History VideoGame / GhostReconFutureSoldier

''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier'' is a ThirdPersonShooter video game in the VideoGame/GhostRecon series, developed and published by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} with support from Redstorm Entertainment, Ubisoft Paris and Bucharest for the Platform/PlayStation3, Platform/Xbox360 and Microsoft Windows. The game also included three DLC content, which consists of Arctic Strike, Raven Strike and Khyber Strike.

''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier'' is a ThirdPersonShooter video game in the VideoGame/GhostRecon series, developed and published by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} with support from Redstorm Entertainment, Ubisoft Paris and Bucharest for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and Microsoft Windows. The game also included three DLC content, which consists of Arctic Strike, Raven Strike and Khyber Strike.

* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Long-time ghosts Ramirez and Allen]] in the opening mission.

Future Soldier is the first game in the series to feature the use of drones for scouting and marking enemies while the War Hound, a [[RealRobotGenre a walking mechanical robot]] that looks like a dog, is used to fire missiles and mortar rounds. It can also [[TakeCover be used by the Ghosts as mobile cover]] during a shootout. The Gunsmith customizable weapon system allowing for [[GunPorn extensive customization of the player's weapons]] (including paint schemes, barrel lengths, trigger types, and even the gas system to determine rate of fire), usage of various semi-autonomous drones and sensors for support, and more extensive use of co-op features like Sync Shots (an expanded version of ''VideoGame/SplinterCellConviction''[='=]s "Mark & Execute").

There's an Ubisoft-backed short film prequel known as ''Alpha'' that gives more background to what happened prior to Future Soldier.

** In the ''Future Soldier'' prequel film ''Alpha'', a Ghost ([[spoiler:Chuck]]) is suddenly shot in the face while trying to disarm a warhead.
** ''Future Soldier'' starts off by showing us the first-person death of [[spoiler: Joe Ramirez]], who's been with the franchise as long as main lead Captain Mitchell and was considered something of TheLancer (also killed is [[spoiler: Richard Allen]], another long-running Ghost).

* CuttingOffTheBranches: In a sense; Mitchell's comment that "our unit's never been hit this hard before" after the prologue of ''Future Soldier'', where they lose a team of four people, carries the implication that the "canon" for the original game and its expansions involved the player never losing more than one or two soldiers.

* HollywoodSilencer: ''Future Soldier'' changes the rules for sound detection around, where nobody will notice a silenced gunshot no matter how close, so long as you kill in one shot and your target's buddies aren't able to see his body drop or come across it before it fades on their patrol. If you don't make that one-shot kill, though, you're generally going to get detected - if you missed, he'll notice the bullet whizzing past him or hitting a nearby wall and try to alert his comrades. Take more than one bullet to kill him and his buddies will usually hear him screaming in pain and investigate, at which point they're likely going to notice the body, unless you can kill them before that without anyone else seeing.
* HundredPercentCompletion: ''Future Soldier'' includes four Challenges per mission, one Weapon and three Tactical. Completing the mission's Weapon Challenge unlocks a new weapon of the type you used for the challenge (e.g. unlocking a new shotgun by making three kills in three seconds with three shots from a shotgun), while completing all three Tactical Challenges unlocks a new attachment to put on your weapons. There are also separate campaign-wide challenges, one that unlocks a new weapon or camo pattern per mission if you completed the mission with a Ghost score of at least 60, and another that unlocks a special grenade launcher for completing the entire campaign on Elite difficulty.
* IdiosyncraticDifficultyLevels: ''Future Soldier'' keeps these, other than swapping Rookie out for ''Recruit''. The higher the difficulty, the less damage the player can take before being incapacitated or killed, the fewer times they'll be incapped rather than outright killed in this case (from about five times on Recruit, to three on Veteran, to only once in very lucky circumstances on Elite), and the higher bonus they get to their Ghost score at the end of the mission.

