089REVIEW
INFOFORMAT PS4
ETA OUT NOW
PUB UBISOFT
DEV UBISOFT PARIS
ot to be snarky, but that really
should be ‘Breaking Point’.
When Ghost Recon first burst
onto the scene in 2001 it was
a drum-tight tactical shooter.
Focusing on claustrophobic
confines and teamwork, the
series reached its highest point
with 2012’s brilliant Future Soldier. What
happened next? Ubisoft turned the franchise
open-world with Wildlands in 2017, and two
years later, we find ourselves in this mess.At the time of writing, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint
is not in a release-worthy state. This is as
broken and awkward a big-budget sandbox as I
can recall playing on PS4. Noticeably uglier than
its predecessor, with the blandest open-world
environment Ubisoft’s ever made, this feels like
a real low for a series the dearly departed Tom
Clancy posthumously still puts his name to.ORA AND OUT
So much of Breakpoint feels half-hearted. The
fictional island of Auroa your customisable
soldier, ‘Nomad’, finds her/himself on is a joyless
mass of impenetrable jungle and barren, horribly
desaturated flatlands. Playdead’s astonishing
Limbo aside, it’s hard to name a more colourless
game on PlayStation than this monochromatic
mess. At least Wildlands’ Bolivia looked the part.
Breakpoint’s predecessor also had a squad of
AI chums to fall back on during firefights. Were
they always reliable? Hell no. Yet even when they
refused to obey your commands, the times where
they had your back with the series’ trademark
Synch Shot were ace. Breakpoint’s solution to
ironing out the kinks in its predecessor’s finicky
team AI? Drop your squad entirely.GHOST
RECON:
BREAKPOINT
Clancy’s classic series hits a
shameless sandbox low
BREAKING BAD @McMeiks