Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint Review (PC)

What's the deal with secluded islands and bad events? There's the obvious convenience of not being land-locked, but it has to be more than that. The same holds for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, the latest island third-person shooter from Ubisoft, that confines players on a remote archipelago, following a strange series of events.

Nothing remains the same, and that's one painful truth for people who just want to play the same thing over and over again. Following a tried-and-true recipe is the way to go, but games need to evolve to remain relevant. However, on that road, they might lose a few players along the way.

Ghost Recon used to be about lone players using advanced technology to achieve their objectives covertly, hence the term ghost in the name. The previous Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands took place in Bolivia, with the players fighting drug cartels. But in Breakpoint, the enemy is much more advanced than the Ghosts, so the technical aspect doesn't really cover it anymore.

With the addition of numerous gameplay elements from other titles and genres, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint doesn't feel like the old self anymore. It's a different beast, but players will sense, from time to time, that they are playing something else.

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Story

The previous Wildland iteration had a backstory to keep the players going, and it was mildly entertaining, but I had to push through as it wasn't all captivating. Not that the writing was terrible, but the subject wasn't particularly interesting. Fighting a drug war in South America, even with advanced tech, is just that, with no significant surprises around the corner.

But Breakpoint hoists the players deep inside a riddle. They are part of an elite Ghost Recon force that was sent to the fictional Auroa archipelago, somewhere in the South Pacific, nearly 2000 miles of the coast of New Zeeland and close to the arctic circle. It's safe to say that it's in the middle of nowhere.

The islands making up the archipelago are populated, but a company named Skell Tech moves in, trying to turn the place into a utopia driven by technology and inventions. The irony is not lost, as the island already looked like a utopia before the intervention of man.

Something happens, and the Skell Corporation starts taking over the island with the help of a Private Military company called Sentinel Corp. It's unclear why the sudden change in policy, but after the island goes dark, a few dozen Ghost Recon operatives are sent to the island to determine what happened. Their choppers are taken down by a mysterious swarm of drones, and this is where players take over.

Gameplay

The problem with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is that it doesn't seem to know what it wants to be, but that's to be expected from a game that borrows from so many sources. At its core, it still feels like Ghost Recon, with players scouting locations, planning routers, and methodically eliminating the enemy.

But now it's also a game about loot and about amassing resources to get a better "something." The goal shifted from exploration and stealth to find a better weapon or some flashy kneepads. The story took second place, with the sizeable in-game store standing as evidence.

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Fortunately, despite the implementation of transactions, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is still fun to play. It takes a while to get enough in-game currency to buy a chopper with rockets, but once you get that, a lot of problems are solved immediately.

Since players are no longer on top of the food chain, they always have to pay attention to drones and other dangers. Burying yourself in the mud so that the Predator-like drone passing overhead doesn't spot you is a skill you learn from the start. All missions take planning if you want to get the maximum amount of experience, but going in guns blazing is still an option.

Players also get to choose from a wide variety of skills, although the number of active perks seems to be too much. You can only equip a few perks at one time, so unlocking a new one and dropping one that you've used until now doesn't feel right. One of the first things I've done was to unlock the passive skills only, as much as possible.

It's also possible to choose from a few classes, each with its bonuses. I decided on the medic because I like the option for a free revival, but I'm mainly playing as a sniper, so the classes are not bounding. The weapons are varied enough and the equipment fun to play around, especially since it's possible to change them visually as anything that's been already discovered.

There's a lot of content in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, and players will bury dozens of hours in the gameplay if they follow all the side quests. Missions are fun to play, and a few of the secondary ones were more interesting than the main storyline.

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It's worth mentioning that Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is designed to be played in teams, with up to four people at the same time. I found it to be well balanced, even for one player, but I don't get the appeal of playing with strangers, at least not in the single-player.

Other modes such as Raids or PvP make a lot of sense but suffer from the same problem as all multiplayer titles. Players investing more time have a clear advantage, and Ubisoft's claim that you can buy some items that accelerate experience gathering works only in theory.

Graphics

It would be impossible to talk about Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint without mentioning the graphics engine. Undisputedly, the game looks fantastic, and it runs very well even on older hardware. I noticed that it actually works better than the previous Wildlands, which only means that it's most likely better optimized.

Except for choppers, which are fun to drive, the rest of the vehicles seem weird, but it's not a deal-breaker. The physics of the bullets and their impact is very well implemented, making all shots satisfying. The only issue is that the addition of gear levels generates some weird encounters. When you find some high-level enemies, even dropping rockets from the sky will have minimal effect.

Some minor problems crop up from time to time, with missing textures, problems with buffering, and weapons that don't' show in hand. But it's nothing too terrible and likely to disappear in future updates.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion