Last night, several TG folks with access to the MP3 beta patch joined our GRAW server for a coop shakedown. Initially things were a bit hectic and too fast-paced for us to be effective, but after some time we slowed things down. The mission timer, unfortunately, was capped at ten minutes, making for some very short missions. However, Apophis has corrected this, and we now have a more proper 45 minutes per mission.

As a huge fan of the original Ghost Recon (OGR) at TG, I'm happy to report that GRAW has the potential to be a worthy successor. The OGR coop mode is indeed faithful to the original Ghost Recon, with the added bonus of allowing three FOUR-person teams for a total of 12 players in the squad. The teams are the familiar Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie, with each being identified by color on the map. And, the mission does not end abruptly when the Leader is killed, which is a Good Thing!

The map is a spartan version of the one in single-player GRAW. Only the positions of friendlies appear, just like how it is with OGR at TG. There is a grid overlay, although each grid square appears to be 100 meters per side instead of 25 meters. As such, frequent use of sub-grids will probably be necessary to give proper locations of spotted tangos, at least until we can add our own improved grid overlays.

Tangos are just as brutal -- if not more so -- than in OGR. In GRAW's OGR coop mode, the goofy red diamonds identifying tangos (from the single-player mode) are gone, so slow movement and proper scanning are required for survival. One current drawback is that the various kits don't include binoculars, so the sniper kit takes on an increased importance. All long-range recon must be done by the sniper(s) at this point.

There is a mission setup screen very similar to that of OGR, where everyone can chat, plan a strategy, choose kits, and ready up. I didn't see a way to vote someone stripes, but perhaps I missed it. If this feature is absent, the Leader will need to be voted "manually" (and no hanging chads! ).

Folks who played OGR here at TG can expect a very solid game with GRAW. I know I felt things "clicking" toward the end of last night, and HSantal, who joined the action midway through the night, seemed to enjoy himself quite a bit. Right now we only have three OGR coop missions to play, but I'm hoping that the mod community will start to produce more content soon. If any folks here at TG would like to get (re)involved with modding GRAW, please let us know by either posting here or sending me a PM. It would be great if TG could become a major contributor in the GRAW modding community, just like it was for OGR.

The final version of the MP3 patch should be released fairly soon. For those TG players sitting on the fence with this game, I encourage you to give it a shot. We will be playing the game very much like how OGR is/was played at TG, so our TG OGR veterans should feel right at home. I won't say GRAW coop is flawless, but it is very well done, and it is certainly in the spirit of OGR. There are some bugs and glitches to be worked out, but OGR had those as well. What would Ghost Recon be without those?