[DeWolfe]

Hello everyone and welcome to my first review here at the UFP. My name is now Dewolfie but you will probably know me as Rayne. The name change came about because I hardly play my toon: Rayne and its becoming a bit too common on STO. Anyhow enough about me, let's talk about the game I'm reviewing.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Phantoms

The testing machine:

Am2 Socket MH3073 AMD Mobo
AMD Phenom II X4CORE-480 Processor 3.20ghz
Corsair DDR3 4gig Ram
HDRADEON 5670 1g VRAM

So what is it?

Hereon reffered to as TCGRP or Phantoms to save time,
Phantoms is a Massive Multi-player Online Third Person Shooter with FPS and Tactical Squad based elements. The game is avalable on steam or Uplay but if you get it on Steam you will still be forced to register and activate an account on Ubisoft's game registration and server medium "Uplay"

The game takes place many years into the future from the Advanced Warfighter series in which Cloaking Devices, X-Ray vision and advanced HUD systems with interlinked camera and IDF(Identification Systems) are common. Former members of the Ghost Unit have gone rogue and are now Private Military Contract's or MERCs which are currently employed to assault and take possession of Aliied assets which the Ghosts are deployed to Defend or take back.

The game is basically an adhoc between Call of Duty and (Tom Clancy's)Ghost Recon and make it into a Free-to-play platform. It may sound like blending all that would result in a low quality experience and I was certainly afraid of that myself as I waited for Steam to finish Downloading and Installing it. But I was surprised. This game is actually fun!

It plays out similarly to a game called Kill.Switch and slightly resembles Gears of War without the massively aggressive and violent overtones. It includes a Third Person Cover System allowing you to look around corners without getting your head blown off. With very fluid like animations when you enter and leave cover.

here's an example,



With the Cover system the game has taken from its Ghost Recon roots but instead of having a similar weapons system it has adopted the CoD style of fast paced action. The game has a large arsenal of weapons and attachments, most of which are affordable via the F2P systems with some Elite Guns and Gadgets requiring the games Zen-like currency or a buttload of its EC equivalent. Acquiring funds is not all that time consuming and with the games fun factor you really won't mind. With the game in its infancy, not many have the elite stuff yet anyway so if you join in now you'll grow along with the majority of players allowing for fewer mismatch, unfair rounds.

Now as I stated before the game has a large array of weapons for which to purchase and customise as you see fit, here's some more examples.





There are also futuristic gadgets that make the game even more tactical such as Cloaking Devices, Sentry Drones that shoot radiation beams and X-Ray radars to counteract the cloaking device.

One thing that sets it apart from other Squad Style FPSs is that you cannot change your class midgame, you can swap gear available to that class but after the match starts you are stuck as either Assault(Recon(Support so it pays to look at what others members of your team are using.

So that's some of the gameplay, I don't want to spoil some of the other stuff the game has to offer so I'll move onto its performance.

The graphics are not the most advanced and feature striking similarity to Battlefield 2 or Splinter Cell - Convict with new shaders for the unique gadgets the game has. I ran it flawlessly on normal settings with the aforementioned rig and when switching to full graphics only dropped from my usual 60 Frames per second down to 30 but only with the highest settings when a unique gadget like cloak was used and its shaders were on screen. But in an MMO you should really use the lowest settings anyhow to avoid lag.

Anyhow, that's it for this review. Next one will be a bit more in-depth and I'll have it better researched.

The overall scores I give this game on a rating of 1-Pre-alpha Rubbish to 10-God Tier.

Graphics-7
Gameplay-8.5
Controls-8.5
Server-8.5

Conclusion: The final verdict I give this game is an 8. This means currently with its fresh tactic style gameplay, with all its weapons and unlocks the game is fun and each match is rewarding allowing for repeated replayability. Its graphics are decent and the squad style tactics allow for great satisfaction when a plan comes together. I highly recommend this game for all, if guns are your thing.

Add taidragon to your Steam if you'd like to join me in a match sometime.

All images are from Ubisoft's Tom Clancy Ghost Recon Phantoms, owned by Ubisoft and all its affiliates, this published work is intended for educational value and should be seen as a tribute. no infringement is intended.