Author's Note: Cross-posted from my Gamefaqs account; originally published 5-8-18. I have made minor edits in order to adapt for TrueSteam. EnjoyGhost Recon: Wild ReviewWhere to begin?
Ghost Recon is a long running series, having begun in 2001 as Ubisoft was developing it’s tactical based franchises (inherited from Red Storm Entertainment), alongside
Rainbow Six and the later
Splinter Cell. While R6 began in the 90s (based off Tom Clancy’s novel) as a counter-terrorist/hostage rescue series, and
Splinter Cell was ‘black ops,’
Ghost Recon rounded it off as a Special Forces entry. Many titles later, many years later, many gameplay evolutions later, Ubisoft fans now have a GR game that is both open world, and accessible to a wider audience. So, on to the review!
1. Story
Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy franchises all take place in a semi-realistic, near-future modern day setting, taking inspiration from real geopolitical events. The
Ghost Recon franchise has spanned games and novels, taking players to Russia, Central Asia, Mexico, the Caribbean, etc. Now, the series drops players into Bolivia, to deal with drug cartels that have gone rampant with power. The player assumes the role of Ghost team lead Nomad, who along with his 3 man team is sent to Bolivia to assist CIA operative Karen Bowman deal with the Santa Blanca cartel. In this fictionalized Bolivia, the country has become dominated by the drug cartels, and it’s up to the player to lead the ghosts through each province, eliminate cartel bosses, assist Bolivian rebels, all the while working up to the big cheese himself, the leader of the cartel, El Sueno.
Two DLC packs thus far add to the universe, with varying success.
Narco Road sees the Ghosts racing around in monster trucks…no comment.
Fallen Ghosts offers depth and an interesting footnote to the series’ lore. Set sometime after the events of the main game, FG involves the Ghost team (en route back to the states) crashing down and becoming hunted by a mercenary/special forces group known as ‘Los Extranjeros.’ These “foreigners” have come to Bolivia in the power vacuum that opened following the destruction of the Santa Blanca cartel by the Ghosts, and are now eliminating any American interlopers. The Ghosts have become the hunted, but they’re not completely defenseless. Despite FG offering a smaller weapon selection than the main game, the player character is rounded off with multiple new skills, maxed out to level 30. Suffice to say, while NR is forgettable,
Fallen Ghosts is worth the time and money to play. Coop it with your friends for a good playthrough.
2. Gameplay
GRW departs from typical franchise swagger by dropping the player into a massive open world environment. While previous entries in the series all put the player in relatively large open levels, the story progression was linear, level by level. This is the first
Ghost Recon title to be a completely open world sandbox, following in the style of most of Ubisoft’s other franchises, including
Assassin’s Creed,
Far Cry, and
Watch Dogs. As a guy who was never terribly impressed by the GR series, I can say this is a major plus, and one of the pulls that attracted me to the game. The open environment, non-linear gameplay, and overall ease of use convinced me the GR series was finally worth looking into.
With sandbox environments, the game brings many new changes as well, while also retaining certain other elements. Carried over from
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the ability to modify weapon parts (barrels, trigger assemblies, butt stocks, etc) and the use of personal drones. As a sandbox game, the player is free to sweep through the country as they see fit; after finishing the first province in the game, the player can go wherever they wish, liberating each region and it’s cartel sub-boss until working up the food chain to El Sueno.
Open world gameplay would be incomplete without travel accommodations, and there are options aplenty. Trucks, helicopters, armored vehicles, motorbikes, vans, boats, and sedans allow the player to travel any which they want, up mountains, down the road, through the skies, across lakes and rivers. A particularly nifty feature is the ability to para-drop out of aircraft, be they airplanes or helicopters. Additionally, each region has a small handful of rebel outposts where the player may fast travel to at will.
In addition to main story missions spread throughout every region, each province has numerous side missions and nifty loot to find too. These range from tagging resources, intimidating low level cartel officers, attacking enemy convoys, discovering in-universe lore (relating to both the story and Bolivian culture), new weapons (and weapon parts), etc. Resources (food, commo, gasoline, medical) are used to increase your character's skills, such as drone capabilities, weapon specialties, squad abilities, etc; the use of resources to increase skills is not a new feature either, and was prevalent in 2016’s
The Division. The game has a certain RPG element to it in that regard. Additionally, the main character is able to ‘level up,’ as well, earning skill points needed to properly increase skills. Weapons too can be upgraded (not just with new mods), by leveling them up as well with resources; this increases their damage output. Talking about the sandbox environment would be incomplete without mentioning the beauty of the game’s environs. Day/night cycles affect enemy forts (enemy guards will sleep during the night, meaning a fort will be less prepared for an attack). Rain is present as well, which while not affecting gameplay, does make everything look wet, including the player, environment, and even paved roads. Bolivia is beautifully brought to life, and features jungles, deserts, lakes, rivers, mountains, snow, and even salt flats.
