Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint: 2.9/5 “A Long Awaited Review . . . And somehow still not a great disappointment”
So, for many of my readers, I am a big fan of Tom Clancy. I read many of his books growing up, and some of Richard Marcinko’s Rogue Warrior, too. But the idea of playing a Tom Clancy game, set in a huge open world, where your Nomad character from Wildlands, comes back to settle the score with an old war buddy who has gone rogue, is like combining all of the Dark Knight films/Metal Gear Solid 5/ into one single title that offers you an unlimited ability to travel by boat, helicopter, enemy helos, and trucks, with mounted machine guns in it, only made the excitement for it grow stronger. One critique I found most disconcerting immediately is that the game’s release, needed to be online, all the time. I was so mad I remember refunding my preorder from GameStop, and the people were pissed, because I was, as a customer, too. What the fuck Ubisoft? But Ubisoft in all honesty didn’t care, but somehow, they got people to buy into it. I didn’t really want to buy it, but when I was gifted the Steam Deck, I wanted to try it out. There are a few things that I can say that did wow me. There game, five years later, somehow manages to impress me, even after they fixed all the bugs the previous players had to sit through. I often make the joke that “Hi, I’m a Ubisoft game, and we’re all done now, five years later, after everyone has stopped playing it.” But we’ll dive into the positives the game has since October 4th, 2019.
Positives
For my personal taste, I had never really liked Souls games and especially since the popularity of open worlds, has come to a more grand and infinitesimal scale Ghost Recon Breakpoint offers its players. Even a slight beam of light gives me chills as I search with my drone for any oncoming enemies. Surveying a base with a drone can help level up your character stats. For a person who came late to fantasy RPG, where combat, build, and vitality stats are so important, Ghost Recon Breakpoint understands one thing that even Elden Ring can’t understand. For my playthrough with the Vector Shorty, I was progressing through the game, and I realized one particular error. My Vector Shorty was at 38 while I was in the mid 40’s or early 50’s. So, I thought I was going to be stuck with the Vector at level 38. Not true. There’s a way to sell your gun back to an in game character, but the player can rebuild the gun, with new stats, but never lose the upgrades you have put so much time in grinding to find.
Another positive is the powerful and eccentric acting skills of Jon Berthnal, who is by and large, the best Tom Clancy anti-hero, or villain, depending on your viewpoint. The way Berthnal has small grunts in his delivery that almost persuade the player that if you met Walker, you wouldn’t say anything. The reality is, Berthnal, in his own right, gave the script the nuance and ultimately helps you understand where his character motivation comes from. Being dejected by his superiors for letting a low level private walk after killing a civilian in a combat situation, after he executed him point blank, makes me sympathize with a warrior who sees a problem and dealt his own brand of justice. Death. Only Berthnal could have portrayed this character with the nuance it deserved, and helps Nomad, your character, know what they are up against. A total wrecking ball, that if you fought him on level 1, you would die instantly, without question.
Another positive is Ubisoft decided to bring back the AI characters from Ghost Recon: Wildlands, but to many who played the game alone, with no friends, was a daunting task, and deserve a salute.[1]