Ubisoft’s recent announcement of the next iteration in the Ghost Recon Series, has left me somewhat perplexed. The die hard Ghost Recon community has been screaming to return to the old ways and to drop the advanced warfighter gimmickry. Ubisoft tried to allay the fears of the community by telling us that development was back in the hands of the original developers: Redstorm. So it comes as something of a surprise that the announcement states that Ubisoft Paris Studios is developing the pc, 360 and ps3 versions. They said

A big title like Ghost Recon: Future soldier requires a multi-talented team. By bringing in Red Storm to work with our Paris studio we will combine a mix of talents, cultures, and experiences to GRFS. Also, Red Storm’s experience with previous Tom Clancy games will prove to be a valuable addition to the project. Source

So why two totally different teams are involved in the development is beyond me, Ubisoft Paris were responsible for the deviation from the realistic shooter into the arcadey style that the community eventually grew to loathe. Advanced Warfighter was one of the first shooters on the new generation consoles that wasn’t a hash job, a community rallied around it, but once COD: Modern Warfare launched it was only the die hard community left playing, this brought the lack of realism and longevity to the forefront and even the numerous DLC packs weren’t enough to bride the community to stay.

So then we have to pull apart the announcement, obviously Redstorm were involved in the start of the development. I have to wonder if Ubisoft executives decided that development was main stream enough and wanted to head towards the futuristic modern warefare gameplay style of run and gun, the instant appeal gaming that goes against grain of the Ghost Recon community desire for realism.

Disappointed.