Ghost Recon: Wildlands

[Silva]

Bros, after two more days playing this my opinion has turned around (again). I was all hyped in the first region hunting down that bitch and El Polito, doing all side quests looking for new weapons and toys. Then reached second region and did it all over again, then went to third region and... it got so boring and repetitive I'm almost puking on the idea of playing it again.

Really, this is a turd. Simplistic shooting, simplistic AI, simplistic teammates, simplistic world mechanics (you clean an outpost, 5 min later all enemies spawn back), there is no macro mechanics except unrealistic silly things like unlocking new "skills" and guns, etc.

5/10. Fun for goofing around with friends while drunk.

 

[Gerrard]

Well he's not wrong. It's funny watching retards claim this game looks bad. Especially sonyfags.

 

[Spockrock]

not taking vehicles into account, this game plays more or less like the original Ghost Recon, IF you played it solo. friendly AI is braindead, they're completely useless (their only purpose seems to be to revive you if you go down, but they sometimes fail even at that when they don't clear the area around you before reviving, so you get killed instantly on revive).

also, most locations where you fight are either small settlements or military bases, so even though the layout differs from location to location, you generally traverse them in the same manner, which can become repetitive). but, the sheer number of locations (including unique ones) is so large, that there are enough of interesting locations for a proper Ghost Recon game. on harder difficulties enemy AI is fairly competent and challenging.

the game's biggest asset and its biggest problem at the same time is its size. there are hundreds upon hundreds of missions, and if you're a completionist you will burn out very fast. but I really like exploring the map, and the devs actually tried to make every province look unique (you go from mountainous areas to resorts to tropical rain forests to wastelands to snowy mountain peaks - basically they tried to use the Diablo II formula (environment has to change every 15 minutes) to some extent, and it actually works to the game's advantage.

the biggest problem by far is heavy balancing towards coop. playing this game solo on harder difficulties forces you to stealth missions 70% of the time, otherwise you get overwhelmed (some missions actually automatically fail if you're detected, so while you could attempt to go "loud" with proper coordination in a 4-man team and clear the area out before reinforcements arrive or the target escapes, clearing entire villages solo under pressure with a time limit is almost impossible). another problem is playing the game on "easy" makes it boring as fuck. enemy AI becomes retarded, removing any tension from doing missions.

overall, it's not OGR, but it's very close. it's also crafted with great care (the game world is full of detail, looks beautiful, and the sheer number of player character animations is staggering, there's an animation for everything in this game), effects look awesome, bullet impacts make me orgasm every time.

if the shooting mechanics were similar to the original game (proper ballistics, with guns acting like actual firearms, not paintball markers), friendly AI was similar to the original game, if the game had a first-person view, like the original game did, and there was a bit more variety to locations for side missions this would be one of the greatest games of the last decade. as it stands now, it's a pretty enjoyable AAA-title on the subject of modern warfare with one of the best open worlds in gaming.

for me it's a 8.5/10

 

[Silva]

Spockrock , how can you say this game is very similar to original Ghost Recon is beyond me. Your teammates here are practically non-entities since you can't order them around in any meaningful way and the enemies ignore their existence 90% of time, while original GR teammates could be ordered to setup ambushes, suppress, flank, infiltrate, overwatch, etc. besides allowing you to coordinate different fire teams and even sitting down in "commander chair" and order them around pulling out different maneuvers.

Original Ghost Recon teammates added to the game depth in a way that's unthinkable for Wildlands. This game teammates are "ghosts" in the literal sense because they bear zero influence in the world except for a ridiculous mini-game of synchronizing shots. I don't even understand why there is a "move there" order when they can't do anything at all when they arrive "there"..

- "Squad move there",
- "Ok Sir, we're here, now what?",
- "Well, I can't see any more orders to give you so.. Huh.. stay there doing nothing ?"
- "Huhh.. ok"

 

[bonescraper]

This game teammates are "ghosts" in the literal sense because they bear zero influence in the world except for a ridiculous mini-game of synchronizing shots.

And it gets even more ridiculous when you realize they're not the ones taking the shots either. I mean, i had some targets right in front of me, my ghosts on the right side and... the sync shots came from the left side Fucking magic.

