Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Breakpoint

One of todays Behemoths.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® Breakpoint2019-12-6-22-25-25 by prmjb, on Flickr

What's the story? Morning glory!

GRB 2019-11-28 09-12-50-817 by prmjb, on Flickr

So watched a video about the Terminator live event which apparently drops next month sometime...they are putting the finishing touches on it. I am mildly excited for it but it does raise some concerns...typically that this is exemplifying my kind of love hate relationship I am starting to develop with live service.

Pro: Continuing content dripped out over weeks, months, possibly even years telling an evolving story in an evolving world giving us loads of stuff to lookd forward to. Great. Works for TV, can work for games.

Cons: How they set it up to where you have to often play it NOW NOW NOW to get the full benefit out of it...meh.

I mean it seems they are going to take it farther then they did with the Predator or the other associated missions in Wildlands...the video mentioned we would seemingly be actually investigating the threat and mentioned main mission(s) I believe. Granted hopefuly not going to be as involved as any of the branches in the game...but its telling none the same.

Oh yeah and the Walker fight on extreme is uh hard. And his goddamn last bullet in the Deagle.

So I might be pretty much done with PT # 1 for GR: B. I don't know if I am going to actually play with the 'new weapons' that released or not before moving on to...other games in the meantime.

Lets see here: Oh yeah continued to run around and hunting for that last investigation. Had a devil of a time trying to find 'Hidden cove' in Cape North, really had to zoom in to the map and go over with it with a fine tooth comb. When I did find it though I zeroed in right on the appropriate base oddly enough and...had very little trouble with it honestly I think.

I actually have come to appreciate how this game fails you on the quests now, I mean usually that results in you having to restart your game...but the second base I hit was a Wolf base that I missed... but it had Song for a Revolution in it, which you are supposed to be undetected for that it failed. It was... fun though, because I obviously got detected trying to get to the high ground in the middle of the base and started playing chicken with a couple of drones including one on the groundand it was doing a couple...of odd things. Anyways I ended up getting it.

So a review of this game will probably be coming from me soon.

So basically the pure essence of free roam exploration. Two months into this game and its rare I've gotten the chance to do this. lol.

Anyways.

M4A1 Tactical: Probably the best version of the M4 I've played with to this point. The Integral Silencer does make it surprisingly accurate and a great weapon for stealth and moving in through bases. Except, of course, when it is trying to take out turrets then it starts kicking like an M60. I mean is this a bug or am I just wildly misjudging the distances. Don't know if its ever something I am going to really use as a primary weapon in the future, but it could have some utility.

A bit of behemoth action. Sliding in the killshot.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® Breakpoint2019-12-11-9-25-52 by prmjb, on Flickr
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® Breakpoint2019-12-11-9-27-15 by prmjb, on Flickr

A little alpine action.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon® Breakpoint2019-12-11-20-40-36 by prmjb, on Flickr

dazk correctamundo

So here we are at the end, my thoughts on Breakpoint. My review.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint: A delightful mess

The Good:

The Gunplay: Lets start with an easy one: Much like its predecessor Breakpoint has some tight shooting and its clear tat Ubisoft really knows how to beef up combat in their games. Everything felt smooth, crisp, and well thought out. Whether you were running and gunning in the middle of a compound or picking your shots for hundred of meters away, combat is fun and rewarding pretty much no matter what you are doing. Only thing that held it back was the seemingly 650 meter hard limit on sniper shots where you the enemy wasn't even there. Also the bullet drop for snipers just takes into accunt gravity...and somehow it is easier to keep everything in mind then in Wildlands.

The Story: I was initially very reluctant when it was clear from the marketing and the background information on the game that it was clear that there was going to be *more* story content in this game then Wildlands. Wildlands was virtually storyless...and surprisingly it worked for the game. The joy didn't come in playing through an intense story but in working through the interesting and varied tactical scenarios the game presented. The only real story in Wildlands was a 'backstory' involving DEA Agent Ricky Sandoval's dissillusionment with the United States and his overall mission.