* OptionalStealth: ''Future Soldier'' offers higher scores for sync-shots, neck-snaps, and stealth kills, but they're not necessary except for a few short no-alarm segments. And even then, unsuppressed weapons can be used stealthily by ensuring no one is left alive to sound the alarm. There's also the fact that ''total'' stealth docks points, as the score counter only accounts for enemies killed in stealthy manners and not those who you manage to sneak past.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Hunter team confronts "Watchgate" contractors in Nigeria, who are holding CIA SAD operator Daniel Sykes as a prisoner. It's noted that they're surprisingly well-connected for what should be a small-time PMC who by Sykes' admission don't even really know what they're getting themselves into, as the back half of the mission includes you having to deal with two Hind gunships.

** In the "Invisible Bear" mission of ''Future Soldier'', one part has you going up a few flights of stairs. Kozak comments that he's expecting [[VideoGame/DonkeyKong barrels to come rolling down.]] Later on in the mission during a protracted firefight, 30K makes reference to "[[Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid that movie with the two cowboys and the Mexican army]]"[[note]]"Pretty sure it's the Bolivian army!"[[/note]], asking if anyone else [[BolivianArmyEnding remembers how that one ends]].

** One mission of ''Future Soldier'' has the Warhound, which carries a mortar and missile launcher.

* SuspiciousVideoGameGenerosity: One part of the second-to-last mission of ''Future Soldier'' has the player take on an APC. If the player doesn't have an assault rifle with an under-barrel grenade launcher, a weapons crate holding an AK-47 equipped with a grenade launcher will be marked on your HUD.

* TrickBullet: ''Future Soldier'' features "Exacto Ammo" for sniper rifles, which can lock onto targets while scoped in and will redirect themselves mid-flight to nail an enemy in the head. To make up for the fact that it absolutely will hit once it's locked on, it takes a while to actually acquire lock (though this can be shortened if the enemy is marked on the cross-com, such as with a sensor) and the guidance system weakens the bullet, so unguided shots below the head deal less damage and it doesn't penetrate cover as well as regular bullets.
* VideoGameCaringPotential: ''Future Soldier'''s second mission involves the Ghosts hunting down a warlord who has taken over a refugee camp. You get Challenges to avoid civilian casualties and kill every last one of the warlord's mooks terrorizing the people.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Downplayed-Russian loyalists do a lot of the work themselves, with the Ghosts at best tipping the odds in their favor by rescuing the rightful president and a general who can effectively lead the resistance.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Played straight by ''Future Soldier''. Kozak and the other Ghosts can fight unimpeded until they take enough bullets to be incapacitated. Once they're down, if nobody comes to revive them quickly enough or the rest of the team also gets incapacitated, they will immediately drop dead. That said, it's also possible for enemies to put incapped teammates down instead of waiting for them to bleed out.

* InvisibilityCloak: ''Future Soldier'''s second mission introduces the adaptive camo. It only works when stationary, crouched or prone - no sprinting unless using the cover-shift when not in combat - and suffers from InvisibilityFlicker. Multiplayer only gives it to Scouts and changes it so they can't move at all without deactivating it; the Hardcore mode in the PC version with the last patch also makes it only work while completely stationary.

** In the second mission of ''Future Soldier'', the enemy soldiers will frequently harass random civilians; your first kill in the level is someone who had just tried to sexually assault a woman then grabbed his gun to shoot her when she pushed him away and ran. The third mission likewise starts with the PMC mooks killing civilians; it's mentioned in the cutscene at the start of the next mission that that sight particularly got to Kozak.
** In the final mission of ''Future Soldier'', the first two Raven's Rock leaders can be found performing various dirty deeds (assaulting their wife or secretary, executing a P.O.W.) before you assassinate them.
* MadeOfExplodium: In ''Future Soldier'''s first two levels, you encounter some technicals with machine guns. When you kill their gunners - not even touching the vehicle proper, thus disqualifying this from EveryCarIsAPinto - the vehicle promptly explodes for no reason.

