Imagine you are in a humid, dense forest, sunlight can’t reach the ground. You’re hurt, but you don’t have time to analyze your injuries. A pack of Wolves is hunting you through the woods, they are highly trained soldiers designated to neutralize you at any cost.
You continue to run, the only thing between you and the enemy is the environment. You managed to hide and now it’s time to patch yourself up. You put bandages on your wounds and use a syringe to heal yourself.
Enemies are closer now, but you’ve got the element of surprise. First, they’ll have to find you. You lay on the ground and cover yourself with mud and standstill so no one can see you. On the radio, a friendly voice breaks the silence. He has eyes on the Wolves.
In a coordinated call, you and your friend act at the same time. You jump out of the mud, stealthily grabbing your opponent from behind, using your knife to stab him in a fatal spot, whilst your friend neutralizes the second Wolf with a precision rifle, hitting the enemy in the head. A conflict begins.
That was the first Ghost Recon Breakpoint gameplay trailer we saw. And now, I am going to review this game with the eyes of the person I was when I first saw the trailer.
About Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an Open World third-person tactical shooter that puts players into the shoes of an elite soldier, who is part of a Special Operations Unit called “Ghosts”.
The Game was released worldwide on the 4th of October, 2019, for Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4 and Xbox One. It was developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft.
When it first launched, fans of the franchise did not approve the direction the developers were going and did not react positively about the changes in gameplay mechanics, as it was different from its predecessor.
Even though 2019 was a bad year for the gaming industry in terms of game releases, Breakpoint managed to be nominated the worst game of that year. Ubisoft CEO, Yves Guillemont confirmed on Twitter that Ghost Recon Breakpoint had underperformed - “Critical reception and sales during the game first weeks were very disappointing”. But don’t worry, it still has sold millions of copies. And today it’s a very different game, trust me.
The Story in Breakpoint
You’re taken to a fictional Island, Auroa. A technology company is trying to build the perfect World, but something is not right, as the Island’s communication with the outside world has gone silent. You play as Nomad, the squad leader of the Ghosts. Now you have to investigate why everything is out of control and who is responsible for this.
The game’s narrative follows a similar take to Ghost Recon Wildlands, the previous game in the series, where you need to find “clues” in order to get access to missions and eventually neutralize high-level NPC’s, who command the enemy forces.
Do you know Jon Bernthal? Maybe you’ve seen him in The Walking Dead or The Punisher. In Breakpoint, he is Cole D. Walker. And he is your enemy. Well, at least for the first missions in the game, but after you complete some of the Main Quests, you can go and kill him. This is very disappointing and a waste of talent, he could easily have been the “Big Brain” for the entire narrative, not just for the first episode of the campaign.
Anyway, once you kill him, you kind of lose interest in the story, as the other NPCs aren’t as remarkable as Walker. You come across some bad villains, but they are no Vaas Montenegro (wrong franchise, I know, I know).
How Do You (wanna) play it?
When you start the game, while you’re in a helicopter going towards the Island, you’re taken to a real-time customization screen. You can choose the gender, predefined faces, hairstyle and color, eyes and facial details. Your choices are not permanent; any characteristics can be changed at any time in the game, plus some other things like tattoos and facial paint.
Something I forgot to tell you: before you start, you have to choose how you want to play the game. There are two different ways. You can play it in the original way, which is not original to the franchise, in my opinion. Or you can play it the immersive way, which is my favorite if it matters.
The “original” choice is to play with a loot system. All your weapons and equipment will have levels of rarity, which will change their stats according to the level. If you are familiar with RPGs you know what it's about. White is common, green is uncommon, blue is rare, purple is epic, and yellow is legen – wait for it – dary. Actually, yellow is “signature”, but everyone calls it legendary.
The immersive one is more of a realistic approach. If you find two of the same gun, they will have the same stats. But you can improve them using materials, increasing their damage, reload speed, range, and handling. Weapon attachments are the same for both experiences. You change scopes, barrels, clip size, underbarrel attachments, laser sights, stock, and the trigger behavior: full auto and single, or full auto and burst.
You can also customize your own game style however you want. You can play it immersive but with an RPG loot system. You can play It with loot tiers but more realistic. The HUD is totally customizable. You can have your screen covered in messages, alerts, WhatsApp notifications, weapon info, loot info, weather forecast, reminders, etc. I exaggerated a little, but seriously you can turn everything on or off, it’s up to you.