Players are free to tackle the game either single player (with the use of three AI team mates) or online coop play. Online coop play is a relatively simple affair, streamlined and easy to access. Players join each other in a match, go on missions together, and if they so wish, can form a ‘task force’ that can be recognized online at the game’s website. Playing missions together requires team work and some planning. If you’re a serious player who wants real tactical work, good luck finding it from most online players. It’s best to link up with friends who are equally serious. Otherwise, playing with randos online, is, well, random. No matter playing online or single player, the player has access to every vehicle, weapon, skill, and rebel assist (spotting, rebel strike team, diversion, mortars, and vehicle delivery) they’ve unlocked so far. Progress is shared through both coop and SP. Lastly, there is also competitive multiplayer, which has received regular updates since it’s free addition to the game.
The number of weapons, weapon mods, as well as uniform options available is quite impressive. For weapons, players have numerous scopes, laser sights, magazines, butt stocks, barrels, trigger assemblies, even grenade launchers and forward grips to choose from. Want to slap a grenade launcher to your AK-47, but give it a medium range sight and a suppressor? Got it. Want a 50 rd drum mag for your SIG 556, with a short buttstock? Go ahead. Want a long range sight for your anti-material sniper rifle? Got it. In addition to equipping the player with two primary weapons and a sidearm (be it a pistol or machine pistol), the player has six uniform slots they can edit and change to at will. The player can outfit their character in whatever camo they want, with numerous attire options. None of it matters to gameplay….but it’s still neat.
3. Cons
No Ubisoft game would be complete without a laundry list of problems. Fortunately, while GRW has a list, it doesn’t bring down the entire integrity and gameplay value of the title as a whole.
While there are plenty of vehicles to choose from, there are only a small few where the player can hide in the trunk while other player-characters (in coop) drive. This may seem silly to complain about, but as this was a toted feature of the game (and is still reminded of to the player during loading screens), you’d think it would be more widespread. There’s not one pickup truck where the player is able to hop in the bed of and lay down LMG fire at enemies. Instead, there are only a few random sedans throughout the sandbox where this is possible, but the principle is lost. While there are paradrops in the game, there’s no option for fast roping air assault style. This too was a hyped feature, but is nowhere to be found in the game. Yah parachuting into enemy territory is cool, but being able to fast rope down and then immediately kill an unsuspecting enemy guard is A LOT cooler (mind you this is coming from me, and I was Army Airborne Infantry for 4.5 years).
While the rebel skills are handy in a pinch, I have to critique the vehicle drop off, as well as the enemy’s ability to detect you while in a vehicle. There was already an open world game many years ago, where the player was not only able to inadvertently disguise their vehicle while driving, but also able to order delivery a whole plethora of different types of vehicles. This was the 2005 game
Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. Developed by the now defunct Pandemic, the player was able to order a variety of vehicles, which they could unlock over time during gameplay. The ability to disguise a vehicle as civilian, NKA, SKA, Chinese, Russian, or UN allowed the player to slip in and out of zones without much fuss, provided they didn’t do anything stupid like run over someone. In GRW, the player is only able to order three vehicles: a simple helicopter, an armored truck, or a car. Despite the numerous types of vehicles throughout the game (jeeps, pickup trucks, helicopter gunships, armored troop carriers, etc), this variety is pathetic. Even the somewhat sub-par Watch Dogs gives the player access to a whole swath of vehicles to choose from. Meanwhile, disguises would have been nice. While driving through the world, the player will drive by Santa Blanca (the cartel) and Unidad (Bolivian military) vehicles, who can quickly discover you, and turn a routine drive into a pointless chase.
Throughout most of Ubisoft’s open world games, there are consequences for killing innocent civilians. In
Watch Dogs, the player’s reputation drops, leading to increased probability of civilians calling the Police on Aiden Pearce. In
Assassin’s Creed, enough civilian kills results in an “animus desync.” In
Far Cry 4, you lose ‘karma.’ Considering this is the first GR title set in an open world that’s filled with civilians, playing as an American SF team that’s supposed to win the “hearts and minds” of the populace, a reputation meter is sorely lacking. This was a feature that was either never discussed, or it was brought to the table and ultimately shelved, resulting in an oddly sized plot hole right in the center of the game.
Finally, your AI team mates….They. Are. MORONS. They will often times not follow the player, instead hanging out way away from him/her. It often means that if the player gets into a firefight, they will be alone, get taken down, and have to wait for one of the AI to revive them (that is one of the positives though…for once in an Ubisoft Tom Clancy game, your AI mates can revive you, finally!). For some inexplicable reason, rebel AI can’t revive the player…anyway. The AI teammates have their uses as bullet sponges and blunt instruments (and occasionally for synced shots – similar to
Splinter Cell Conviction and
Splinter Cell Blacklist’s mark & execute feature), and while a recent patch allowed the player to edit their uniforms (which was good because by default they looked like tacticool hipster dopes), the player cannot modify their weapon loadouts. Which is…ridiculous. Many GR titles allowed the player to change the AI teammates weapon’s….this would have been extremely handy here, to adapt the AI to ever changing mission parameters. Instead, one guy is always armed with a rifle, another with a sniper rifle, and the last one is always carrying a little dinker SMG.
