An enjoyable return to the Ghost Recon series.
The latest game in the Ghost Recon series enjoyed a closed beta session this weekend, and if you we’re lucky enough to find yourself a download code (or were lucky enough to find a time when the Ubisoft website was actually working!), you too will have witnessed the beauty of Bolivia. I’ve had a lot of hype for this game since I first saw the trailers release for it, however I also had a lot of hype for The Division; a game that promised more than what it delivered. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t give up hope, and after playing the beta all weekend, my hype for this game has not disappeared, despite a few flaws.
I completed two full playthroughs of the beta, a rarity for me, and would have probably played some more if time had allowed. The game starts you off with character creation, and there is a lot to choose from, right down to the colour of your shoes, and whether you want a badge stuck to your backpack. You can either create your player, or choose a default, and once you have selected the games difficulty, you are thrown into a world of dangerous cartels. The first thing you are met with in the game are the stunning views across the land of Bolivia. These are a spectacle to behold, and something we’ve come to expect from a Ubisoft game; Far Cry 4 was also a visual marvel. Throughout the game, the diverse weather also adds to the atmospheric gameplay; you can start a mission in broad daylight, and come the end when you are about to infiltrate a complex and kill a target, day turns to night, making your task ever more difficult.
You can instantly recognise similarities between Wildlands and Ubisofts other open world game Far Cry. As good a game as Far Cry is, it gets slightly boring when every title in the series uses the same approach to opening parts of the map, by unlocking towers and liberating outposts. Far Cry 3 is one of my favourite games ever, Far Cry 4 was good, but once Far Cry Primal came around, I had lost all hype for it and just couldn’t bear doing the same thing over and over. Luckily Wildlands didn’t seem to have this approach, and instead the entire land was open to see and ready to explore in the available section of the beta. This may well change for the full release, but if not, will be a very welcome aspect of the game. The mission also didn’t seem too repetitive, another concern for open world games like this. Time will tell, as we only had access to one of 21 areas of the map, but to put it into perspective, I played through the available main and side missions (along with finding collectible weapon parts) twice in a weekend without any issue, compared to realising pretty quickly that The Division on release day was going to be pretty linear and repetitive. Perhaps it is the dynamic combat options that keep it enjoyable to play, or the availability of vehicles at our disposal. The vehicles don’t take themselves seriously, not at all. This isn’t necessarily bad though, as it leaves for some enjoyable cross terrain journeys. One thing I do know for sure, is that my satisfaction from watching and hearing a sniper bullet fly through the air, and slightly arching its way into a drug baron’s skull, has been restored; sniping hasn’t been this fulfilling since my days of playing Bad Company 2.
The game plays well as single player, and just like any other Ghost Recon game, you have control over your AI squad and what actions they take. It’s probably advisable to make use of this feature, as your team can be rather stupid at times, often walking right past enemies or engaging targets, giving away your location. Once you remember to use the squad control options for each assault, and your AI squad actually listen and follow precise intentions, that game is thoroughly enjoyable alone; the sync shot is incredibly fun to do. When they don’t however, it becomes increasingly annoying, to the point you tell them to hold in a position, and head off to complete the mission alone. The game excels though when jumping into multplayer action, with a squad of 2-4 fellow players. You can find random players to team up with by joining public games, however I refused to leave the success of my missions to chance, and made sure I was teaming up with friends who had headsets. The game is even more fun when doing so, and planning an assault on your enemy as a fully cohesive unit is truly brilliant. If any of you enjoyed games such as Operation Flashpoint, you will definitely be at home with this.
No game is perfect, and it’s not without its issues, as you would expect, with numerous glitches present in the beta. At one point I climbed into a helicopter, only for it to unexpectedly shoot across the ground and crash into a nearby mountainside. To be honest, these bugs were more humorous than game breaking, with a few players even managing to find their way outside of the beta’s game zone limit, and into the full map. There have been reports however that PC players had a worse time with the bugs than their console counterparts, so it looks like Ubisoft have some work to do in the next month to get that side of things up to scratch. Performance issues, notably low framerate, was the gripe of many PC players.
The controls could also use a patch up, and often the camera angle hinders gameplay somewhat, especially when auto-adjusting. Players have the choice of 1st person or 3rd person aim down sight, although the latter is certainly not as coherent as other games using the 3rd person perspective. Flying controls are terrible, and unless you’re proficient in video game helicopters and planes, might prove a steeper learning curve than the rest of the game, especially if you’re a novice pilot like me. I know I’m bad at being a video game pilot, but this time it was all Ghost Recon’s fault. The AI needs improving to give solo players a more enjoyable adventure, as previously mentioned, so there is some worry that Ubisoft face a much bigger task than expected, especially given how close we are to the release date. For Honor also had a recent closed Beta, but seemed to have a lot less bugs, and ran a lot smoother than Wildlands; let’s hope Ubisoft can iron them out in time for next month. If they can, Wildlands could be the thoroughly enjoyable co-op shooter we all want, on the stunning backdrop of drug tainted Bolivia.
Did you get to play the beta? What were your thoughts on it?
