TESTED GAMESn Ghost Recon Breakpoint
we see the final form of
what Ubisoft has been
leaning towards for years: a game
structurally driven by an endless,
purposeless grind, and one that
can be expedited by forking out
cash for microtransactions.
Yes, this is still another giant
open world, another tactical
military shooter, and another
multi-million-dollar production...
but every element of its design
feels tainted by greed.
The game’s story is built around
discovery and clues. People you
meet on the mysterious island of
Auroa – a kind of tech utopia that’s
been seized by a mercenary – fill
you in on the whereabouts of key
characters and plot points. But
while on the one hand you have
the island’s backstory to explore,
you then meet a local resistance
force and are shoved into a
Destiny-style social space filled
with other players dancing about
and spinning in circles.
And while the game purports to
be a survival sim, you can’t go two
seconds without being directedtowards the next bit of loot, all in
an effort to increase a Gear Score
that will allow you to take on
increasingly difficult areas.
Now, there’s nothing essentially
wrong with restructuring Ghost
Re co n with some loot – it can be
intoxicating when done well – but
it’s hard not to feel a little cynical
about why this game has had such
a major design overhaul.
And while it may be entirely
possible to finish its enormous
campaign and side missions
without spending an extra penny,
microtransactions are so clearly
baked into the design – offering
game-changing gear, not just
cosmetics – that it doesn’t
speak highly for the game’s
true intentions.
What’s more, it feels hopelessly
unfinished. Enemy AI is awful – like,
GoldenEye on the N64 awful – and
the game is riddled with typos.
Really, it’s a title stuck between
two camps: never offering the
compelling loot churn of The
Division, and never allowed to
thrive as a military survival game.
Jon DentonSTUFF SAYS Cynical and unfinished, with ugly monetisation and broken AI ++,,,
Tom Clancy’s Ghost
Recon Breakpoint
Here at Stuff, we love getting all excited about new videogames that are
imaginatively conceived and thrillingly executed. This is not one of them...PS4, Xbox One, PC, Stadia / stuff.tv/GRBreakpoint
I
“Apart from
possibly this
exploding shed.
You can never
have too many
of those.”“I’d just like to
make it clear
that absolutely
nothing about
this game was
my idea.”