And you have classes in the game as well. There are 7 in total: Assault, Field Medic, Panther, Sharpshooter, Echelon, Engineer and Pathfinder. Each one of them has exclusive equipment and a special ability.
Assault has the “True Grit” technique, which reduces the recoil and applies damage resistance. The class item is a gas grenade. Field Medic is kind of self-explanatory, right? Its technique is a healing drone that can heal and revive friendly teammates. Its item is a hand-deployable device that heals injuries and gives extra health. Panther is a stealthy class, its special ability is to disappear behind a smokescreen. Just like a ninja. The class also has a cloaking spray that will make you undetectable by drones and enemy players for a short period. Sharpshooter is the marksman class. It allows you to use a high-penetration bullet that deals more damage and increases the muzzle velocity. Plus a sensor launcher that marks enemies in a large area.
The last 3 classes were added recently. They were part of a content update that introduced episode 2. Splinter cell stuff. The first class is the Echelon. It has a sonar vision that will help you see enemies behind walls and mark them. Pretty overpowered, don’t you think? But this is not available in multiplayer, so that’s alright. The Echelon has a shock pistol. It Can kill unwary enemies and disable machines. In PvP, it drains enemy stamina. The second class added is the Engineer. It Can deploy a defense drone that will attack nearby opponents. It has a supply drone, and when you interact with it, you’ll get a magazine with high-end ammo. The last of the classes is the Pathfinder. One of the most powerful classes. It can hack a high-altitude drone with high firepower. It’s like you have an Ac-130 giving you aerial support.
Are you a lone wolf? - I'm not talking about relationship stuff here – Do you like to be a one-man-army? Or do you prefer to have companions following you? Whatever the answer is, you can play it the way you like. If 3 AI teammates are too crowded for you, you can disable them one by one. You can bring only 2 or only 1 to accompany you. They are kind of dumb, but they can help in difficult situations. And they can revive you if you’re down.
Something I'm always disappointed about is the night in games. The night is always too bright. The moon is more like a blue sun – a soon, if you will, or a mun – But not anymore, as you can select the “Darkest Night”. The sky will still be lit by a shining blue light, but all you have to do is not look at it. You’ll need to use your night vision goggles to see your enemies.
Stealthy Combat or Rambo Style
It’s nice when you clear a base with your silenced weapons and the enemies had no idea what killed them. But don’t you like it when you just enter enemy territory with everything you’ve got? I mean, isn’t the sound and the muzzle flash of a gun more exciting when you have no silencer attached?
Both ways are possible in Ghost Recon Breakpoint. In the stealthy way, it needs to be more elaborated and it will take more time because you will probably need to hide the corpses or try to find all the snipers first as they can spot you from long distances and are always on top of towers or buildings. Yes, They are campers.
In Rambo style, everything is faster, which means that the fun will end faster as well. There are no reinforcements that come to help enemy troops as it had in Wildlands. What can happen is a car that is passing by comes and starts shooting at you. But only because they were already in the area, and not because they heard an S.O.S on the radio.
Ubisoft developers can design incredible compounds and bases. That’s something they are very good at. Some bases are giant, filled with soldiers and drones of different types. There are also Juggernauts, who need to be taken down by headshots, and first, you need to take their helmet off, or you can shoot them a lot. Like a lot, seriously.
Scattered through the map, there are Behemoth's areas. In these areas, you will find big tank-like drones that patrol that area. Destroying them will grant you material resources and weapon caches. You can go and open the boxes without eliminating the drone, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. The behemoth will launch missiles at you and shred you with its miniguns.
The soldiers have two states: Unaware and distracted or aware and bullet sponge. If an enemy hasn’t seen you yet, one shot to the chest is enough to take them down. But once they detect you, they can get shot multiple times before dying. I’m not a ballistic expert, so I can’t argue with that, but I'm not sure a person becomes bullet-resistant when they see their aggressor.
Takedowns are fun. There is a big variety of them. And they change according to the knife you’re equipped with. You can even be laying on the ground, this will activate one of the takedowns. An awesome one. With a kick and everything. Don’t try to knife a Jugger though, they can’t be killed by a knife.
There is a PvP mode, Ghost War. A 4 v 4 game mode. There is no equipment level, so even a low-level character can just join the battle and have no disadvantage against veteran players. Unless you suck at it as I do, then you’re in big trouble.
