Though the story left us with a sort of Cotton Mouth of the mind, the visuals sure as hell didn’t. Before, when seeing screenshots of GRAW posted around the web, our thoughts sat in the “Too good to be real, they’re pre-rendered” category. Yet, firing things up, and hanging over the sprawling Mexico City by just a wire from a chopper, we realize that they were no joke. It usually takes quite a lot to get me lost in a game world, but hanging over a city like then, then being expected to dive off a chopper, and parachute to the ground – well hell, that threw me over.

On the plus side, though, it’s a peaceful ride down, through the layers upon layers of nicely rendered, HDR defined smog. On the ground, it takes just moments before the HUD kicks in – a nice overlay on your traditional vision, giving you video feeds, a quick glance at ammunition, and access to all your team-mates. Now, while the ability to look through the eyes of another member of the team is cool and all, it doesn’t look quite as good, though enemies are still quite visible. Perhaps the most convenient feature to this HUD is how your targets are overlaid in the direction they should be, and how foes are represented with red diamonds, after they have been seen by either an eye in the sky, or your team mates, finally giving you the chance to pop around a wall knowing what’s going to be behind it. For those situations where brazen acts just aren’t an option though, there’s a whole world out there filled with interactive objects to hide behind. For the most part, these objects will blow apart with sufficient force, a fact which makes vehicles the most convenient form of cover.

Don’t rest too sure, though, as these perfect models are fully destructible, meaning that if you see a head through the windshield and out the window, when you take that shot, it WILL hit them – and the same goes for them to you, so it’s best to watch your back. Staring down the barrels of your exquisitely modeled weapon, and scoping in on the heads of your foes who stand idly by, and watching them fall back in a spray of blood as each shell flies forward, punching deeply into their bodies. In short, the world, and everything in it’s immersive nature looks and feels so accurate, that gamers lucky enough to have over eye displays would have absolutely no troubles feeling that they’re right there, in the action. In unison with such perfected visuals, there is also the incredible audible aspect of the world ahead. While your team mates are often nothing more than silent puppets, dancing to your string, the voice of them, yourself, and all those around you is absolutely spot on, making each word of spoken dialogue believable, realistic, and immersive. Along with this, each (for us, painfully slow) moment of sneaking along, getting ready to take our shots was met with a strong score, persuasive and deep music The music permeated every aspect of the Gameplay, from the suitably heroic introduction, to the horrors of being utterly outmatched, all things came with their representation. Yet, this was music that never ceased, even when the whoosh of an explosion filled the air, making our eardrums rattle with the proper use of 5.1 audio. Diving for cover was never made easier than now, with shots flying all around, hearing them ricochet off of targets unknown behind us, and all around what we cowled behind as cover.