PREVIEW: Ghost Recon Wildlands needs improvements before launch

Last year I reviewed Ubisoft’s most unique third-person shooter yet, The Division. I adored it because it had an amazing atmosphere, great gameplay, and a progression system that could keep you playing for a very long time. I eventually dropped off because I got caught up in other games but part of me has always really wanted to go back. With Ghost Recon Wildlands, I don’t think I would be too bothered if I never went back.

Ghost Recon Wildlands isn’t a bad game by any means, but it’s not really good either. The story is very bland with characters that feel lifeless both physically and emotionally. The gameplay feels really light in places it should feel heavier and heavy in places it feel should lighter, and the world is just absurdly large despite the lack of life.

Let’s start with the story. You’re a member of an elite squad called the Ghosts who are going into Bolivia to take on a drug cartel which is rising. As you enter Bolivia, you realize there’s a lot of awful things going on here. I’ll keep it relatively vague in case you are interested in discovering it for yourself but personally, I don’t find the story all that interesting. The characters are dry and look and feel absolutely lifeless. They have no emotion or personality in their voices and it felt so incredibly generic. The opening cutscene has the five main characters on a helicopter riding into Bolivia and it’s probably only three to five minutes long, but the performances are so weak and they drone on and on that it felt like ten to fifteen.

To progress through the story, you take back regions of Bolivia by destroying valuable assets to the cartel. This lures out the big dogs at the top of the cartel that control the region. Once they come out of their holes, you move in to take them down. Only one region was made available in the beta so I’m somewhat speculating, but I’m assuming you continue this pattern throughout the game to work your way to the main villain in Wildlands, similar to Mafia 3’s campaign.

On the subject of the map, the map is absolutely massive. Although players were limited to a certain region (which was pretty big on its own), you could zoom out and see what appeared to be the entire map. Ubisoft has advertised it as the biggest world they’ve created yet and while that’s impressive, the region I was in felt lifeless. Sure, there are some cars driving around and you can walk into villages with a dozen or so people roaming around but nothing is happening. They’re just wandering aimlessly. I never encountered any unique situations where the cartel or the militarized police was kicking down people’s doors to kidnap them or execute rebels. I never saw anything that spoke to the world Ubisoft was trying to build. It’s not always about creating the biggest map, it’s about creating a world you can get lost in like the ones seen in The Witcher 3 or Grand Theft Auto 5.

The map also has some strange design flaws that make it feel like it wasn’t full thought out. The best example I can give of this was I was approaching an enemy outpost that had a crane nearby where you could potentially overlook the compound. I pulled out my sniper rifle and ran towards it expecting to climb up it. When I got there, I realized there was no ladder for me to climb. I was just sort of confused at how something so simple could be overlooked, it would’ve been a perfect opportunity for me to use my sniper rifle that I hadn’t been able to use all that much. I then had to move to a two story building where I would shoot a few guys before having to get down because it didn’t give me a view of the whole compound. It seemed like such an obvious thing to just have in the game, but alas, I was wrong.

The last thing I’ll touch on is the gameplay. The gameplay in Ghost Recon Wildlands is very strange to me. The guns feel like airsoft guns in terms of the way they handle. The cars handle absolutely horribly, and the game doesn’t pack any punch or weight when it comes to the action. The explosions and guns have weak sound and visual effects, it doesn’t have any true “oomf” to it.

The cars felt like they didn’t have the ability to turn very well which was frustrating because the roads are very slim and there are lot of twists and turns, I constantly found myself crashing into cars or walls or driving off the side of a mountain. On top of that, cars don’t even have horns in Wildlands. Grand Theft Auto 3 had different sounding horns in all of their cars in 2001. Sometimes my teammates wouldn’t get into the car and I would go to honk at them and remember, there’s no horn in this game. It’s little things like this that are missing that make me scratch my head.

One compliment I can give to the gameplay though is that the weather and day-night cycles affect gameplay. Going in at night usually has more advantages because you can use the shadows to sneak through enemy compounds, take down more enemies without fear of you being spotted by an enemy on the other side of the outpost. You may also be able to see them before they see you if you come equipped with night vision or a thermal scope.

Another design flaw that bothered me was the fact that players can’t hide bodies. It’s 2017, almost every stealth game has this ability. Hitman: Blood Money did this in 2006. For a game where enemies are always patrolling, it seems like such a strange thing to exempt from the game. Plus, you’re supposed to be the Ghosts, not Rambo. I should be able to hide bodies.

The actual tactical gameplay with computer-controlled characters is somewhat cohesive. Your squad kind of hangs back and takes pot shots at enemies when you tell them to if you’re playing stealthily (as to not have some teammate blow your cover), when things go loud they’ll move in and start unloading bullets. You can also order them around to position them where you want, synchronize kills, and more. It works well in single-player, but the characters themselves are so lifeless that I would recommend playing with some friends if you can.

Ghost Recon Wildlands isn’t a terrible game, but it feels strangely lacking and average for what will be Ubisoft’s next big outing. It seems they got too ambitious in trying to make a huge map that they really forgot to dedicate enough time to fleshing everything else out in detail. I will probably play Wildlands when it releases, but I hope Ubisoft takes the next few weeks to add some extra polish to the gameplay to make it better than it is now. The world needs to feel alive. I’m hoping the beta was taken from a much earlier build and the find product addresses my concerns. If not, then I’m fearful for the Ghost Recon franchise and not just this game.