Ghost Recon Future Soldier Raven Strike DLC

Arctic Strike was the first Ghost Recon Future Soldier DLC and set out to please the multiplayer crowd, now it's the turn of campaign lovers....

Ubisoft's second DLC for Ghost Recon Future Soldier has been announced as "Raven Strike", weighing in at almost double the size of Arctic Strike, here's the content lowdown...

• + three new campaign missions - Secure Dawn, Cold Walker, Argent Thunder
• + one new Guerrilla map - Sawmill
• + traditional Ghost Recon gameplay
• + larger maps
• + complex missions
• + increased difficulty
• + 5 hours gameplay
• - no weapon unlocks
• launched Sept 11 2012 for Xbox 360 and PS3. ( 1200 MS Points / $15 )
  
  

Read on for our Ghost Recon Future Soldier Raven Strike review...

Raven Strike is the Future Soldier's first campaign based DLC pack with three new campaign missions and a Guerrilla map set around a tango infested sawmill in the cold Russian countryside.

The DLC title comes from the name of the bad guy nationalists "Raven's Rock" who are intent on supporting a coup that would see the fall of Russia. The Ghost's and sent in to take care of these hardliners, thus "Raven Strike".

There's no doubt Raven Strike is harder to complete than previous Future Soldier missions, although this is probably due to the Ghost's initially being deprived of their awesome weapons arsenal for the first mission, rather than a re-worked or more cunning enemy AI.

In the first mission stealth is the name of the game, and this is probably what Ubisoft means with their "traditional Ghost Recon gameplay" Raven Strike tagline. Are Ubisoft testing the water to see how popular this stealthy kind of mission is the the Ghost Recon community? May be so, but it does make for an enjoyable opening mission in this DLC. Any old school Ghost Recon players will feel right at home analysis the timings of patrol paths.

Secure Dawn is a night-time operation with the Ghosts using stealth to navigate a foggy environment with restricted visibility. The Ghosts can really get back to their roots in this first mission, and players can enjoy the stealth aspect that Ghost Recon first made famous before Sam Sheppard even knew what NV was. Hardcore gamers will also be pleased to note that on the rails sequences are noticeable by their absence, making for more enjoyable gameplay than some previous missions.

The stealth aspect continues into rural mission two, where avoiding alerting Raven's Rock is the priority. That doesn't mean you can't take down the enemy as you see fit, it just means you have to do it Ghost style. A roving air patrol thanks to a helicopter adds to the spice, making your teams movements even more restricted, but after two missions of stealth, fans will be pleased to note there is a cracking firefight to end this mission.

In the final mission the Ghosts go urban, hunting down Bodark agents in the streets of Moscow. This mission is more linear than the first two, however the sequence of events is far from a walk in the park and will challenge all but the most experienced of gamers. This is an example of linear gameplay done right. If you like assassination missions, you'll love this one, nuff said.

In conclusion, these are some of the best Future Soldier missions we have played. The stealth aspect topped off with some awesome firefights offers a nice mix and shows the contrast in gameplay that Ghost Recon Future Soldier is capable of pulling off.

If you can get passed the hit or miss nature of Ubisoft's matchmaking and get in game with a friend or 3, there is some good co-op gaming fun to be had on these missions.

Download Raven Strike DLC for the Xbox here [1200 points, 860Mb]

Also make sure and check out our Arctic Strike review and Khyber Strike DLC reviews.