Dropping you into a big open world rendition of Bolivia, Ghost Recon Wildlands has you joining the Ghosts, the most elite American soldiers going, as they work to dismantle the Santa Blanca cartel. Needless to say, this is a slightly different assignment for the Ghosts to be taking on, with previous games having you fighting ultra-nationalists, chasing global threats and stopping military coups in their tracks.
At least that’s how it appears on the surface, but the Santa Blanca cartel has managed to basically become the government of Bolivia. The beta’s opening cinematic explains how, having effectively waged war on the legitimate government until they caved to the cartel’s demands and let the South American country turn into a new haven of drug smuggling, before striking out at a US covert agent by blowing up the US embassy. Obviously, it’s time to send in the Ghosts.
The story shown in the beta comes off rather hamfisted in a lot of ways, because this drug cartel are very much in the public spotlight – they blast out pro cartel propaganda over the radio – it then clumsily wanders through some basic and clichéd characterisation in the opening cinematic. “Does it get you down living a secret life?” Asks one covert operative to your custom made Ghost, “You tell me, Miss ‘Aid Worker’,” you retort. When the rebel leader complains that the US only sent four people to fight, it’s the typical “best of the best” bravado, just without any actual conviction to the delivery of the line. It’s too clumsy, too soulless, too humourless. I just zoned out and stopped paying attention.
Yet at times, it does also work well thematically. You can happily hop into a car and cruise around the mountains of Bolivia, pulling off drive-by hits that wouldn’t feel out of place in classic films that depict the War on Drugs. There’s definitely shades of Clear and Present Danger, albeit with the modern setting of Sicario and the backing of modern technology.
Dismantling the cartel is going to take a lot of work, not just cutting off the many heads to this hydra, but ensuring that more don’t spring up in their place. As the game’s story unfolds, you’ll be targetting those in charge of the cartel’s production, smuggling, security, political influence, and eventually the head of the whole operation. However, this is an assault on the organisation starting from the ground up, and you have to find intel caches, hijack convoys, and so on in order to find leads on important people, bolster the resistance, and so on.
This game can be quite staggeringly pretty, with Ubisoft really showing off their capacity to build huge open worlds, and the seamless shift from day to night creating some particularly striking imagery. Getting around has you following the winding roads in whatever car is handy, or just bouncing up and down the steep slopes trying to avoid rocks and trees in the way, but ultimately getting to where you want to go. The vehicle handling is surprisingly fast and arcade-like, which really does let you get away with an awful lot, if you feel like taking a more direct route. They’re certainly a lot more fun and interesting than the helicopter handling.
Scouting out a cartel base is nice and easy, whether it’s a fancy looking house with plenty of privacy behind its high wall, a farmhouse or a cluster of ramshackle buildings on the top of a mountain. Throw a little drone up into the air and fly around, spotting and marking enemies as you go. Whether playing with AI buddies following you, letting you take the lead in every situation, or with co-op online, you can highlight an enemy for a tandem kill, helping you to work your way through an encampment quietly, if you’re using suppressed weapons. Of course, chances are that co-op with friends ends up devolving into chaos.
You most likely want to be quite stealthy, but sometimes you either screw up your attempts to sneak in, or the mission dictates that you go loud to, for example, defend a radio transmitter from cartel goons. It doesn’t take much to put down an enemy – some of them are running around topless, so that’s not particularly surprising – but there’s something missing from the combat that I can’t quite put my finger on. One thing that definitely put me off was the odd cover system, which your character automatically leans up against when nearby, letting you simply walk in and out of cover, but often didn’t seem to be doing much to actually cover me from incoming fire.
I’ve always liked the Ghost Recon series, whether it was the absolute hardcore entries, or the slightly sillier futuristic techno-thrillers of Future Soldier, but after this beta, I’m rather concerned about Wildlands, especially as it’s coming out at the start of next month. Obviously, I hope it proves me wrong, but this was not a beta test that gave a particularly good account of the game.
tactical20
Apart from the odd cover system and the ‘something you can’t quite put your finger on’, you’ve not actually said what’s making you concerned? It all sounds pretty good to me, lol!
