Ghost Recon Breakpoint

[MetalCaveman]

Been playing the beta for a bit and boy do I have some thoughts.

 

But first, a couple of trailers:

 

 

 

 

 

So, first things first, this is quite different to Wildlands, Wildlands was already a severe departure from previous GR games and this one goes further.

 

I've seen it compared to The Division, though I only played the beta of it so I can't go into details, there's another game that it reminds me of, Destiny (kinda).

 

So here's the thing, there's now a ton of RPG-lite mechanics, things like loot, levelling, unlocking skills and even special abilities based on the class you pick.

 

Starting with classes, the big thing is that they don't really matter. Whatever class you pick, it only determines what your special ability is (something I've rarely used so far) and it also gives you a small bonus with different weapons, for example, Assault has a skill that heals you after every kill and makes you harder to kill and gives you a bonus with shotguns and assault rifles. You also get a special grenade but outside of the medic drone, the other two classes aren't that useful.

 

In terms of skills, all classes have access to the same skills, perks, etc. So regardless of which one you pick you'll still get to unlock whatever skills and perks you want. Skills are separated by different categories, unlocking two skills in each category unlocks the next one. There's a weird progression here where getting stealth skills unlocks the assault category.

 

I assume that progression in the full game will be slower, so far, I've been able to unlock a fair amount of skills and have found that some of them either don't work, or don't really work as advertised. I unlocked a skill which gave me a perk that's supposed to mark enemies within range, and either the range is stupid small or it is not working as I've yet to see it in action, even when bumping into enemies.

 

Some skills are related to the ingame store which I'll get to in a bit, the skills themselves are meant to unlock things to buy, like better weapons and vehicles.

 

Next, the other biggest thing: The loot.

 

Here's why I say it reminds me of Destiny, there's your player level and your gear level. Your player level goes up as you complete missions, kill enemies, etc. Your gear level goes up as you get better gear.

 

As usual, you'll find new stuff in chests, from enemies and from completing rewards. You can also get blueprints, which allow you to buy a specific weapon from the store whenever you want, so if you have a favourite, you can sort of just stay with it, except that it seems to stick to normal rarity only, there's a skill that supposedly increases the quality of blueprint weapons, but I reached max level before being able to unlock it.

 

The thing is... Gear level kinda doesn't matter(?), you'll get a warning when fighting enemies with a higher level, but you can still kill them in one shot if you aim for the head. Supposedly, in normal combat gear level means you're harder to kill and enemies are easier to kill, though I've yet to notice any difference. Even the Wolves, the strongest enemies in the game aren't that hard to kill if you aim your shots. Drones are another story entirely as those things are annoying as hell and seem to be geared towards co-op play. It is possible to destroy a Behemoth solo, just probably not worth your time.

 

Customisation was also reduced, you're now much more limited in terms of what accessories you can equip and you can no longer modify things like barrel, trigger and stock. Also, and this was really annoying, when buying an accessory for a weapon, it does not tell you which weapons can equip it, I ended up buying a bunch of grips, only to find none fit in the weapon I had.

 

One thing I do like is that when you obtain information on an enemy base, if you look at it on your map it tells you what gear you'll find there, so if you're looking for something in particular, you don't necessarily need to wander around aimlessly until luck brings it your way.  

 

Of the bugs I ran into I won't comment, being a beta/demo/whatever, there's some issues to be expected.

 

Couple of things that may make or break the game depending on how you play:

 

The new objective system. You no longer get a waypoint to your destination, instead, your mission will say something like "North of PLACE, southeast of OTHER PLACE" and then you have to look in the map, find that place and use a beacon, even then, you'll have to navigate there yourself. With how big the map is, how hard it's to drive around and the new injury/fatigue system, it makes it a chore to get to certain places.

 

Speaking of, the second thing is the aforementioned injury/fatigue system. Injuries happen when you take damage beyond a certain point in your health bar, after you get injured, your mobility is reduced and you'll stumble and fall pretty often. Thankfully, outside of battle it's easy to deal with injuries, just use a bandage (of which you have infinite uses), during battle it can be a pain, but there are other, limited use items that can help with that. In general however, it's too simple to be anything more than annoying for most people and not in-depth enough for hardcore survival players.

 

 

 

Well, that made sense in my head, hopefully it makes sense here as well.  

