In 2013, Mexico City becomes a sun-scorched battlefield where death lurks around every corner. Armed terrorists in dark alleys and on rooftops fill the air with a tense, sinister mood as you creep cautiously through deserted city streets, ready for a deadly shootout at any second.

This is Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter - an ultra-absorbing FPS that will really take you there. Terrorists have seized the city and kidnapped the Mexican president, turning the whole place into a warzone. Obviously, the Ghosts are the guys called in to clean up this mess, and that's where you come in. This game grabs you by the scruff of the neck and yanks you into its world. With the inside-the-helmet view, you can see the dirt on your soldier's visor, and you can hear his breathing and heartbeat. When your man gets shot, you can almost feel his pain as the visor flickers and becomes grainy, and colours go a washed-out grey.

After the arcadey feel of Ghost Recon 2, which had you running around in third-person blasting big guns without a care in the world, Advanced Warfighter pulls the series back to a gritty level of realism, but without the tedious strategy and dreary pace of the original. It's like a hybrid of the two.

The pace of levels balances subdued caution and stealth with frequent moments of high-octane shooting and large-scale destruction. You advance through the urban environments with extreme care and observation. Open city environments mean hostiles can come at you from any angle. Dark alleys aren't your only worries - with ladders opening access to rooftops, you have to search high as well as low in your hunt for danger. As always, Ghost Recon is unforgiving of careless play - you can be shot dead in a second, sometimes before you even see your attacker. It's harsh, but that's what makes Advanced Warfighter so tense.

The game uses lighting to further enhance this tension, with particular focus on the intense sunlight. Remember, Mexico City is close to the Earth's equator. The sun's glare can sometimes be blinding, making it difficult to see enemies in the distance. You can't cheat and turn the brightness down on your TV either, because this burning light is contrasted by incredibly dark shadows. It a bit like when you walk from a sunny outdoors into your house and everything appears extra dark. This makes overcast alleys just as blinding as the sun's glare, and an ideal hiding spot for sneaky terrorists.

It can be tough going, but you've more than enough technology to help you out. The game's 2012 setting allows the makers to throw in some cooler gear along with the usual rifles and body armour. In previews of Ghost Recon, Ubisoft spoke proudly of the technology used by soldiers in GRAW, and it got us quite excited. Weapons are based on real military prototypes - they're lighter, more accurate, hold more rounds and have a quicker rate of fire than today's weapons, which is very cool. Admittedly, when you're playing you forget about all that stuff, but you have to respect its realism.

Your high-tech helmet is the hub of all your abilities as an Advanced Warfighter. In case you missed our extensive preview in Issue 53, the helmet is linked to an advanced satellite system that provides two functions. The first, and most useful, is a detailed radar located at the top right of your screen. This shows the layout of local buildings and tracks any enemies you or your squadmate have seen. This is what makes scoping out your surroundings so important - if you haven't physically seen a hostile, your radar won't detect them. But this is nothing new - GRAW may go to the effort of explaining the superfluous technology behind it, but it's essentially just a radar as seen in countless videogames before.

Your satellite technology also provides a small visor on the right of your screen. For most of the game, this displays your squad-mate's point of view, which is interesting enough, but its practical use is limited. If your squadmate goes missing you can take a peek at what he's getting up to, but that's about it. The visor is too small and too grainy to clearly display any enemies he's focused on, and they'll all appear on your radar anyway.

But Advanced Warfighter makes more constructive use of the visor in missions where you control a remotely operated reconnaissance drone. A small spy camera relays a video feed directly to the visor on your HUD, enabling you to inspect hostile-infested areas and gather intelligence from a safe distance. The visor also allows you to communicate with choppers, tanks and sniper units that occasionally offer their assistance. You just aim at the target you want made dead and hit the D-pad to send the order through. But you will only have such helpful assistance in specific parts of your missions. For the rest - the large majority of of the game - you'll have to make good use of your squadmate to survive the harsh battlefield.

Unlike previous Ghost Recon games, you only have one partner to attend to (as opposed to a whole team as before), so you can concentrate your efforts on using him to his full potential. Controlling him is easy - knowing how to use him effectively is trickier. Before you move anywhere it's a good idea to order him to go on ahead to test the water before you jump in. If it's hot, his gunfire (or violent death) will alert you to the danger that awaits.

As well as telling him where to stand, you can also switch your squadmate between Stealth and Assault modes with a simple tap of the Y button. But you have to analyse your situation to use this function properly. When you've multiple enemies to deal with you'll want him in Assault mode, which makes him attack any hostile upon sight. He's smart enough to lob grenades when necessary and use fixed gun turrets where possible - although he can sometimes get a little carried away and wander off to do some headhunting. If you don't order him back quickly he usually ends up biting off more than he can chew.

But when the situation calls for a more subtle approach, you'll want your squadmate in Stealth mode, when he'll try to stay low and only shoot when shot at. It adds an extra layer of strategy to the game, without being overly geeky about it. But generally, the main strategy is all about caution and positioning. When things are quiet, it's all about keeping your eyes peeled and your back covered.

Then the game picks up the pace and you have to make some quick strategic decisions. Your corporal radios in and tells you that you have an enemy convoy inbound on your position. Where do you stand? Do you crouch behind a wall? Hide down an alley? Do you scramble around in search of a ladder to get to a rooftop? A high position is always good. But you've not got long - the convoy will get there soon and if you're not ready for them, they'll put more holes in you than a cheese grater.

The single-player campaign is one tough cookie - you're looking at a good 15 hours of skilful stealth and sharp-shooting to get through. And you'll be happy to know there's a big old multiplayer mode in there too, which includes all the stealth tactics of single-player. To start with, you can play through the entire solo campaign co-operatively with a friend via split-screen, System Link or online over Xbox Live.

It works really well because, of course, the second player takes control of what would otherwise be the AI-controlled soldier, and you can work your way through the open environments via separate routes, flanking enemies everywhere.

Over on the battle side of things, you've got twelve arenas - mostly in city streets but a park and a couple of warehouses add variety to the selection. Split-screen gives you two modes: Sharpshooter, your standard deathmatch, and Last Man Standing, which gives everyone a single life per round. That's not all either - Advanced Warfighter also packs an impressive ten multiplayer modes in System Link and Xbox Live modes. Assassination mode sounds particularly cool, having one team trying to kill a VIP within a time limit while the other team do their best to keep him alive.

We really enjoyed playing the new Ghost Recon game, even if the whole 'Advanced Warfighter' thing turns out not to be that advanced after all - the radar isn't really any different from other shooters in the past, and the little video visor is of hardly any use. But when it comes down to it, GRAW is brimming with atmosphere, has brilliant, open levels and challenging AI that will put your shooting skills to the test. Combine the fifteen or so hours of single-player action with the heaps of fun to be had in multiplayer, and only one other shooter is hefty enough to contend with it. So give your Halo 2 disc a break for a few hours and check this out. Go on, you can do it!

1. Mixes the tension of the original with the action of Ghost Recon 2 to make the best Ghost Recon game yet.
2. Open urban environments provide a freedom to plan your routes and plan your strategy.
3. Stunning use of colours and lighting, and the behind-the-visor view all make for a highly immersive FPS.
4. Great multiplayer, including the option to play the full single-player campaign in co-op both off and online.

1. Over-hyped future technology materialises as little more than a radar and a near useless spycam-like-visor.

Immersive, challenging and great fun in multiplayer, this is the Ghost Recon series at its very best.