Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm

This game is made by Red Storm Entertainment and is a squad-based FPS, just like Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising (one shot, one kill/death) The game has been released in the year 2004 for the PS2. The version I have also includes Ghost Recon: Island Thunder, so I bought two games in one for a decent price (I think it was €20). The most remarkable thing about the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon games is that they all take place in the future (at release date!). Island Thunder and Jungle Storm both take place in the year 2010 and the game location is Cuba.

Island Thunder: ‘In 2010, Cuba is free, or at least it is supposed to be. Since Fidel Castro’s death in 2006 (Oh, I can still remember that) , the island of Cuba is wary of the communist rule it had been under for nearly 50 years. It is time for the first free and open elections since Carlos Prio Socarras, who was overthrown by Fulgencio Batista in the early 1950s. The FDP (El Frente Democratico del Pueblo or People's Democratic Front) has fronted a man named Priego as their candidate. The FDP are an outspoken anti-American political faction that wishes to return the Cuban working class to power and end capitalist inequalities, or so they claim. Although the FDP publicly denies utilizing violence as a means of coercion, the reality is quite the contrary, as the Ghosts quickly discover the FDP violently attacking election stations. In reality the FDP are a puppet organization run by Colombian drug cartels who wish to take over Cuba to use as a vast drug depot. Its up to the Ghosts to make sure the elections occur and protect the Cuban civilians from the cartel's puppets.’

Jungle Storm: ‘Taking place just after Island Thunder in Bogotá, Colombia, the drug cartel that had aided and financed the FDP in their efforts in Cuba has initiated a number of terrorist attacks against the Colombian government who have allied themselves with the U.S.A. After Colombia's call for help following an attack on a U.S. Embassy, America responds by deploying the Ghosts to restore order and put the cartel out of business.’

In these two games you command five men divided in two or three squads. Squad A always follows you and you’re able to command the other squad to, for example, flank a group of enemies while you suppress those enemies. You can also order them to be offensive, neutral or defensive. On offensive they’ll shoot an enemy on sight and take him out as fast as possible, giving away their location. On neutral they’ll be less aggressive. On defensive they’ll only shoot an enemy when they’re attacked by one.When you die, you’ll take control of one of your remaining men.

You’re also able to play on split-screen. You can play different modes, like mission mode (campaign mode, single-mission), Firefight (kill all the bad guys on the map, density relies of the difficulty you’ve chosen), Defend (the same as Firefight, but you also have to defend a spot marked by smoke), Recon (you have to get from point A to point B) and some competitive modes, Last Man Standing and Sharpshooter (just kill your friend as much as possible, the stupid thing is that you’ll lose no points when you kill yourself, so that means that you’ll choose the rocket launcher as weapon and fire some shots at your friend before you kill yourself).You can play Online too, but when I did that I experienced that a lot of players were cheating (I don’t know how, it was playing on a PS2). But that was a couple of years ago and it’s possible that nobody plays the game any more.

The graphics of this game aren’t that good, especially when you compare the game with other titles released in the same year, like Star Wars: Battlefront, you’ll notice that the PS2 can take better graphics than those of Jungle Storm.

The AI is quite stupid, sometimes they run like roadrunner towards your location before getting shot. But luckily your enemies are aggressive, so that makes up for it.

Despite the complaints I had some fun with this game for a couple of years, playing on my own or with friends. The graphics are very outdated, but the gameplay is ok. You could try this game out when you see it, but you don’t have to, it isn’t that good. Just remember that you’ll get two games for almost nothing!

Video footage is from Island Thunder.