* EliteMooks: The Ghosts tangle with the ''Bodarks'' ("Werewolves"), a Russian Spetsnaz unit that was raised to operate like the Ghosts on special forces missions.

There's an Ubisoft-backed short film prequel known as ''Alpha'', gives more background to what happened prior to Future Soldier.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: One level requires the player to pass a retinal scanner which can't be hacked open. Downplayed in that Kozak doesn't actually kill an enemy soldier to get the bypass, hes just sneaks up on them and manhandles them into using it, then knocks them out.

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Downplayed, where Russian loyalists do a lot of the work themselves, with the Ghosts at best tipping the odds in their favor by rescuing the rightful president and a general who can effectively lead the resistance.

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Incendiary ammo is an optional armament for machine guns and shotguns; they do less damage than standard FMJ rounds in exchange for delivering damage over time, which is rather a moot point for shotguns, which often kill in one shot at close range. The only real reason to use it with a shotgun is to watch your victim fall to the ground screaming as the ammo burns him alive inside out. Sniper rifles get Raufoss ammo instead, which exchanges cover-penetration ability for outright ''exploding'' upon hitting someone.

* ArtificialStupidity: Throw an incendiary grenade into the path of a ShieldBearingMook in ''Future Soldier'' and they'll make no attempt to avoid it, instead marching straight into the thermate cloud and dying a horrible burning death.

* BorrowedBiometricBypass: One level requires the player to pass a retinal scanner which can't be hacked open. Downplayed in that Kozak doesn't actually kill an enemy soldier to get the bypass, hes just manhandles them into using it, then knocks them out.

* CanonImmigrant: The non-lethal flash bulb sidearms utilized in multiplayer in ''Future Soldier'' were first used by John Clark and Ding Chavez in the ''Literature/JackRyan'' novel ''Debt of Honor''.

* InterfaceScrew: During the Dagestan mission in ''Future Soldier'', there's periodic interference to the HUD and AR system the Ghosts use, ranging from blurring and static, to false readings of enemies. Eventually, Mitchell has the system taken offline for debugging, forcing the player to go with nothing but the magnetic goggles for the rest of the level. The first of the ''Raven Strike'' DLC levels is set immediately afterwards, and forces you to go through the entire level without any of the cross-com gadgets while they work on figuring out why it was screwing up.

* ProductPlacement: In ''Future Soldier'', while in a Nigerian village, there is a wall with nothing on it but a large [=UnderArmor=] poster right behind an ammo cache, directly in the player's line of sight in normal gameplay. There is no explanation as to why there is an ad for an American sports clothing brand in the middle of a sparsely inhabited area of the Nigerian countryside.

* ShieldBearingMook: A special enemy type in ''Future Soldier'' is a Raven's Rock soldier in full riot gear and wielding a bulletproof ballistic shield as well as a submachine gun. Like the Bodark EliteMooks, they're a lot more dangerous than regular troops due to their shield, but can be dealt with more easily with the right gear, including grenades.

* StaticStunGun: An optional sidearm (or underbarrel attachment) in ''Future Soldier'' multiplayer, which can be used for non-lethal takedowns in order to hack enemy players.
* StealthBasedMission: A few missions in ''Future Soldier'' have segments where the player must avoid raising the alarms.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome: [[spoiler:Long-time ghosts Ramirez and Allen]] in ''Future Soldier'''s opening mission.

* AllThereInTheManual: After the attack on London, Mitchell makes an odd comment that the nuclear missile was likely the one Team Hunter was searching for a few months prior. This is a reference to the prequel film which ends with Team Hunter losing a nuclear weapon to an unknown group.

* AllThereInTheManual: After the attack on London, Mitchell makes an odd comment that the nuclear missile was likely the one Team Hunter was searching for months prior. This is a reference to the prequel film which ends with Team Hunter losing a nuclear weapon to an unknown group.

