Enemies stalking around a mountain range can be taken out from the front by a good sniper shot or can be flanked by assault and support groups. Enemies hiding in a building can be taken out by tossing a grenade around the corner or by ambushing them from the back door, for instance. Most of Island Thunder's new single-player and multiplayer maps offer a good mix of open spaces and cover, so you'll often have multiple ways to take down a group of enemies. Fortunately, you'll also find a lot more cover for yourself and your teammates. However, Island Thunder puts more focus on group conflicts-unlike in the previous games, you'll find more groups of enemy soldiers clustered together on the game's wide-open maps. And like its predecessors' single-player game, Island Thunder's single-player game generally consists of cautiously guiding three squads of soldiers out into the field, encountering enemy soldiers at set points, and picking them off as cleanly and from as far away as possible, avoiding any messy firefights that can get your computer-controlled teammates killed. Like its predecessors, Island Thunder is mainly focused on realistic, covert, team-based military operations-in this case, in the jungles, swamps, and grasslands of Cuba.
Island Thunder is the second expansion pack for Ghost Recon the first, Desert Siege, was released earlier this year. For its modest $20 price tag, Island Thunder offers more than enough in the way of a challenging single-player game and new multiplayer maps for players who are serious about tactical shooters-but anyone else may find the game a bit too frustrating.
But if you're a fan of more-realistic games, you might be more interested in a tactical shooter like Ghost Recon: Island Thunder. If you're looking for an action game that you can start playing quickly and easily, you've got plenty of choices, thanks to the impressive number of excellent action games released just this year.