Having been in the Army….I can tell you that load out for a small fireteam is dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Snipers (such as scout snipers) work in pairs. SMGs are rare, and at most may be used for CQB or room clearing operations. Additionally, Ubisoft, despite being the “tactical shooter” developers, still don’t understand the difference between a “squad” and a “team.” An actual ‘squad’ is made up of two fire teams, with a small command element of a squad leader, medic, and RTO (radioman). A “team” or more succinctly known as a “fire team” is a 4 man element consisting of the team leader (armed with a rifle), grenadier (a rifleman with a grenade launcher, be it an M203 or M320), rifleman (armed with a rifle), and finally the automatic rifleman (armed with an M249 S.A.W.). That being said, an American Special Forces unit would not deploy to a country with just a fire team. That…is ridiculous. Being unable to change the loadouts of your AI team mates is equally ridiculous, especially after the player unlocks many more powerful weapons and mods to go with them. Why would I want that guy to use a tiny SMG, when I can give him an LMG? Why would I want my sniper to use a basic sniper rifle, when I can give him an anti-material rifle, or a fully automatic rifle for its suppressive power? Anyway…you get my point.
Oh and did I mention how ANNOYING your AI teammates are? I’m not talking about their bullet sponge uses, I’m talking about their dialogue. Their banter isn’t funny, or clever, or amusing…it’s annoying. And there’s no way to mute it. One mate will always joke about needing cocaine to deal with the elevation, and every time I hear it, it kills my brain cells. May God have mercy on the idiot writer who wrote the scripts. I hope he goes to every single tree and plant he sees and apologizes to them for stealing the oxygen they made.
Adding to that is the gear loadout system….there is none. Earlier I had mentioned that the player could have up to six uniforms for the player character they can swap out and change at will. This is neat and all, but it’s purely aesthetics that doesn’t affect the player’s damage resistance or environmental camouflage. Real tactical loadouts (of both uniforms and weapons) is not a foreign, or new concept to Ubisoft…they’ve had those features in other games before. In both
Splinter Cell Conviction and it’s sequel
Blacklist, the player had uniforms they could edit as they see fit. While in SCC the player had a whole variety of pre-made uniforms to choose from, they could still edit its kit components (extra armor, gadgets, or ammo). In SCB, the player could make three distinct loadouts, with different uniform pieces providing storage space and damage resistance. Therefore the player had real choice on what uniform they wanted to bring a mission to, along with set weapons for each load out. Mind you that title was from 2013…it makes GRW’s system even dumber. It probably doesn’t help either that the SC franchise also used loadouts in 2005’s
Chaos Theory but hey who’s counting integrity? And before one can say “oh well that’s a different franchise” let’s remember this is Ubisoft and their talent base is shared between all their branches, along with ideas. Gameplay features in one title in a franchise reappear in other titles in other franchises…strange concept, I know, but ‘intellectual property’ is owned by a whole company, not the individual.
All that said, even though this stuff is annoying, it doesn’t bring down the game as a whole. GRW is very enjoyable, and unlike many other Ubisoft titles, has received consistent updates since its release. These updates have fixed many issues present in the game, and even added free content (competitive multiplayer, as well as single player missions featuring THE
Predator and
Splinter Cell’s Sam Fisher). Recent updates, however, have added loot boxes…but if you don’t really care to waste money on that trash, then it’s no issue. Don’t give developers money for garbage, simple!
4. Conclusion
GR has come a long way since its conception in 2001. The late 90s and early 2000s were the eve of tactical shooters, with
Rainbow Six and
Ghost Recon paving the way for the long evolution of the genre. The series has evolved immensely over the years, always allowing the player some degree of freedom and choice (compared to more linear Ubisoft titles such as
Splinter Cell which took some time to allow player freedom).
Wildlands is the next evolution of that idea, by dropping the player into a sandbox environment and letting them progress the story as they see fit. GR purists and fans from 2001 may not like it for being such a departure; to that, I can sympathize. As a
Splinter Cell and KOTOR 1-2 (
Knights of the Old Republic) purist, I hated to see my favorite franchises get ruined by developer greed, and lack of integrity. At the same time, I have immensely enjoyed GRW, for I was never a fan of the original games, which were rather awkward at times.
At its heart, GRW embodies the various principals Ubisoft instills into most of its titles: player freedom, massive customization, open world sandbox, cooperative play, a semi-realistic near-future setting, all coupled together into an impressively sized game. Does it have its faults? Yes. It is Ubisoft, they wouldn’t be the awkward French Canadians that they are without pulling oddball antics in their major titles. However, the positives outweigh the negatives here, which is rare nowadays with Ubisoft titles. It helps that they've continually patched the game over the last year…that said, I am proud to recommend this game for those who want to play a tactical coop shooter in an open world environment. Not for
Halo or CoD players who want to run and gun, but for players who like proper planning and execution in their shooters.
4.5