Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon 2 is a Third-Person Shooter video game in the Ghost Recon series, developed by Redstorm Entertainment and published worldwide by Ubisoft. It's the sequel to the original Ghost Recon and its expansions. The game is distinct as it has two versions. The first one published for the PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube has the game set in 2007, known as First Contact while the Xbox has the game set in 2011, known as Final Assault. The "First Contact" version's story is connected to Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, putting both games in a Shared Universe.
First Contact takes place in 2007 when Ghost commandos are deployed to respond to North Korean provocations after a Silkworm missile is used to attack the USS Clarence E. Walsh (CG-80). Among those included in the operation is Captain Scott Mitchell. They later get deployed after Major-General Paik uses a Taepodong-2 equipped with nuclear warheads on South Korean and NATO countries, breaking off a ceasefire signed by North Korea.
In Final Assault, set in 2011, General Jung Chong-Sun launches a revolt against the Korean Workers' Party after the military budget was allocated to civic projects in response to a famine. In response, the US leads a coalition of nations to stop Jung from using North Korean nuclear warheads from being used in another Korean War.
Ghost Recon 2 is known to be one of the few games in the franchise that does not have a PC port. And it was banned by the South Korean government alongside Chaos Theory for depicting a potential second Korean War, considering that Korean fictional media does the same thing. Bans on the games were lifted eventually.note
The Xbox version later received a sequel in the same vein as the original's expansions, Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike. Set one year after Final Assault, it involves the Ghosts being sent into Kazakhstan, recently thrown into political chaos following the assassination of its president and his security council, as they search for a Pakistani arms dealer who orchestrated the assassination.
Tropes found in Ghost Recon 2:
- Continuity Nod: The PS2 and GameCube version takes place in the same setting as Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory; in Chaos Theory, an American PMC secretly hijacks a North Korean missile and uses it to sink an American warship, framing North Korea and triggering a war between America and North Korea. Notably, this game focuses much more on fighting the war in question, whereas Chaos Theory, focused more on the truth behind it, has only one mission set in an active warzone.
- Elites Are More Glamorous: The South Korean White Skull Brigade (which shares a name with the South Korean Army's 3rd Infantry Division, which uses the name White Skull) are deployed in the DMZ to take out North Korean MBTs.
- Elite Mooks: The game has North Korean Special Forces commandos, who use high tech Chinese weapons, fire more accurately and utilize better tactics than the rank and file DPRK grunt.
- Enemy-Detecting Radar: Nearby enemies have their position and orientation shown on the circle at the top-right corner.
- Level-Map Display: Single button toggle shows the map on-screen, and doesn't pause the game. The map also shows the player's location and the objective.
- Trapped Behind Enemy Lines: The Ghosts are deployed to extract the pilot of a OH-58 Kiowa after it was shot down by North Korean anti-aircraft weapons.
- America Saves the Day: Averted as the Americans work alongside NATO troops and the Australians to stop Jung from using nuclear weapons. It's implied that South Korea and Japan help too, but it's not clear on what the extent the help they provide.
- Continuity Nod: In the Xbox version, the stories of the Ghosts during the North Korean conflict are narrated by retired Major Will Jacobs, one of the unlockable specialists from the original game.
- Military Coup: The Korean People's Army stage a coup against the KWP since the military budget needed to maintain its readiness was placed to civic projects instead.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: This was averted in the Xbox version, where the Ghost's missions in the 2011 Korean War have been declassified and the story is presented through a Show Within a Show interviewing the Ghosts and some of their foreign comrades.
- Taking You with Me: General Jung seizes control of a dam in Hamhung in order to use the nuclear warhead to take it out and anyone else trying to get to him.
