and less frustration over stupid stuff like the machine pistol miracle shots.

I'd recommend that everyone who pines for the days of difficult tactical shooters check out Heroes Unleashed: www.heroesunleashed.net

While I liked Ghost Recon, I do not think I ever experienced an improbable shot like Wounded Ronin in campaign play. Perhaps I did, but did not know it. Most of the time I was sure it was because I forgot to check round the bend or was distracted by my mom yelling to listen carefully to the background sound effects for people coming round the corner.

The reason why I feel GR is realistic is due to the fact that I did not need to have great reflexes to win in a PVP game. In fact, with the mods my buddies were running, there were some games that I won without firing a single shot. Just a click on the detonator blew the opfor up and we won the game.

Meh. Everyone knows disgruntled students are hardcore.

~J

that's the the one thing that makes tactical shooters and squad-based strategy and exercise in frusteration: AI is just too dumb, and you have to make up for it with stupid-ridiculous accuracy. hopefully advancements will soon make this a thing of the past.

for the meantime, I just find online servers with competent players.