We've sent teams of crack operatives into tense close-combat action in Rainbow Six, steered one-man stealth specialist Sam Fisher into the murky conspiracies of Splinter Cell, and taken squad-based combat out into the great beyond in Ghost Recon. What's left for the Tom Clancy line to sink its political teeth into?
Put simply: war. This is the kind of filthy war that stretches out as far as the eye can see, with explosions and shrapnel spraying with every click of the mouse.
The Rainbow team may be a fictional military unit (just like the rest of the Tom Clancy series, Ghost Recon takes place a few years in the future) but its origins are firmly based in real US military programs, such as Land Warrior.
For a change, it's not the Russians causing a fuss on the world stage, but the North Koreans. With political tension rising and famine wracking the country, the Ghosts are called in to prevent a rogue General manipulating the country into an all-out assault on China.
Regardless of the map, the Ghosts Recon 2 modus operandi remains the same throughout. There's no square-jawed hero out to save the day, but rather a team of trained operatives, each with their own specialist skills and abilities, ranging from sniping to outright assault. Teamwork is essential.
The only way to survive is to manage your team in the field itself, and this has never been the Clancy games' strongest point. This time around, Red Storm promise tweaks across the board.
As ever, it's the technology that makes most of this possible. While being a fun game in its own right, the original Ghost Recon wasn't blessed with the greatest of engines. This time around, the ante has been upped considerably.
Multiplayer is obviously an important part of the game. Ghost Recon 2 is certainly ready for this, transplanting the team-based action of the main game into full-scale online warfare, even if the exact modes are still under wraps.
