Ghost Recon Online, also known as Ghost Recon: Phantoms, was a polished and well-made game, although the concept of tactical shooters was far from the casual shooter games that consisted of a simple point-and-shoot. In tactical shooters, players had certain goals to accomplish and needed to work with their teammates and use their gear and surroundings to their advantage. Dying in Ghost Recon Online was really easy as one or two bullets were enough to take players out. The respawn time was rather low, though, so they could return to the action quickly after losing their heads to an enemy sniper.

In Ghost Recon Online, there were three types of classes players could play, each with its own weapons arsenal and a unique battlefield tech that could be deployed for great advantages. As players played a class, they gained experience for that class and leveled up. Higher levels allowed them to purchase better equipment for their characters, making them superior killing machines in the hostile environment.

At level 2 and 8, players gained access to unique devices they could equip according to their class, granting them special abilities to use during matches. The abilities were pretty cool and lasted for a reasonable time with a decent cooldown, adding an interesting aspect to the game that needed to be practiced and mastered in order to fully utilize them on the battlefield. Experience wasn't shared between the different classes, so players couldn't use their higher-tier weapons on lower-level classes.

According to their performance in the match, players also gained money that was used to purchase new weapons, armor, and upgrades. There was a nice variety of items they could purchase, and all the weapons and armor in Ghost Recon Online were upgradeable by using attachments and inserts to improve their attributes.

In terms of gameplay, Ghost Recon felt like other games in the series. The third-person view was confusing at first and needed getting used to, and finding enemies could be tricky as only the Recon class had the ability to discover nearby enemies. So, as long as players didn't have a Recon nearby, spotting snipers or ambushes that were ready to kill them was pretty hard. The maps were dotted with cover areas, as shooting behind cover greatly improved aim and stability while providing protection from enemy fire.

Even though the basics in Ghost Recon were rather simple, it wasn't an easy game to start and could be quite frustrating for those who were unfamiliar with tactical shooters. Ghost Recon had a completely different pace than other shooter games. It was a much slower game, and charging enemies or even trying to flank them could get players killed pretty easily. Utilizing their gear and working with their teammates was the only way to achieve victory in this game.

The graphics and music were great, although there were occasionally graphical glitches that could be annoying, such as when an enemy blinked in front of players as they tried to shoot them, or when they suddenly died from bullets that went through the wall beside them.

Ghost Recon Online/Ghost Recon: Phantoms was a great game for gamers who preferred tactical shooters over casual first-person shooters. It was a well-designed game with plenty of variation, cool weapons and abilities, several maps, and daily missions that were constantly updated, providing players with a great gaming experience.

The game was definitely fun while it lasted. On August 25, 2016, Ubisoft announced that it would close all related game servers on December 1, 2016, because of "a slow but steady decline in users".