Ghost Recon Breakpoint
NEVER MIND THE QUALITY, FEEL THE QUANTITY STEVE BOXER
PUBLISHER UBISOFT / DEVELOPER UBISOFT PARIS / RELEASE DATE OUT NOW / COST £59.99/$59.99
bafflingly that one suspects only
diehard Ghost Recon fans will feel
inclined to put in the effort required to
prevail over its shortcomings.
Breakpoint contains plenty to
admire – including a massive and
impressive-looking world, a cleverly
constructed and surprisingly
absorbing storyline, a decent PVP
multiplayer mode and compelling
military gadgetry. But it is also
thoroughly hamstrung by some
fundamental systems which straddle
the spectrum between shoddy and
completely broken.Blow your cover
Unfortunately, the most broken system
of the lot is also one of the most
fundamental, given that Ghost Recon
Breakpoint is a third-person shooter
which adopts a first-person view only
when you aim: the cover system. It
attempts to snap to anything in your
vicinity which could operate as cover,
but does so in such an erratic mannerGhost Recon,
Ubisoft’s Tom Clancy-
branded near-future
military shooter
franchise, has
always been a solid
bet, building a decent fanbase among
those who prefer their soldiering to
be open world and gadget-assisted.
But with Breakpoint, something has
gone badly awry. We’re all for games
that make you work hard for your
rewards but, in its early stages at
least, playing Breakpoint feels more of
a chore than a pleasure.
If you persist with it, you’ll find that
matters improve markedly, but all the
way through it, fundamental flaws nag
at you. With elements like a loot-
heavy gear system more or less lifted
wholesale from Destiny, Breakpoint
gives the impression that Ubisoft
has attempted to use it to appease
modern gaming tastes (no doubt in a
bid to grow the overall Ghost Recon
fandom). But it starts so slowly and
that you end up steering clear of walls
and corners in particular.
Occasionally, low horizontal walls
work as they should, but all too often
Breakpoint picks the wrong shoulder
to fire from when you use vertical
cover, so you end up shooting virtual
plaster and giving your whereabouts
away when you’re trying to remain
undetected. It’s a huge problem for
a game which demands a stealthy
approach more often than not.
Other fundamental problems
include the clunky way in which your
character, Nomad, traverses the
terrain – he won’t climb over obstacles
unless he’s facing them head-on. And
to compound matters, when you die
Breakpoint respawns you in seemingly
random places, so you might have to
hike some distance before even being
in a position to attempt what you were
doing before all over again. Matters
become worse when it respawns you
at the bottom of one of the game’s
many cliffs, and you ruefully reflectABOVE Getting
around Auroa is
an almighty
hassle unless
you’re piloting a
helicopter.
Whirlybirds are
scarce, too.
LEFT
Breakpoint’s big
bad guy is
played by The
Punisher’s Jon
Bernthal.As a Ghost, Nomad belongs to the fictional Delta Company, First Battalion, Fifth Special Forces GroupMore Xbox news at gamesradar.com/oxm THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE 065REVIEW