 

TLDR:

 

• Tiered gear feels out of place and doesn't make much difference
• Classes are mostly pointless
• All skills are available to all classes
• Fatigue/injury system is too much for casual players, but probably won't be enough for more hardcore survival fans
• Customisation is limited and convoluted, specially for your outfits
• The map is huge and a pain to navigate, also you have to find your objectives yourself, no more waypoints

 

 

So yeah, I was looking forward to it, but after playing the beta I feel like I got my fill of this game, there's some stuff I like, but enough that I don't like that it makes me feel like I should just skip this one. Or wait for some kind of complete/GOTY/ultimate edition.

[TheMightyEthan]

I got an e-mail saying I'd been selected for the beta and was like, I don't think I ever signed up...?

[MetalCaveman]

That might've been me.  When I got selected for the beta UPlay asked me to invite three other people from my friends list, yet it only showed a couple of names, so I sent them to those people, I think you were there (are we friends in UPlay?).

[TheMightyEthan]

Lol, that's probably it, but it's funny that it didn't say anything about you inviting me.

[MetalCaveman]

Yeah, that's odd.

 

I wrote about gameplay, but not so much about story, though there were only a couple of story missions, it feels very Big Boss in style.  

 

Spoiler

Walker be like "I'm tired of fighting for faceless assholes that do not care about who they send to die!" and stuff, so he starts his own group of like-minded soldiers, takes over an island and tries to transform it into their own little paradise of doom.

 

[MetalCaveman]

https://ghost-recon.ubisoft.com/game/en-us/news-updates/72AU92YOJvZ0WE6dMCrMvE/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-breakpoint-closed-beta-to-open-beta-improvements

 

Lots of stuff changing for the open beta (also, there' going to be an open beta!  ). 

 

Many of my issues have been addressed, including the weird inertia your character had when moving, weapon and stance changes, and some other cool stuff.

 

I was thinking about skipping the open beta, but after reading about this, I may actually give it a try.  

[MetalCaveman]

So... That microtransaction store sure is a thing yeah?

 

Yeah there'll be the usual excuses in defence of it, "it's just cosmetics", "it's not pay to win", "don't buy it if you don't like it", etc. But I feel that in cases like this none of that applies as the amount of stuff locked behind real money is just stupid. Then there's the fact that you can't just buy what you want, you need to buy the "Ghost Credits (or coins or whatever)" in bundles which obviously means spending more than you need.

 

Also, from playing the beta, even if some of that stuff is unlockable, it definitively feels like the game is designed to increase the amount of grind needed to get what you want, it's made in a way that really encourages you to pay to unlock the stuff you want early.

 

Oh well, the open beta got me interested once more, but seeing how this stuff is being handled pushed me away, far, FAR away.  

[MetalCaveman]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ubisoft-targets/ubisoft-cuts-targets-as-ghost-recon-breakpoint-fails-to-impress-idUSKBN1X323C

 

Part of me hopes they'll use this chance to improve the game, it has some potential but way too many things drag it down.

 

Part of me knows they'll just shelf the series like they did with Splinter Cell.  

[TheMightyEthan]

From what I've been reading they understand that it's because they rushed it out so it's competing with the last Ghost Recon which has been developed more throughout its life. It's similar to Destiny 2 and how people were disappointed it seemed pared back compared to Destiny 1.

[MetalCaveman]

Obviously I can't speak for everyone, but for me, the issue was not that it was rushed out, or that it competed with the previous, more developed entry in the series, the issue is that Ubisoft added so many of their "innovations" (their words, not mine ), that it ended up not feeling like a GR game at all, the loot system, the side missions, which had issues from Wildlands that were made worse this time around, the lack of customisation options for both weapons and characters, or rather, the way they locked things to make them work with their new loot system, the MMO(ish) stuff, all of the microtransaction BS, etc. All that made me go from "HELL YEAH a new Ghost Recon game!"! to "Well, I guess I have more time to go through my backlog".

 

They have delayed some of their other games to give them more time, and they claim they'll still support GR: Breakpoint both sound good, but we'll see.

 

 

 

[MetalCaveman]

 

It seems that Episode 3 "Transcendence" has been cancelled, and replaced with Red Patriot.

 

Which on one hand, makes sense, as Transcendence was supposed to be even more MGS/Terminator based, with advanced AIs taking over, super soldiers born from a mix of humans and machines, soldiers being taken over by machines, etc. And people hated that whole plotline (I thought it was kinda cool, but WAY out of place for a GR game), so now we have the return of Bodark, Russia's equivalent of the Ghosts and the main antagonists of Future Soldier.

 

So that's going to be a thing, I wonder if the AI plotline has been fully abandoned or if they'll try and rework it somehow, would be weird to just suddenly drop it given what happens in the main story and in the Splinter Cell expansion/Episode 2.