On the other hand, this game confirms Ghost Recon Future Soldier as canon. You know, the game with personal cloaking devices that render you invisible and car-sized fucking autonomous robots which shower your enemies with mortar fire and guided rockets.



Why didn't they take any of that shit to Bolivia?

 

[Silva]

WTF? Did the Ghosts had a cut in their budget or something ?

 

[Spockrock]

Spockrock , how can you say this game is very similar to original Ghost Recon is beyond me. Your teammates here are practically non-entities

I guess you can't read more than 16 words.

 

[Sensuki]

original GR with the expansions is fucking awesome (SICK fun multiplayer), p sure it runs in proper resolution too so no fucking point playing any later ones. I did enjoy GR2 as well but GR1 was the best.

 

[Silva]

Destructoid review: https://www.destructoid.com/review-ghost-recon-wildlands-425478.phtml

2.5/10

I take back every nice thing I ever wrote about this game.

Yes, Thomas Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (an Ubisoft Game) certainly makes a strong first impression. Isn't that, like, the first rule of running a good con? You get the mark to trust you over the first couple hours, to believe that your open-world will be exciting and diverse. That's when you pull the rug out, instead forcing your mark to suffer through dozens upon dozens of hours worth of endlessly repetitive missions, a story so bad that it should be illegal, and a series of irritating glitches and bugs.

The fact that I've wasted a portion of my life getting to the end credits of this awful, awful game is bad enough -- if I had paid full price for Ghost Recon Wildlands, I would be furious.

 

[Gerrard]

To be honest, if he thinks this is a 2.5/10 game then he's fucking retarded. The game's painfully mediocre but it's not a barely working piece of shit. It's a solid 5/10.

 

[Silva]

Think of it this way: a mediocre game is worthy 5/10, right? But how about a mediocre game that also happens to be incomplete and glitchy? Voi-la! 2.5/10.

 

[Gerrard]

I guess Mass Effect is in the negatives then?

 

[Silva]

Don't know as I don't play that shit.

By the way, was thinking about Future Soldier the other day and came to conclusion that even if it's totally popamole, I still find it a better Ghost Recon game than Wildlands, if only due to it's effort to depict battlefield awareness through futuristic technology. Which was particular effective in multiplayer in the Engineer class. Oh man, it was soooo satisfying gathering Intel for your teammates do the dirty work and in the end you got even more points than them, because the game rewarded the Intel-gather role so much.

Someone know if it's multiplayer is alive ?

 

[Astral Rag]

It looks ok for a console game.

 

[Makabb]

In the end it's a ubishit game

 

[sullynathan]

It looks ok for a console game.

He's playing on pc

 

[Outlander]

Vavra loves controversy and going against the tide.

 

[Gerrard]

It looks ok for a console game.

He's playing on pc

I'm not sure if those are even "High" textures in top left.

 

[Silva]

Finally someone found a use for this game. Taking pictures for making wallpapers.

 

[HumanTotemPole]

BTW if anyone feels like booting up the original GR a new beta of Heroes Unleashed came out late last year.

 

[spectre]

So, it's up for grabs courtesy of steampunks and I helped myself to it.

Basically what was expected, it works as a military-themed hiking sim slash exotic safari, a bit like Far Cry 2 but a tad less broken and you get to shoot spics instead of negroes.
The excuse for a story reminds me a bit of a more religiously oriented version of Narcos (the tv series).
Overall, it works better as a game than the latest Far Cry and Ghost Recon, but it's still Ubisoft Sandbox - It's like masturbation where you change hands from time to time,
it's essentially doing the same thing over and over again so you have to find ways to entertain yourself.

However, this iteration of the Ubi sandbox is a tad better as (as far as I've seen) you don't really have to touch the main story to unlock anything and all the regions are available.
Thankfully, there's no radio towers to climb this time. You can get to da choppa and go pretty much anywhere straight away, dodging the occassional SAM.
It only takes some running around to unlock the weapons and their mods.

