On a sunny afternoon in Paris, Adrian Lacey – the IP development director from Ubisoft in France – is holding court. A room full of journalists stands in front of him scribbling notes as he explains the details pertaining to Ghost Recon: Future Soldier's co-op multiplayer. It is, he says split between two modes. There's the co-op multiplayer, in which up to four players can tackle the campaign just as they would in single player, except with humans replacing the AI. And then there is the brand new Guerrilla Mode.

"When we were looking at Ghost Recon: Future Soldier at the beginning of the development cycle," he says, "we knew wanted a mode which was more dynamic. What happened was that we were talking to one of our Special Forces consultants and they told us about some of the missions they'd seen in Afghanistan.

"Obviously NATO forces were large on the ground, but being a huge military army can have a limited effect when you're fighting a guerrilla war, especially in region where everyone's walking around carrying some sort of gun. It makes it very hard to distinguish between who is and who isn't an enemy."

"Now, what would happen is that local villages would pay warlords protection money. So when the Special Forces troops would drop into a village, the civilians would leave because they knew there would be a fight. The village elders would contact the warlords and demand service for their protection payments. So the Special Forces troops would have to fortify their positions and hold their ground as waves and waves of insurgents were sent their way."

Lacey continues for a bit, but the furious scribbling in the room around him has died down somewhat. This is because all of the games journalists have looked at their pads and seen the phrases "fortify their positions", "hold their ground" and "waves and waves [of enemies]". And we all now have a pretty good idea of what Guerrilla Mode is. It's a Horde Mode.

This means that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is yet another shooter whose developers have decided to build a version of Epic's game-changing co-op survival challenge from Gears Of War 2. It may have its basis in the genuine tactical realities and challenges facing modern military forces in combat zones – as much as the rest of GR's mechanics do – but that doesn't change the fact that it has the same structure, set-up and goals for players that the Horde Mode in Gears does.

In Guerrilla Mode, up to four players are dropped into a map and they're given a quadrant highlighted in green to defend – let's call it a "green zone". Two crates – one containing weapons and another containing equipment such as grenades and claymores – are dropped into the map with them, and the players have a small slice of time to plant traps, get into position and then lock and load. Once the timer stops, enemies begin pouring into the map. If the players survive the onslaught, they unlock more weapons and equipment and the next wave of enemies increases in number and becomes a little heavier armed.

After 10 waves, the map's "green zone" moves to a different location, and players need to make their way over to it, secure it and begin defending it again. The game ends once the players survive 50 waves of enemies, or if all the players die, or if enemy forces manage to occupy the players' "green zone" for too long.

So Guerrilla Mode bears more than a passing resemblance in structure to Horde Mode. That having been said, Guerrilla Mode is a better fit for Ghost Recon's tactical style of play than one might think. First off, the game's AI is craftier than most, and as enemies enter the map, they immediately start to seek cover, flank the players and use sustained fire keep the players' heads down. This means that certain sections of the map can turn into choke points – worth noting when the players have a window of time to set up claymores.

Players also have the option of stockpiling their equipment. While they're limited to the amount of grenades, for example, they any pick up on each drop, they are able to add to any ordinance they didn't use during a wave. So, if the "green zone" shifts from a fortified spot to one with multiple entry points, and you've managed to keep your claymore count up, you can position your mines to do most of your defending for you.

While players need to be tactically minded, the style of play needed to survive in Guerrilla Mode is far more frenetic and action oriented than the series has been known for in the past, where slow-paced stealth and mission prep are large factors in success. This slower-paced gameplay hasn't been stripped out altogether, mind. Players will experience plenty of that in the game's single player and co-op campaign. For the latter, however, they will need a decent headset.

This is because in co-op, all four players need to be aware of their teammates positions and movements at all times. The reason for this is that if any of them dies, the mission they're on is aborted. To that end, players need to watch each others' backs, stay hidden from enemies, report any information about the terrain they pick up to their comrades, and above all else, hold off pulling the trigger on their weapon until their teammates give them the go-ahead. Lone wolves should look elsewhere for their shooter kicks; if you don't work together with your teammates, you'll not only fail every mission, you'll probably lose yourself some online mates into the bargain.

Both of the missions shown to journalists in Paris featured the loose, open-ended, multi-track approach that made the Ghost Recon series a hit to begin with. In one, the team was tasked with infiltrating a compound filled with Russian soldiers. Here, the progression was divided between scouting the terrain – using sensor grenades and a UAV drone – and positioning the squad to cause the maximum damage, then taking out multiple targets simultaneously. The players had dense foliage and the odd building to hide behind for the most part, but the level also featured a rather difficult boss battle in the form of a tank that rolled in midway.

The second mission was set at night and the squad started outside a Russian airfield. While infiltrating the grounds and picking up a package were the main objectives, stealth was the order of the day, as if one member of the team was spotted, the mission was over. To that end, the squad needed to stick to the shadows, take cover behind vehicles and containers parked on the runway and do everything they could to ensure that none of the bodies they left behind could be spotted.

It's interesting that Ghost Recon: Future Soldier can accommodate two different shooter approaches in two separate co-op modes. From a design point the two sit well next to each other, and it can't hurt the game's chances since this ultimately broadens its appeal. It really is starting to shape up as a varied and compelling package – and there's a still a competitive multiplayer mode to look forward to. In the meantime, watch this space … and buy a decent headset.

• Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier will be released for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 on 25 May