GAMES / REVIEWS
Ghost Recon:Breakpoint / £49.99 inc VAT
DEVELOPER Ubisoft Paris / PUBLISHER Ubisoft
U
bisoft’s practice of reusing ideas and mechanics
across multiple games is well known and, when
done carefully, that strategy can have its place.
However, it comes crashing apart in Ghost: Recon
Breakpoint, a horrendously stitched-together ragdoll with
which no child would ever want to play.
Like its predecessor Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Breakpoint
is an open-world tactical shooter. It sees players join forces
with up to three friends to infiltrate the island of Auroa. Here,
tech-entrepreneur Jace Skell’s drone-manufacturing facility
has been hijacked by a rogue private military company
known as the Wolves.
Wildlands wasn’t great game, but its loop of infiltrating
enemy compounds, and its blend of stealth and gunplay to
complete objectives had potential. Instead of adding depth to
those existing concepts, Breakpoint lumbers its experience
with two inexplicable systems from other Ubisoft games.
The first is the dialogue and conversation system from
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. Rather than simply getting
information over your radio, every interaction with an NPC is
bookended by lengthy dialogue sequences with characters
the game never gives you a reason to care about.Such sequences crop everywhere with no thought for
your current situation. You could be safe in your home
base, or in the middle of a mission with enemies
surrounding you on all sides.
Breakpoint then adds Ubisoft’s ubiquitous loot system,
originally seen in The Division and since spread to Assassin’s
Creed and Far Cry. However, the whole concept of loot is
renderedpointlessbythefactthatBreakpoint’sweapons
dorealistic damage, meaning a headshot is lethal with any
gun regardless of its stats. As for armour and equipment,
Ubisoft’s desperation to create varied loot that’s still vaguely
military leads to ridiculous situations where an officer’s cap
offers more protection than a crashproof helmet.
Breakpoint’s systems aren’t entirely recycled. It has a
more survivalist theme than Wildlands. When your initial
assault on the island goes awry, you’re left isolated and
hunted on the island, and must scavenge to survive. You can
camouflage yourself by rolling in mud and dirt, while terrain
navigation is simulated so that climbing mountainsides
slows your progress. Particularly steep slopes will trigger
an increasingly uncontrollable slide. That’s just as annoying
as it sounds. These systems add nothing to the cooperative
tactical play, and mostly just inconvenience you as you try to
get to the next mission.
The skills and upgrade system is also far less
comprehensive than that of Wildlands, with the most
interesting gadget you unlock being a torch that cuts
through fences. Breakpoints lacks Wildlands’ AI
companionstoo,meaningyou’lleitherhavetogoalone
orfind other players with which to play.
Breakpoint’s combat is enjoyable enough. But after
trudging your way to your 20th mission, which is almost
identicaltotheprevious19,you’llsoondiscoverthatthe
onlyBreakpoint reached here is for your patience with this
slapdash and monotonous experience.
RICK LANE/VERDICT
Nope.OVERALL SCORE
28 %%
BREAKING
+Passable combatBROKEN- Everything else