Apparently the US Army never stands up on its missions.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm is a game that I got for three reasons. The first is that I'm a big fan of the PC shooter America's Army, and I heard that this played similarly to that game. The second is that it was cheap: just $14.99 at EB Games. The third is that I needed a cooperative game to play with friends, and tactical shooters generally lend themselves to good cooperative gameplay. (Unless your buddy decided to throw a grenade at you and let it sit on the ground as they laugh at you before your character blows up; then it may be time to get some new friends.) Anyway, for its price, I was surprised by the amount of content packed into this game, although I really shouldn't have been, seeing as it contained the already-released Ghost Recon: Island Thunder (a game which I do not own).

Graphics: 4/10

The weak point of the game. Characters and models look blocky, animations are pure crap (enemies, instead of running, will magically "teleport" to places, making it exceedingly hard to hit them), and some levels that are supposed to be clear are packed with fog so that you can barely see your enemy 50 feet away through the scope of a sniper rifle. And why is there lag in my single player game? That is inexcusable, especially with graphics like this. On the plus side, your night vision goggles are cool-looking and mask the graphical difficulties somewhat.

Sound: 6/10

The menu music is your standard Clancy fare (Cuban drumbeats), and it's suited to a game like this. The game music is mostly unobtrusive, but it will pick up into a more exciting tune when you enter a firefight. The guns sound average, and the bullet ricochets do too. One nice touch is that your Cuban enemies will shout in Spanish when they appear to have detected you. ("Norteamericanos!") Overall, nothing special, but nothing horrible either.

Gameplay: 8/10

Actually a very fun game, underneath the lack of polish. It has heavy emphasis on the "tactical" part, and a single bullet can kill you. Definitely not for fans of run-n-gun gameplay. If you stand up, you'll probably be shot at, so you have to stay crouched or prone to have a chance. Controls are simple and mostly unobtrusive; you'll recognize the dual analog "one stick for movement, the other for looking" from almost every Ps2 shooter ever, and the rest of the controls are fairly standard, although you might find yourself mixing up Reload and Switch Weapon because they're both on the same part of the controller, have similar functions, and appear to do the same thing (since you can't see your gun, all that appears is a circular bar in the middle of the screen). The two major complaints I have are that some parts of the game feel like sloppy cover-ups of mistakes; for example, due to the game's difficulty with producing decent graphics, you get a radar at the bottom of your screen telling you where enemies are if you're playing on Recruit or Veteran difficulty. This basically makes it so that you have to play on Elite to have it be a "fair" game. The other problem with the game is that the AI is simultaneously smart and dumb. Your team, for example, will sometimes take out every single enemy on their path and feel like an unstoppable force; other times, they will get into a firefight with one enemy and one of them will die despite having a 3 on 1 advantage. Enemy AI will seek cover and shoot out from behind it, yet sometimes they won't notice you when you're two feet away from them, directly in front of them. Other than these two gripes, this game is a solid shooter that I recommend, especially at its low price.

Replay Value: 9/10

Splitscreen multiplayer is exceptional, both co-op play and versus. Additionally, there is an online component, but I can't comment on it because I haven't actually played it online. You will also keep playing to attempt to unlock all the "specialists" by completing additional mission objectives.

Buy or Rent?

For $14.99, you'd have to be a cheapskate not to. However, I don't recommend it to those that don't enjoy a tactical style of play; this is definitely not a traditional shooter.