All in all, I am finding the gameplay to be quite forgiving and hand-holding. You don't really have to worry about or manage anything.
The AI is of course brain dead, which is kinda fitting when we're talking about ese gangbangers, but this goes double for the teammates. They feel like dumbed down versions from Ghost Recon, there's some meh-quality banter,
they report when they spot an enemy or when you're about to be discovered, they even sorta try to act as spotters when you snipe, confirming kills and commenting on misses.
They also tend to teleport magically to wherever they're needed at the moment. One of your dudes missed the helicopter ride? Don't worry, he'll be there.
You can order them around a bit, but I never really felt the need. Most of the time the squadmates do a decent job of staying out of the way and pretending they're not there.

I only came here for hiking and the gumporn, how does the game deliver?
Compared to previous Ghost Recon, it's a bit dumbed down - as far as I can tell, there's little effect on accuracy when going prone, and no functional bipods.
Gunsmith mode lost a few options (hair triggers, manipulating pressure), which is a shame, and the scopes could be better (6x magnification on sniper scopes is the best you can get and the reticles are pure fantasy).
No little touches like keeping an extra round in the chamber.

Hiking works great, color me easily impressed, but I really liked all the environs and landmarks. I really liked walking around the salt flats and I genuinely enjoyed a helicopter ride around the cathedral that is built on top of the hill in one of the provinces.
Compared to Far Cry, no more annoying animal attacks. Also, you don't have to pick flowers anymore. You get to collect resources to unlock new skills (which is an important part of keeping yourself entertained, although
I'd avoid unlocking some of them, as they feel broken), but you find those by finding caches, stealing helicopters/airplanes or hitting convoys.

All in all, the time spent leeching them 60 gigs didn't feel like a big waste.

 

[Spockrock]

Ubi also added a new feature in the latest patch called Tier 1 or something. it rewards players with resources and cosmetics for gaining tiers, but every 5 tiers the game's difficulty gets raised, I'm currently at tier 33 (goes from 50 to 1), and the game is at max difficulty, which makes it insanely hard.

basically, as soon as the enemies see you you have 1 second to get out of their sight or else you get spotted, and once you do - you're dead, because most of them have automatic weapons and 100% accuracy, so no matter how good you are, they're still better because there's more of them, and the volume of fire directed your way in a firefight is just too high.

this forces you to play smart. one popular tactic is to just snipe them all from 300-400 meters, because they can't spot you at those distances (and they won't be able to call in reinforcements if you destroy their comms towers prior to engaging). but I'm not a fan of sniper rifles so a tactic that seems to work great for me is to create diversions using local guerrillas. I call in 3 squads of them, tell one squad to attack from the opposite side to mine, while I go in with two other squads and let them do all the dying while I pick off enemies one by one from flanks. this actually makes the game feel more authentic, because that's how CIA's Ground Branch usually works (google "SAD CTPT", for example).

overall, the game is very fun to play, with one major detractor being the shitty ballistics. as a pure shooter Wildlands is garbage, so if you mainly enjoy shooting stuff from afar, this game is not for you.

 

[spectre]

I agree, long range sniping is pretty shite. It's okay-ish at 300 meters, playing hide and seek with the reinforcements in the jungle, but anything beyond that is a bother.
The game's gunplay is hurt by the hybrid third-person/first person approach imo.

I'm amazed how Ubi can't code in their own ideas properly.
One time I am approaching a group of rebels, they are holding a bunch of sicarios at gunpoint who are obviously surrendering. As I come closer, I see the "about to be spotted" notification. WTF?
The sicarios spotted me, pulled out their guns and were mowed down in a manner of seconds. I was told there were beta tests.

 

[Tomatohead]

The action is shit, because of the weak enemy AI, unbalenced gunplay, and the fact you can take 50 bullets in your face before your health reach half and only thing you need to do then it's press the magic insta-heal awesome button or just wait some 5 seconds for the health regen starts recuvering it. Wich takes away the adreneline and tension action games should have.

I was hoping that some day when the computers are going to be very powerful we will have this incredible AI to work against in games... I think that was when Thief first came out and it felt very real in terms of NPC intelligence. But however there hasn't been much advancement since. In fact it feels as if the games have regressed. Shame, really.

Wildlands is still interesting on some level because it has incredible environment but when you play it long enough it's pretty typical Ubisoft game unfortunately. It has lot of unfulfilled potential. After playing it for 50 hours I can't seem to get back to it and I haven't even finished half of the missions.

 

[Gerrard]

GET TO DA CHOPPA