So Breakpoint went in the direction to include a story...and despite perhaps a rough start it really delivered in the end of the day. It was a story of technology gone awry, of regret, of how people deal with a modern and ever changing world, and it really, really, really worked. Perhaps not the most inspired story in the world.

As an aside I do wonder if games lie this and Ace Combat 7, which also told a story of drone warfare gone awry...but drones have been with us for a very long time now in terms of modern military warfare. I mean sure, tech gone awry is a huge part of science fiction in general, but...it just seems a little late. Though on the flip side technology is so central to this narrative that it was nice hearing about concepts like 3D printers and the like. Also some of the story revelations towards the end of the game was quite...monumental.

Characters: Much like the story took me a while to get into this aspect of the game, but it was worth it in the end. There is a definite Bioshockian bent to a lot of the characterization and what is going on. Jace Skell is defintley a lot more of a stable version of Andrew Ryan. Paula Madera is definitley a treat and probably one of the best characters in the game. All these characters though seem to have a lot of regreat going on in there day to day life. A lot of failutre that just coats over most of the interactions in the game. Huruhi and the Outcasts, Skell, Paula, Walker, all these people have failed and are just trying to pick up the pieces of that failure to make something of themselves.

The Variety: One of my biggest complaints in Wildlands was how a lot of the game's story missions felt very samey. There was great variety in what you could do in the actual missions...but most of them involved some sort of going to an area simply to extract an HVT. Few were the missions where you got to do something truly unique.

In Breakpoint however no two story missions ever truly feel the same. It goes from everyting fro rescuing HVts (namely Skell in the first mission arc in the game), to sabotage, conducting air raid missions in a helicopter, etc, etc, etc.

But this goes far beyond simple missions to everything has more variety to it.

Enemy types: In addition to the drones there are a lot more human enemy types in the game. Heavies (though not as annoying as the ones from Fallen Ghosts) Com guys, drone deployers, and shutgunners.

Equipment: Breach torches, sensort launchers, synchshot drones, EMP grenades, and lots more to craft.

Each of these things combined with an impressive variety of base maps and locations (you often can't just sit outside and snipe) and side mission types makes sure this game rarely feels old.

Faction Missions: I liked them, though I wish there could be more with the actual rewards side of it. But they were an interesting twist that actually tell their own story and have their own theme.

The bad:

The 'side' missions: While the Faction Missions were a bit of a delight at times the side missions were a mess. What is mind boggling is this isthe same company that gave you ACOD, so I was expecting more...but they were largely episodic and isolated from anything else going on. Granted there were a few gems here like the cold war nuke hunting and the mission with the crazy drones. There were some good ones, but they could be a lot bette rin the future.

What's maddening here is that they could've done better. With the investigations could've actually given you leads to new side missions which could've knitted everything together.

Lack of AI squad: Maybe a bit bizarre given some of the things I have been saying and for most of the game it is *fine*. But given a few of the missions hey really could've used other teamates...for those of us who don't have friends aparently.

the final boss battle: I hated this, some of the worst boss fihgting I have ever been apart of.

the tiered loot: thinking about it I think I have given my thoughts on these...though it was really a downer.

the bugs: ditto.

Conclusion: On the lower tier 2 scale. Yes Wildlands had its own issues...but it just felt like the better more complete game. Though I feel like this is a game that might need a second review when they get rid of the tiered loot.

PC?

SO its been a long time comin but it looks like the AIteamates will finally be in the game which means it will be time to start another PT and start messing with the new features, and the AI team, in depth.

So I turn on the stream right as they are doing BP stuff. It ends up being a trailer for a live event...

I feel like TROS Palpatine right now.

I will say I am a bit disappointed where it seems you can't order your soldiers individually. Especially with the emphasis on the AI adaptation for their specific weapons it would be nice to set Vasilly on overwatch (or you and Vasilly if you are a sniper) then have the rest go in. Set up ambushes. Etc.