Since Ubisoft is planning on releasing Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2 (GRAW 2) just one year after the release of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) there has been a lot of talk about whether this will be just an update to GRAW or if it stands on its own. Fortunately, they have tried to show us that it is not just a half baked update to GRAW by releasing both Single Player and Multiplayer Demos. So, is it really worth of the name GRAW 2 or should they name it GRAW 1.5?

First the Single Player Demo. It was fun for the most part. I’m not a fan of the cover system. Who thought it would be a good idea to get into cover by running into an object, then keep running into it and you use it as cover? It is a terrible way to do a cover system. It is hard to get into when you want cover and other times you accidentally get into cover when you don’t want to. Setting aside the lousy cover system I did have fun playing through the single player demo a few times. The new improvements are nice, but not off the chart great. I found the demo to be very easy. Partly because with the drone you can pretty much always know where all the enemies are. This information used with the map makes it pretty easy to flank the people you need to flank, but, for the most part, once you get the new sniper you can just sit back and pick everyone off since it will go through walls. The single player demo seems like this is a bit better than just GRAW 1.5, but I’m not sure there is anything here to push it to GRAW 2. The new additions are nice and the graphics look great. So, somewhere around GRAW 1.7 is a more accurate name.

I played the Multiplayer Demo a few times. Each time I used the quick match option I got thrown into a team game so that is all I played. If I can quit playing Crackdown and Rainbow Six: Vegas I might try to find someone to play some co-op with. The team matches I played were fun for the most part. I do like that I can have one of my teammate’s view in the upper left corner of the screen. Also, the medic class added a little depth to the game. In all the matches I played only once did anyone play as a medic, but in that match it was nice to have him come heal me. Even though I do not like the cover system in the single player the fact that they took it out for the multiplayer is really annoying. I have no idea why they would do that. Also, they, apparently, made all of the bushes out of concrete because you can’t walk through them. If they wanted to setup waist high barriers do what every other shooter does and use crates. I don’t expect to be able to walk through a crate. My only other complaint about the multiplayer was the controls seemed a little off. It could have been the guy hosting the matches had a bad connection, but any time I tried to walk forward at an angle I ended up strafing instead. Also, the controls seemed a bit touchy. Not all the time, but when I first would change directions it seemed like it would turn really fast at first and then return to a normal speed. Not sure if that was just me or what. I did not play a lot of multiplayer on the original GRAW so it is hard to compare really well, but from the bit I did play I am not seeing a lot of major improvements. So, I think the multiplayer is probably also about GRAW 1.7.

Personally, I plan to rent GRAW 2. I’m interested to see where they take the single player story and there are a good amount gameplay options available with the co-op and multiplayer modes. If it turns out I was wrong and it does deserve the name GRAW 2 I can always buy it later, but I don’t expect that to be the case.