Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter Review/What's it worth?

[Lavinia]

TL:DR - skip to the end

I bought this game on Gamersgate so I can't post the review on the store page, but I'll give you guys my assessment if you're considering buying.

I'll start by saying that this isn't an easy assessment. I come from a background of ARMA and Rainbow Six and I've played the original Ghost Recon too, which I enjoyed.

Graphics/aesthetics: It's an older title so, but looks decent enough. It can run at my native resolution of 1920x1080, which is nice. I am running an AMD, but there are PhysX for you NVIDIA users.
Personally, I could have done with more variety in locations. It mainly takes place Mexico city and it has a bit of the outlying suburbs with a bit of a desert like feel. This game does have a lot of sandy color to it though even in the city, which I found rather bland.
I did occasionally have issues with the models and backgrounds turning black, but I could juke the screen to make return to normal.

Sound: Nice gun sounds. Your team mates say pretty much the same things throughout the game, but I did find it nice that the voice work was consistent for your team members (you only have 3).
The music is fitting and tense, even in the downtime during missions. It fits the game like a glove. The music itself is pretty atmospheric so even though there isn't a whole lot to the soundtrack you aren't stuck hearing the same melodies over and over again because there aren't many.

Story: Doesn't make much sense at all. I won't spoil anything for you guys, but let's just say that there is a lot of things that just suddenly happen that feel like they should have had some intermission cutscenes.

Gameplay: This is where I'm a bit conflicted. I could not stop playing this game. It engaged me from beginning to end. I played little else from start to finish.
Let's preface this by saying that this is a tactical shooter in the style of the older Rainbow Six/Ghost Recon titles. You deal almost exclusively with outside environments, though they are streets. The game does provide you with quite a few alternative ways to approach objectives, which is very cool, especially for a game of its time. It's not infinitely big. There are invisible walls, but you still have at least 2 or 3 pathways to objectives and those pathways branch as well.
You command your squad through a menu. It is very much like ARMA in that respect. And, just like ARMA, the AI sometimes does things brilliantly, but will usually frustrate you. The pathing is not so good sometimes, to the point that you might just kill a team member who is stuck just so you don't have to wait for him or hold his hand out of the situation.
When the AI is working, the recipe for success is overlapping lanes of fire. Always be overlapping lanes of fire (ABOLF).

How much is it worth? I'd catch it on a sale. $5 or less is a good price if these types of titles catch your eye. It's a game that takes a LOT of time. 1 to 1-1/2 hours per level and there are quite a few, so you get a lot of bang for your buck.

[kitekrazy]

This game is one of the harder GR games. GRAW2 is a major improvement in that the save points are more frequent.

[ALEX IV]

I also don't have this game in Steam, but I played it quite a few years ago. I wanted to add a few things to your very good review.

This is probably one of the best tactical shooters there are (and probably one of the last ones, after GRAW 2 there hasn't been a worthy succesor). You have to really know what you are doing, and plan in advance for each siuation and setting, else things will go FUBAR very quickly. One word of advice: This game is HARDCORE. It tries to be realistic, so you will die with just a few shots, or a shot to the head. Some levels have really spaced checkpoints so you will probably replay them a LOT. I distinctly remember one level I probably died and replayed way more than 100 times before I was able to complete it. Is that a con? Well, for me... NO! I love difficult games that posses a challenge, and this is one of the reasons I really liked this game. It's not your mindless run and shoot the baddie generic FPS shooter. Try to do that here and you will be dead before you are able to click the mouse. However, I can understand if this is somewhat frustrating for some players.
I also want to add that the music, specially the main theme is absolutely amazing. I still get chills in my back when I hear it again from time to time.

This is a very good game, but it's not for everybody. If you like military tactical shooters, this is one of the best there are, but take into account that it will be a very challenging experience, but at the same time a very engaging and satisfactory one.