Main Quests and Side Quests
Right after you arrive at the island, which was not a smooth landing, you start to complete the game’s main missions. There is an investigation board you use to keep track of the clues you find along with the story. The first episode of the campaign is short. Fifteen missions in total, act three having three different routes you go, with 6 missions each.
They added more episodes, including one with Sam Fisher, from Splinter Cell, and a third episode, where Russians come to the Island. You need a Season Pass to play most of them, but you won’t be missing much if you don’t buy one. As I said, you lose interest in the story after killing Walker.
The game offers plenty of side missions. That will easily fill hundreds of hours of gameplay. Besides them, there are faction quests. The problem is the repetitiveness of these quests. They start to become boring when you realize there isn't a good variety of them.
The replayability relies on the bases and ways you can neutralize these bases. The map is huge, with various biomes. The environment changes in each region of the map. There are icy mountains, dense forests, tropical beaches, tropical forests, cities, towns, villages, cold war sites, and even an old Spanish Fort. Some places have a more futuristic look, like drone assembly sites and futuristic airstrips. They do look cool.
If you don’t pay to play the DLCs, you don’t need to be sad. They always add new live events. Would you like to kill the Exterminator? Would you like to join the Rainbow Six forces? These are two big events they brought to the game. They also added a new part of the map where you can complete a Raid. You need friends to do so.
Conquest mode
A new way of playing Ghost Recon Breakpoint
The last update added a new game mode: Conquest. This is what fans have been asking for a long time. It brings back territories. Each territory has a commandant that you will have to eliminate. But to find out where this commandant is, you need to complete missions in the region.
That’s just the surface of the new content. More guns, equipment, features, quality of life, and gameplay mechanics were added. A new gun mastery functionality was implemented, allowing you to use skill points to improve the weapon’s statistics, like aim stability and movement speed. We also see the return of Karen Bowman, the CIA officer who was one of the main characters in Ghost Recon Wildlands.
Is Ghost Recon Breakpoint beautiful?
Let me put it this way: on my older computer, I had to make sacrifices to be able to play Breakpoint with at least 60 fps. The game looks fantastic. But the graphics make the game a bit heavy. Plus, Ubisoft has a history of making poorly optimized games. They are not unplayable. But they do put stress on your PC. Don’t pay too much attention to the NPCs you encounter throughout the story, because they don’t look good. They are not as detailed as your character.
Maybe I'm crazy, but gun models don’t look as good as they looked in Wildlands. They sound better though. Clothes and tactical equipment detail have improved since the last game, but there are fewer options now.
The terrain is an important aspect of Breakpoint. It looks incredible. And also, depending on the type of surface, you can use it to hide. Predator movie style. You can cover yourself with mud, snow, or sand. And they deform around you as you do it.
Forests are very detailed. The foliage in the maximum quality covers the ground with beautiful flowers. Trees have moss and leaves spreading through their trunks. Wooden houses have cracks and nails. Volumetric fog can be dense and affect the passage of light. Different times of day have different looks. As well as the weather. When it rains, the sight and feeling change. If you’re in a cold area, it can start to snow.
A Ubisoft Game
If it’s not buggy, then it is not a Ubisoft Game. When it launched, Breakpoint was full of issues. But it wasn’t the end. Ubisoft heard the community and made every change they were asked for. They are constantly updating the game with content and fixes. They made mistakes in the beginning. They recognized it and acted on it.
If you played Ghost Recon Breakpoint 2 years ago, and never wanted to play it again, now it’s time to go back to the game. You won’t regret it. It’s not a perfect game, but it’s not a terrible one either. Ubisoft Paris will continue to support Breakpoint, and they have done an awesome job so far.
How much is it today?
Ghost recon Breakpoint is currently at the price of $59.99, but every now and then there are sales. During these sales, you can buy it for less than 50% of the price.
(If you’re reading this article before November 11, you can buy the game for just 9 dollars)
You can also get a Ubisoft+ subscription for $14.99 and have access to Breakpoint and more than 100 other games.
It’s available on Windows Microsoft PC, Playstation 4 and 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S│X.
There are in-game purchases. But they don’t affect gameplay.
My score: 8 (note* this score is for the current state of the game)
Pros
- Vast Open World to explore
- Flexible gameplay Style
- Constantly updated by developers
- Free content is frequently added
- 3 different ways of playing the game
Cons
- Short main story
- Repetitive quests
- AI’s dumb behavior
