Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint review

When Breakpoint was announced, it was presented as a tactical shooting experience with consequences for getting hit and going down. The new injury system was one of the standout features in all of the early gameplay shown and it was something that lifted me most towards wanting to play Breakpoint, if it were to follow the same formula of Wildlands. So how does it fare in comparison?

Sadly, nothing a like, Breakpoint offers an extremely slow paced story line with little variation in mission objectives. Early on into the game you’ll be taken through various tutorials about what the game has to offer. There’s not really a difficulty curve present, as the AI are easy to dispatch of and once you get to the base of operations you can simply spawn a chopper to fly to mission objectives to avoid combat on the roads.

As with most recent Ubisoft titles such as Far Cry and Assassin’s Creed, the large island setting of Auroa is scattered with various points of interest as your map will update to show you a variety of missions from main objectives to side quests and faction missions to blueprint collectibles. One by one you’ll be picking them up and completely them, much like in Wildlands, that was always the way the game forced you into playing as a completionist. The downside to this though is that it is already highly familiar from these described series and there’s no mix up in variation. Far Cry has random encounters whilst out of the road, but Breakpoint doesn’t have anything like this, so the world feels dull and lifeless, as well as highly predictable.

Later on into the game you’ll start to be pushed to improve your gear score which can be achieved through levelling up with the game’s progression system or you can take the micro-transaction approach which equally felt like a bit of cheaters way around it to be honest. Transactions can grant you some nice weapon stats but in turn you can earn these from playing the game which is relatively easy to acquire from a loot chest say.

Currently there is no end game content, but with constantly referenced Raids, the first one to arrive soon hopefully, the game becomes a grind of PvP and Faction dailies to finish. Once done you’ll be logging off for the day to report the next day if you can bear to do that. If your Gear Score is at 150, then you’ll probably see no reason to play further as that’s what you’ll need for the first Raid.

Jon Bethnal’s performance is strong in-game as Col. Walker, a former Ghost gone rogue and now the leader of the Wolves. Much like most characters he’s recently portrayed, Walker is dark and blurred by his past. However, even with the addition of Jon, it still struggles to hide the rough edges to the formula of the game.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint begins strongly offering a stealthy tactical experience as you’re crawling through the mud in the pouring rain armed with nothing but a silenced pistol, as the game transgresses thpugh that stealth element is lost and with the addition of co-op and having players join you it becomes more of a grind in terms of going to checkpoints and points of interest on the map to earn some gear. It offers nothing unique and from Wildlands is a step backwards in what it achieved.

What it does do well is provide a diverse and rich set of environments, from snowy mountain tops to dark and poorly lit caves to explore. Ubisoft continue to push map making which is positive to say at least for Breakpoint. It does however, have you running around the map a lot opening crates and intel to find more crates, just to increase that ever-so important Gear Score.

I briefly touched upon PvP multiplayer before, Ghost War is a 4v4 versus mode set across two game modes.

• Elimination: A 4v4 death match team mode with a tactical twist. In this mode, you’ll need to hunt down and eliminate the enemy team.
• Sabotage: A 4v4 game mode where one team tries to plant a bomb while the other team tries to defuse it.

These play across a choice of 6 maps which were designed for tactical gun play, but I rarely found much focus on teamplay, with the majority of team mates just running and gunning. Sadly, with the lack of game modes limited to just two, it feels like Ghost War was added just to show they have a PvP mode. What would be more interesting would be a large area of the map to explore whilst fighting other players for gear. Much like The Division’s Dark Zone.

Overall, I found Breakpoint lacked any real innovation and quickly becomes a grind fest for gear to improve your Gear Score. The game’s world is beautifully designed and connected by a transport network, but even the game’s gorgeous visuals struggle to hide the real issues with Breakpoint.