PC port or no, Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm's graphics seem a bit watered down. The same theme is kept from the computer's visuals: good animations, detailed people, horrible looking underbrush and bland landscapes. The visuals also carried over that 'sharp' look that is so prevalent in most of the Tom Clancy titles. Trees, people, buildings, everything looks a bit too rigid for the eye to cope with. This isn't to say the graphics are all bad. Jungle Storm carries with it, somehow, a sense of realism. Whether it's the muted explosion of a grenade or tracers screaming by inches over your head, you'll definitely get a feeling of actually being there.

The sounds provide an immersive feeling as well. Radio chatter clicking on and off between teammates, the rustle of leaves underfoot, and just about all things subtle draw you into the experience. The music also plays a dynamic role in the gameplay, as it stays quiet (or muted) when nothing is going on and then kicks it up a notch when a firefight erupts. It's the little things that make a difference here.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon games are structured around the popular Rainbow Six franchise's gameplay: stealthy FPS action coupled with an intricate system to handle small teams of elite soldiers. But Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm, unlike Rainbow Six, takes you out of the world of counter terror and into the boots of good old fashioned special forces slogging it out in the jungles of some malaria infested third world country. Jungle Storm is the continuation of this popular franchise.

Jungle Storm gives you two separate campaigns to play with, as well as a host of quick missions that can be tackled with different goals (defend, firefight, and recon). There are also split screen and online Multiplayer options that will give you the chance to out sneak and outshoot your friends.

The Single Player experience is the essence of the game. Here you progress through a linear set of missions by utilizing your squad tactics to accomplish the mission goals. These usually range from all out firefights to hostage rescues to planting explosives and getting the hell out of there. The themes aren't revolutionary, but they certainly are done well. A few missions also have tertiary goals, like taking no team casualties, which if completed will unlock a specialist soldier that you can use in later missions.

The extra missions and Multiplayer mode add some replay value, but it definitely isn't anything like SOCOM. There are a few unique mission types reserved just for online, and it is also voice chat compatible, meaning you can play cooperatively and talk to your team mates, or against each other and give your AI controlled team mates voice recognized commands.

The most difficult part in Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm will be dealing with your team's AI. Each node on the long line of Tom Clancy titles receives a slightly improved AI system, but it never really seems to be enough. In Jungle Storm, your team members will get caught up on corners of rocks or anything else lying around outside, and trying to navigate around a building is nigh impossible. Thankfully, the elements in the game that cause these AI mishaps to happen have been dramatically reduced, leaving the parts that work to shine. And shine they do, as you will see when your team goes for cover behind trees and actually watches your back. This is quite possibly the best AI eye-sight in the whole genre. If you give your team mates free reign to dispatch enemies at will, they'll be shooting at guys around corners, behind rocks, and across the map before you realize what's going on.

Ghost Recon: Jungle Storm combines quick action with planned attacks involving multiple groups of people. As a member of the special forces on the ground you carry out attacks, along with your fellow soldiers, using your FPS skills. As a tactician, you get to plan the movements and actions of each team during the battle.

In Jungle Storm you can take up to six people into a mission separated into two groups. Before each mission you get to set the weapons load out of each individual soldier. Your choices will vary depending on the mission parameters. At times you will need snipers, heavy support troops, or demolitions experts to plant bombs or take out enemy armor. Once in the field, you can set team waypoints via an overhead map, or (cleverly enough) you can point your crosshairs at the ground and issue movement orders to that spot. This actually works better than I thought it would, as it helps you give quick orders in the middle of a firefight.

Jungle Storm may not be the keynote tactical squad game that PS2 owners are looking for. It has a few drawbacks, including freezing at odd times, but they are all relatively minor. But for a PC port, the game turned out quite well. It may even be enough to tide people over until Ghost Recon 2 comes out later this year. Either way, if you're looking for a good tactical game on the console, Jungle Storm is definitely worth a look.