** If the game crashes the alert sound from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' will play.

A short film prequel known as ''Alpha'', gives more background to what happened prior to Future Soldier.

''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Future Soldier''is a ThirdPersonShooter video game in the VideoGame/GhostRecon series, developed and published by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} with support from Redstorm Entertainment, Ubisoft Paris and Bucharest for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and Microsoft Windows. The game also included three DLC content, which consists of Arctic Strike, Raven Strike and Khyber Strike.

Future Soldier is the first game in the series to feature the use of drones for scouting and marking enemies while the War Hound, a [[RealRobotGenre a walking mechanical robot]] that looks like a dog, is used to fire missiles and mortar rounds. It can also [[TakeCover be used by the Ghosts as mobile cover]] during a shootout.

* ElitesMooks: The Ghosts tangle with the ''Bodarks'' ("Werewolves"), a Russian Spetsnaz unit that was raised to take them and operate like the Ghosts on potential special forces missions.

Future Soldier is the first game[[note]]In terms of the main game timeline[[/note]] to feature the use of drones for scouting and marking enemies while the War Hound, a [[RealRobotGenre a walking mechanical robot]] that looks like a dog, is used to fire missiles and mortar rounds. It can also [[TakeCover be used by the Ghosts as mobile cover]] during a shootout.

The game takes place in the year 2024[[note]]The year is indicated via ''VideoGame/GhostReconBreakpoint'''s Red Patriot DLC content.[[/note]] where a Ghost team is deployed in a special forces op under the command of Joe Ramirez. While investigating a suspicious vehicle convoy, the entire team is killed off when a DirtyBomb detonated. In response, another Ghost team, known as "Hunter", is tasked to investigate what happened. It's composed of Captain Cedric "Ghost Lead" Ferguson, Staff Sergeant John Kozak, Master Sergeant Robert "Pepper" Bonifacio, and Sergeant First Class Jimmy "30K" Ellison.

* ActionizedSequel: ''Future Soldier'' takes several cues from ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Conviction'' in retooling the series, such as the sync-shot that resembles Mark & Execute, and the addition of RegeneratingHealth.
* AirVentPassageway: In the ''Future Soldier'' mission "Firefly Rain", the team travels through a room with multiple industrial fans to get to a Russian airport hangar. Granted, they don't actually have to crawl since the fans are pretty huge (being meant to pipe hot air along the airstrip to keep ice off the runway, as Kozak notes), but the point still stands.
* AmericaSavesTheDay: Downplayed in ''Future Soldier'', where Russian loyalists do a lot of the work themselves, with the Ghosts at best tipping the odds in their favor by rescuing the rightful president and a general who can effectively lead the resistance.

