Ghost Recon Wii Hands-on

Few things in gaming are sadder than awful Wii adaptations of big-budget HD console games. Thank your lucky stars that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is anything but, despite sharing a name with its recently delayed cousins. This (mostly) on-rails shooter cuts its own path by throwing some wrenches into the ancient genre and comes out the better for it.

Having played through a few levels in a preview build that Ubisoft provided, I came away pleased for a few reasons. First, I have a solid co-op rail shooter to look forward to as House of the Dead: Overkill is finally getting stale. Second, it's nice that Ubi is doing something interesting with this Wii version rather than cashing in on low-budget schlock and relying on the brand name alone to sell it.

Unlike nearly every other example of rail shooter, Future Soldier eschews the "you are the reticle" model and has you peeking in and out of cover from a tight third-person view. It sounds dumb on paper, but the system works well once you get used to the controls. You also have manual control over your progress, as your Ghost moves up to the next cover spot only when you tell him to. Juggling reloads with your ally, laying down suppressing fire, and bounding from cover to cover flavors this shooting gallery with a distinct Ghost Recon taste without making the action drag.

The missions I had access to didn't have much in terms of flanking or any kind of branching paths within the levels, which is a missed opportunity. I'm hoping Ubisoft is holding something back for the full game, as the cover point system seems like a perfect fit for those types of mechanics, but I'm not going to hold my breath.

Future Soldier is also notable for its inclusion of a unique sniper rifle mechanic. When you pull the trigger with a sniper rifle equipped, it brings up a scope view in your corner of the screen. Moving the Wii remote then slowly scrolls that view, and another trigger pull fires. I found this approach interesting, but very difficult to employ during most firefights as being exposed out of cover for more than a second or two is an invitation to get shot, and lining up sniper shots tends to take slightly longer than that.

Beyond the unusual cover system, Future Soldier is very much a reasonably well executed on-rails shooter. The bad guys are easily recognizable at any distance and as generic as Russian ultranationalists can be – I was amused when the game informed me that I had been killed by "RPG Enemy." The UI clearly has some thought behind it, as higher-caliber threats get a second arrow above the normal enemy indicator and those same sigils go white as soon as you kill a guy, preventing you from wasting precious time dumping bullets into their extended death animations.

Future Soldier is always cooperative. If you don't have a buddy on the couch next to you, the computer will supply a surprisingly competent one. With how the game handles cover and the way that enemies react to being shot, two players are all but necessary. Half the fun is in calling out targets and working with a friend, though, so a physical partner is recommended.

There's no metagame that I can see in this preview build outside of an in-game achievement list, so that's a bummer. Even the most basic tacked-on weapon unlocking scheme can add some depth to a shallow game like this, and Future Soldier seems to be deficient in that regard.

My brief playtime with the game was largely positive, but one thing stood out as a potential serious problem. Engagement ranges longer than twenty meters or so, which come up a few times per level, are extremely challenging due to the Wii's low resolution and the imprecision of the Wii remote. There are sometimes workarounds, like suppressing the distant enemies and bounding to closer cover points or pulling out a sniper rifle, but these sections can grate.

Look for our full review soon, as this Wii incarnation of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier deploys to store shelves on November 16.