Ghost Recon: Future Soldier 'Guerrilla' mode features Splitscreen system link coop

When we went to Ubisoft San Francisco in January to preview the story campaign of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier, we were happy to see the repeatedly delayed Tom Clancy game in action, bringing back the franchise's trademark four player co-op. We were disappointed however, that unlike the Advanced Warfighter games on the current-gen consoles and Ghost Recon 2/Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike on the last-gen consoles, Future Soldier did not support split screen local play.

In order to enjoy co-op locally, fans would need four TVs, four copies of the game and four consoles. As we learned in our multiplayer preview of the game's new Guerrilla multiplayer mode, it turns out that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier does support split screen play after all!

In the second part of our hands-on experience with the upcoming, further-in-the-future Ghost Recon game, we got to again play the campaign, this time with three allies. As we know, the standard campaign can only played cooperatively either online or system linked with one person per console. Before that however, we played the Guerrilla mode, a new multiplayer feature debuting for the franchise with Ghost Recon: Future Soldier which offers Ubisoft's unique take on the popular horde-style mode introduced with Gears of War 2 and implemented in a growing number of titles, including the most recent Mass Effect 3.

Unlike those other survival style co-op games, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier keeps players on the move, forcing the squad to change their defensive position at the end of each set of 10 waves (up to 50 in total), while at the same time requiring players ensure that no enemy creeps into their base. Because of this and the nature of Ghost Recon being more tactical, less run and gun, there's an inherent need for coordination and synchronization between teammates, something that Ubisoft feels is designed for friends playing locally.

For that reason, online matchmaking is their for campaign co-op and competitive multiplayer, and the horde-style Guerrilla mode is there for fans to play locally, as they may have done so with the last four core installments in the Ghost Recon series. Guerrilla mode lets up to two players play split screen, while also system linked. So, four players, two consoles and two screens, like Gears of War 3.

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Future Soldier releases May 22, 2012 in North America, and May 24, 2012 in Europe, for the PS3 and Xbox 360. A PC version will follow at a later date.

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