* ArmorIsUseless: Zig-zagged depending on the mode in ''Future Soldier''. In singleplayer, a Raven's Rock combat trooper in full riot gear and a cartel goon in a t-shirt both take the same amount of bullets to bring down, but in multiplayer armor is an unlockable for the Rifleman class that actually lets them survive more bullets, so long as they actually hit the armor.
* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Played straight in the ''Future Soldier'' prequel film ''Alpha'', where Chuck, the one black Ghost shown, is the one to die - the film even makes it more apparent by featuring Pepper and [=30K=] from the game, but using an entirely different, unnamed white Ghost Lead instead of the guy who leads the squad in the actual game. The game itself, however, has a notable aversion with Ghost Lead, who throws out literally ''every'' death card related to this trope in the intro to the penultimate mission - sent off on a dangerous, obviously-final mission, [[FatalFamilyPhoto calls his son beforehand]], talks to him about his birthday and [[WhenYouComingHomeDad promises to be back soon]], he even [[{{Retirony}} jokes about retiring soon]] in the cutscene to the mission before that - but still survives to the end, even with one more mission coming after that where they have to take care of the last remnants of the coup.
* BorrowedBiometricBypass: One level of ''Future Soldier'' requires the player to pass a retinal scanner. Downplayed in that Kozak doesn't actually kill an enemy soldier to get the bypass, hes just manhandles them into using it, then knocks them out.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: This trope ends up working in the player's favor in ''Future Soldier''. The player is the only one that can be detected - so long as you yourself remain hidden from the enemy, AI squadmates (including temporary {{escort|Mission}}ees) will never be detected by patrolling enemies, even when running full-tilt right past them (also keeping active camo up in this case, which the player can't do). They will also rarely (if ever) get downed by enemy fire (even if this is partly because [[GangUpOnTheHuman the enemy simply never targets them]]), have ridiculously good aim, will never lose track of marked targets once locked on, will shoot them the ''instant'' you give the order or shoot your marked target, and in some cases ''can shoot through walls no matter how thick they are'' to get at said marked targets if they pass behind buildings. When playing through the main campaign, having flesh-and-blood teammates is a liability rather than an asset, and at least one challenge in the game relies on simply marking targets through a drone for the AI to take care of while you stay behind cover; the only concrete advantages a human player gets is that it's easier to deliberately pull off a OneHitPolykill with a sync-shot or take advantage of the BulletTime that occurs after a full sync shot, and human players will make more of an effort to get a good angle to shoot marked targets.
* ConcealmentEqualsCover: Zigzagged in ''Future Soldier''. While most cover provides total protection from gunfire, thinner cover can be penetrated by gunfire, shotguns and submachine guns providing the least penetration while sniper rifles and machine guns allow further. Both parts of the trope can also be averted, as you can shoot through even thicker surfaces by loading {{armor piercing|Attack}} rounds into your gun, and you can also use a [[XRayVision backscatter optic or magnetic vision]] to see through it.

** Not only is [[spoiler:an entire Ghost team killed off via a dirty bomb explosion]] in ''Future Soldier's'' opening mission, but you get to see [[spoiler:the flesh on Ramirez's arms burning off just before he falls off a cliff]], in first-person!

* ExactWords: At the end of game, [[spoiler: the Ghosts shoot the final leader of Raven's Rock, and are about to kill him to get vengeance for the Ghosts killed in the opening mission, but are suddenly stopped by orders from "the highest level" not to kill him (the implication being that Command wants the guy to survive due to his political clout). Instead, the Ghosts leave the wounded guy on a train track to be run over by an incoming train; as he demands they save him and take him into custody, Ghost Lead quips "our orders were not to touch you" as the guy is run over. It's all very ''Film/BatmanBegins''.]]

* GogglesDoSomethingUnusual: The shades the Ghosts wear in ''Future Soldier'' enable the augmented reality DiegeticInterface.

* HarderThanHard: Patches for the PC version of ''Future Soldier'' introduced "Hardcore Mode", which changes up the mechanics to make the game more difficult - enemy weapons are even deadlier than before, cross-com goodies like sensor grenades only last a couple of seconds, and adaptive camo is changed to work like in multiplayer, where ''any'' movement deactivates it.

* HundredPercentCompletion: ''Future Soldier'' includes four Challenges per mission, one Weapon and three Tactical. Completing the mission's Weapon Challenge unlocks a new weapon of the type you used for the challenge (e.g. unlocking a new shotgun by completing a challenge to make three kills in three seconds with three shots from a shotgun), while completing all three Tactical Challenges unlocks a new attachment to put on your weapons. There are also separate campaign-wide challenges, one that unlocks a new weapon or camo pattern per mission if you completed the mission with a Ghost score of at least 60, and another that unlocks a special grenade launcher for completing the entire campaign on Elite difficulty.

