If you want to succeed, you'll need to use the high-tech toys at your disposal, and doing so efficiently is a lot of fun. Target prioritization is important, as is suppressing groups of enemies. While Future Soldier is significantly more linear – narrow, perhaps – than even GRAW or its sequel, it doesn't feel dumb. Enemies go down with just a few shots and shooting on the move is deadly but risky. Sometimes firefights do happen, and thankfully, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier handles shooting better than Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter before it.
These sections would be more fun if they didn't feel so heavily dependent on trial and error – as often as not, there would be a random soldier my drone didn't spot who stumbled into some "tactical execution" in progress. As Future Soldier progresses, you'll find yourself in situations where there are many more enemies than you can kill at once, leading to tense encounters where you'll need to systematically pick off clusters of enemies in the order least likely to set off the alarm. Piloting a drone and giving orders to your teammates is strangely satisfying, and almost puzzle-like.
These moments sell the idea of battlefield awareness in a far more believable manner than the tech-heavy user interface and technical jargon that saturates Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. As you designate targets, your team moves into proper position, and when used in conjunction with an aerial drone, Future Soldier almost feels like a top-down strategy title. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier enables you to mark enemies for your teammates for synchronized kill shots. Still, abusing the Ghosts' absurd technological advantages over their enemies can be a lot of fun. But these moments are rare, and the eagle eyes of enemies on the ground are quick to notice any miscalculations. There are occasional moments where you can sneak past patrols and emplacements without engaging. However, tactical options feel more limited than previous games – generally, you're choosing who to shoot and when. As such, Ghost Recon: Future Soldier encourages a more methodical approach.
Since the Ghosts are much more fragile than your standard shooter protagonists, firefights are dangerous propositions. “Tactical options feel more limited than previous games” You can still be spotted up close if you're crouching, but if you lay prone or keep a decent distance, you'll stay hidden until you fire or a firefight begins in earnest. The most obvious example being active-camouflage, rendering the ghost team, well, invisible-ish. Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is set in a further future than previous Tom Clancy titles, which has allowed Red Storm to dial the tech up from previous games.