Last week in NYC, myself and my colleague here at GStyle were invited to check out an early preview of the newest game in the Tom Clancy series of military combat style tactical shooting games, Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. The Ghost Recon series is a popular series of games within the Tom Clancy lineup and their last game Ghost Recon: Wildlands was a huge hit. It introduced some new gameplay mechanics, weaponry, a great story and a worthy enemy that made playing Ghost Recon: Wildlands an experience that was engaging and fulfilling every time you played it.
This new story as it pertains to Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is about a former ghost gone rogue after he feels burned by the US government. The main protagonist Colonel Cole D. Walker played by Jon Bernthal notably from The Punisher and The Walking Dead and he has an army of ex-ghosts who are no joke with him called the “Wolves”, and with the help of stolen intelligence and drone technology called Skell Tech, Walker and the Wolves are setting out to right what they believe is wrong and they’ll kill anyone who tries to impede their mission.
The primary mission takes place on the fictional island of Auroa which is a small island in the South Pacific owned by billionaire Jace Skell for which the Skell tech is named. The year is 2023 and four years after Wildlands. The mission(s) take place here and just like Wildlands this game is focused on survival, by way of stealth, teamwork and using the latest technology in the field.
Our time with the developers was brief unfortunately but the time we did spend we were able to get in some solid playtime with the game itself and we played for about 45 minutes and based on what we saw with Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, this game improves on every element of what Wildlands was and there’s a great story to boot. It’s really an impressive and expansive game.
I personally got to play the story mission in co-op with 3 other people and after we all created our characters we were able to explore the open world of Auroa a little bit and get it on with the Wolves and the henchmen on Auroa. What you’ll see in the video is myself and my 3 other team members looking for gear, exploring, riding in vehicles and just trying to get a feel for the game. Just watching it you can feel the sense of urgency as you see helicopters shot down and your men dead or dying as you walk through that jungle terrain. That’s what Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is. It’s survival and only the best tacticians will survive. This is where this game and Wildlands differ greatly.
There’s also a PvP mode in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint called Ghost War and it’s 4v4 gunplay. While we weren’t able to play with the PvP mode because of the aforementioned scheduling reasons. We do know that the Ghost Recon: Breakpoint team has a lot planned for PvP with Ghost Was and they do not intend for it to be secondary game mode that you might play sometime. They indicated that there are going to be routine updates, map additions, new classes and game modes within Ghost War in the future. There’s a lot to look forward to with Ghost War but to get a general idea you can check out the trailer video above and see for yourself.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON GHOST RECON: BREAKPOINT SO FAR
My overall perspective of what I did see and interact with was overwhelmingly positive not just because it’s Ghost Recon but because it’s a well done game with a well done story that will give you hours and hours of replay value. I can recall spending hours and hours just looking for weapons, parts and accessories and somewhere in between I would do the missions. With Ghost War, this adds even more playtime. The anticipation for this game is building. Ubisoft just released the newest trailer for Ghsot Recon: Breakpoint called “The Pledge” and once you watch the trailer you’ll understand the point of the game. Enjoy and we’ll keep you posted as we play the game more and get more details. The playable beta is available today and you can play it now. Just go to the Uplay website and download UPlay and see what the hype is about. You won’t be disappointed.
