This game really does have its moments.
Had a three man group hitting a five skull province last night, to track down a nice sniper rifle. So we figured we'd get in, collect intel from two targets and use the second target to show us the way to the weapon.
All kinds of Ghost Recon shenanigans ensued, but what really stood out was a small town where our second intel target was located. We had been slowly clearing our way to the objective building from three directions, spotting all targets along the way, and silently taking out stragglers or using the occasional sync'd shot goodness for small groups. We were being extra careful because it was broad daylight and there were helicopter patrols.
So we got to the point where we only knew of two targets left and were making our way back to rally up at our target building when a gunship passed by overhead. We all hit the dirt and got inside nearby buildings for cover.
Turns out the helo wasn't on a regular patrol but was watching over a convoy moving through the center of town. Now, we learned soon enough about the convoy, but what we didn't know was that the convoy stopped when the lead car saw some bodies. And all of the troops in the lead and follow cars got out and started to patrol the area.
So while we thought we only had two targets left in the town, there were a bunch of soldiers slowly headed our way. Each of us ended up getting surprised in turn when there were soldiers at our backs and flanks - even the soldiers themselves were surprised because they hadn't been alerted up until that point and were just investigating the area pretty casually.
This led to one hell of a firefight just as the sun went down. Each of us scrambling from building to building, trying to avoid the gunship hovering above while taking care of the soldiers on every street and doorway, using night vision, taking out lights, and making sure not to plug civilians. The other two players made their way back towards the target building while I crept bit by bit towards the stopped and empty convoy vehicles, moving only when the helicopter gunship had its eyes off of my area.
Was the middle of the night before the other two players had set up in a nice defensive position and fired on the gunship to draw it's attention while I crept up from behind and used an underslung grenade launcher to take it out. (My buddies didn't know I was doing this though and were celebrating that they took it down with their MP5s ;p)
Then we tagged the convoy, grabbed our intel, and bugged out to go find our sniper rifle.
It was one long encounter in a series of nice encounters, and it was tense as hell and made so by way of the game's open world.
This game is fucking amazing at times.