* MurderByInaction: [[spoiler:At the end of ''Future Soldier'', the team has the leader of Raven's Rock cornered on a train track but they can't kill him because the US government wants to bring him in alive. Before they can do that, however, they hear a train approaching. The coup leader begs for them to save him, but Ghost Lead simply walks away, saying "[[ExactWords our orders were not to touch you.]]"]]
* NoGearLevel: In ''Future Soldier'', the first time you encounter the Bodarks, they'll hack your cross-coms, forcing you to play through most of the level without your HUD or gadgets (somehow losing the cross-coms also takes away your ability to throw grenades for some reason). This goes so far as to even take away the red haze that normally tells you you've taken damage and are about to be downed.
* NonUniformUniform: The Ghosts in ''Future Soldier'' wear all sorts of clothing, with hardly a piece of American uniform seen... which makes sense when it's recalled that they're on black ops, and the US will disavow them if they're captured or killed.
* OptionalStealth: ''Future Soldier'' offers higher scores for sync-shots, neck-snaps, and stealth kills, but they're not necessary except for a few short no-alarm segments. And even then, unsuppressed weapons can be used stealthily by ensuring no one is left alive to sound the alarm. There's also the fact that ''total'' stealth docks points - you ''have'' to kill everyone if you want a high Ghost score to unlock new things.
* PrivateMilitaryContractors: Hunter team confronts Watchgate contractors in Nigeria holding CIA SAD operator Daniel Sykes as a prisoner.
* ProductionForeshadowing: While fighting off a large force of Russian military in ''Future Soldier'', Pepper compares the team's situation to the [[Film/ButchCassidyAndTheSundanceKid two outlaws who died fighting the entire Mexican army]]. Kozak promptly corrects him by pointing out it was the ''Bolivian'' army. Guess where the Ghosts are sent in the [[VideoGame/GhostReconWildlands next game]]?

* RegeneratingHealth: Added in ''Future Soldier''. Like ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas'', you can survive less hits than, say, ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', especially on higher difficulties, and health regenerates slower than in most other shooters, but it's still reasonably quick.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: The game has the SRR, which is a revolving-action, silenced sniper rifle. You can even detach the stock and turn it into a true (if [[HandCannon somewhat large]]) revolver. There's also the [=MTs-255=] revolver-shotgun, with multiplayer including the [[AKA47 Defender, Wild Boar, and MP-412]].
* SecondHourSuperpower: The [[InvisibilityCloak adaptive camo]] in ''Future Soldier'' is introduced in the second mission.
* ShieldBearingMook: A special enemy type in ''Future Soldier''; a Raven's Rock soldier in full riot gear and wielding a bulletproof ballistic shield as well as a submachine gun. Like the Bodark EliteMooks, they're a lot more dangerous than regular troops due to their shield.
* ShortRangeShotgun: Shotguns are only consistently instantly-lethal up to about ten meters, though modifications can make it better or worse. A long barrel and scope will increase its effective range enough to make it somewhat viable for most missions; in turn, a shorter barrel and Dragon's Breath shells will reduce the effective range even further. A LetsPlay of the game, in which viewers were allowed to suggest what weapons the players used, ended up having [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-wuQxuc4p8 nearly fifteen minutes' worth of footage for a failure reel]] in one specific part of the 10th mission because they used the [=MTs-255=] with a short barrel, Dragon's Breath ammo, and its unique spread-increasing flash hider, which resulted in a shotgun with a crosshair [[ExaggeratedTrope as big as the screen itself]] which they dubbed[[note]]at first affectionately, but then derisively after they actually had to use it[[/note]] the "[[http://i.imgur.com/Q3Q0D9g.jpg tactical blunderbuss]]".

* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: Incendiary ammo is an optional armament for machine guns and shotguns in ''Future Soldier''; they do less damage than standard FMJ rounds in exchange for delivering damage over time, which is rather a moot point for shotguns, which often kill in one shot at close range. The only real reason to use it with a shotgun is to watch your victim fall to the ground screaming as the ammo burns him alive inside out. Sniper rifles get Raufoss ammo instead, which exchanges cover-penetration ability for outright ''exploding'' upon hitting someone.