JustTaylorNow
Absolutely agree. This game beta is not speaking what so ever: I was expecting something similar to socom kind of thing but this was absolute bore off. The car handling is literally the worst.
Cancelled my pre order!
JustTaylorNow
Is not speaking? What is that sentence even leading up too.
Anyway the game is not appealing, is the correct wording
Youles
The thought the vehicle handling was dreadful, as you snake cars down the roads! It’s like it has the adventure game balancing gauges when crossing a log bridge or something – go too far left or right and then it suddenly increases the turning exponentially!
Thought the gun play was solid, sniper rifles with their ever-so-slightly delayed hits. Enemies weren’t weapon sponges like in The Division. Only criticism is that SMGs from short range had silly spread/accuracy meaning you actually couldn’t hit someone from about 10 yards most of the time even when firing frantically from the hip. I did notice a spread/hip-fire accuracy increase skill/perk though.
The fact you could change from 1st person and 3rd person when aiming down sight was good as I prefer the latter when using an assault rifle or SMG, but with scoped sniper rifles 1st person was much better as you look down the scope itself.
As it’s Ubisoft I assume it requires always online, even when playing solo? *sigh*
I only played for a couple of hours, and my only concern is how repetitive it might get. I know that applies to a lot of games, so I guess my point is – how varied are the missions going to be?
Once thing I didn’t hear you mention was the customisation. There seems to be a hell of a lot, particularly with the weapons and their attachments. Not to mention characters and vehicles.
I also didn’t really pay much attention to the character progression but guess there are skill/improvements to be made as I noticed the hip fire accuracy increase.
Youles
Happy to agree that opening cutscene was probably one of the worst/most boring of any game I’ve played. Not a great first impression I must admit.
Tony Cawley
Oh my God I swear TSA is sending me mental, has this article been edited since it was first published?
Tony Cawley
Now I’m over my mental hiccup I’ll comment properly.
I can see the negatives in this game, the driving is a bit poo, the cover mechanics aren’t properly realised, the lack of a dedicated jump button for one of the top soldiers in the US armed forces is simply ridiculous.
Aside from that though, I really enjoyed my time with the beta and I played everything it had to offer. Sadly I didn’t get to try it coop because I think it’d be excellent in 4 player. I just think it’s a very welcome change of pace for a military shooter. I enjoyed scoping out the missions, marking the targets, sync shooting the snipers with my team, moving in with silent weapons etc. It’s brilliant, makes you feel proper lethal. I also like that if you get it wrong and get spotted, you’ll die pretty quick, just like you would in real life.
I hadn’t really considered the game much prior to the beta but I’ll definitely be getting it now and am really looking forward to it, I just need 3 coop partners!
Jag
I hope the niggles like the dodgy driving are fixed for release but the shooting and exploring were really fun!
I played in co-op and I think that made the difference as we just ignored the story and went about the map clearing out baddies.
I like that you’re not an invincible super soldier as it forces you to play tactically.
One of our best ops was sneaking into a packed military base in the middle of the night without killing anyone but our sole target.
As a single player game I can see it being a bit of a bore, but in co-op I had a great time.
GeneralJeeb
I definitely think the highlight for that mission was clearing it without killing anyone, interrogating the target then thinking eff it, let’s go on a rampage!
gernboes
I actually liked the beta. I dont care so much about the driving, and the cover mechanics werent perfect, also it wasnt always quite sure what qualifies as cover and what not, but the combat was neer perfect in my opinion. I really liked stalking through the vegetation, scouting my targets, and then quietly eliminating one after another (or sync shotting them), maybe calling in an artillery strike… I loved that the enemies werent bullet sponges like in the division, but really go down with one headshot (at least the early, helmet-less enemies…)
Robothamster
I only spend about an hour on the beta, but that was enough to convince me to delete off my HDD and forget about picking it up.
Shame as I had high hopes for this once, but did not like it one bit to play.