No Good Puns For Tom Clancy

By: Reach for the Sky

I rather enjoy games that have Tom Clancy's name on them. I hesitate to say "Tom Clancy's games" because he has about as much to do with the development as David J. West has to do with the development of individual chocolate bars. However, despite the only thing that connects them are themes relating to politics and being produced by Ubisoft, I find the games almost universally fun. Let's look at some of the series that has his logo stuck on them.

Splinter Cell

Splinter Cell games have always been about the stealthy exploits of counter-terrorist ninja Sam Fisher. On top of having great stealth gameplay, a rarity since the Thief series' collapse into a decayed mutation of its former glory, it also has interesting political stories on par with any of Tom Clancy's novels. The original style of stealth gameplay was perfected in Chaos Theory, and the franchise was taken in an exciting new direction with Conviction; get those two games, and you will have a perfect understanding of why the series is so great.

H.A.W.X.

while not exactly a series yet, being only one game long, this still stands out as a great dog-fighting game for the uninitiated and experienced alike. It follows the general Tom Clancy formula of giving the player advanced technology and tactics to believably take on a greater force. as an ace pilot working for a private military force, you have access to an advanced interface that simplifies and streamlines many complex actions such as intercepting and evading without actually doing it for you, and giving you the option to turn it off for more advanced maneuvers. between a unique UI and a selection of high-tech weapons, it stands out enough from other dog-fighting games to warrant a purchase in my opinion.

Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six

I'm doing these two together because they are very similar. For one they've both been going on for around ten years now, both involve third-person tactical action and the use of advanced technology and blah to blah blah blah. It's Tom Clancy, you know the drill. I am a fan of both of the latest games (Advanced Warfighter 2 and Vegas 2, respectively) but they are eerily similar, to an almost suspect degree. They are unique enough to justify the ownership of both, at least at the current prices, (GRAW 2-$15, Vegas 2-$10) but I suspect they were working with quite a few shared resources. Both are still fun, Vegas 2 features some great squad-based action, and AW 2 lets you use an array of drones and off-map support.I recommend either, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier comes out this year.

Watch out for T.C. games in the future, They'll probably come with Ubisoft's new, always-on DRM, which I am not on good terms with. Haven't played EndWar, sorry.