Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator

- Reviewed on PSP -

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator released on October 1st, 2010.

This tactical shooter title for the PlayStation Portable (PSP) was developed by Virtuos and published by Ubisoft during the handheld's golden era. 

Though the multiplayer modes aren't as accessible anymore (as of writing this blog post), the campaign for this neat and dandy game was oddly, really interesting, and with great music and even voice acting, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator is a great title to have for your PSP game collection!

This review WILL have Major Spoilers so keep that in mind before continuing...

This PSP exclusive, as a part of the vast Tom Clancy game series, is approximately 2-4 hours long and features a handful of achievements to earn (such as medals), 12 campaign missions, nine playable characters, and a plethora of weapons and gear to use / unlock.

You will evidently unlock more weapons, gear customization, and more, by simply playing the missions with up to three characters (or ghosts as their called) at a time and leveling them up.

Each character can reach a max level of 10 and before each mission, during the overview (briefing) scenes, you can choose which three characters to play as.

That's right, you actually can play as all three selected ghosts as the highlighted gameplay feature in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator, is the ability to command your other AI teammates and even control them when needed.

You can order your team mates to go to a specified location or enter one of two modes (states).

These modes include Recon mode and Assault mode. 

Recon mode is for your stealthy approaches (though you can complete the game easily without doing this) and Assault mode is for when you want your companions to engage with the enemy headfirst. 

Holding the circle button makes them come back to you and while you're doing that, you can also access (with the d-pad) your loadout. 

Each character is a part of a specific class. 

The classes include Colonel, Auto Rifleman, Marksman (my choice), Specialist, Scout, and Medic.

Each class has their own specific weapons that, unfortunately, other classes can't use.

Meanwhile the actual names of the ghosts are...

    - Scott Mitchell

    - Stiles

    - Bill

    - John

    - Parker

    - Wayland

    - Garcia

    - Jordan

    - Ramirez

I do like the plethora of classes you can mix up and combine to perform the gameplay differently each and every time.

For me, I chose Bill, Stiles, and Wayland for the whole campaign and this mixture of Marksman and Auto Rifleman, made for exciting gameplay with my full throttle team, but other players can / will have different choices!

There's also a ground drone and sensor bomb you can use to help navigate the enemy terrain as well as a limited supply of medical supplies to heal you and your comrades per mission.

Virtuos did a great job with the PSP's limited capabilities and made a wonderful variety of locations for the player(s) to plan out their moves and execute them however they please.

The missions / locations include...

    - Recruiting Facility

    - Jungle Compound

    - Blackout

    - LZ Construction Site

    - Bravo Village

    - Loyalist Base

    - Jungle Crash Site

    - Local Contact

    - Communication Hub

    - Staging Area

    - Rescue

    - Estate

While playing these missions, you will receive multiple main objectives (in yellow) that you can constantly see on the mini map (or main map when Select is pressed). 

You'll also see that there are orange objectives that aren't required to complete but if you want to breeze by this game and level up your ghost's damage, health, accuracy, etc. then I highly suggest going out of your way to complete these short and easy objectives.

Most side objectives are clearing enemies out, planting C4 explosives, or even helping civilians who show up as green markers. 

Helping civilians and greeting them increases your reputation with the communities, though I found no use in this odd feature?

The overall gist of Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator's story is about the team of ghosts being sent to Sri Lanka to figure out who is responsible for a previous mining ship attack that left dozens killed.

As I mentioned earlier, this game does have voice acting and is pretty substantial despite this game's initial presence. 

The things I didn't like however with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator is the poorly done cutscenes, occasional AI glitches with the teammates (which was bound to happen anyways), not all classes being able to use all weapons, and overall, the lack of longevity this game has.

Sadly, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator isn't a game I would revisit (as of writing this blog post), as when / if you play this game through once, you've practically seen it all! 

With that said though, I stand by my word that this PSP exclusive is well worth being in your collection and with the completion time not being too long, I do recommend this game! 

Pros: 

    - Good Story / Plot

    - Full Voice Acting

    - Not too Long

    - Achievements

    - Fun Gameplay 

Cons:

    - Occasional Glitches with AI Comrades

    - Limited Number of Weapons per Class

My Rating for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Predator (on PSP):

4 / 5

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Disclaimer

All Reviews, Ratings, Pros, Cons, and Opinions Shared on this Blog (Press A Reviews) are my (Connor Butler) own Thoughts and Feelings.