Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Pretty savage review on RPS.

Indeed… link for the lazy.


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Most bland activities are enjoyable if you do them with people that you like, and better playgrounds can be found elsewhere.

Oh, where did I read something similar?

I have only played a few hours with the game, getting to I think level 5 or so, power level um 22 or 25 or whatever? I think pretty much everything in the RPS review is accurate, I’d have to say. I’d also have to say I’m rather enjoying playing the game. Why? Dunno. Maybe I just like wandering about shooting stuff in these worlds. The story is utter tripe, though there are decent moments in the dialog (“They killed the new guy!”). The entire premise is ludicrous; at least Wildlands had an almost believable counter-narco op to hang the shooty bits on. And the attempt to fuse Ghost Recon with an MMO via Far Cry is, at best, only marginally successful, and often bizarre.

But it is also delivering on gunplay, exploration, and the ability to sort of chart your own course and create your own moments. I’m not looking for a sublime, transcendent experience here. Hell, I never finished Wildlands because after a bajillion hours I was only like half way through the map. But I got my money’s worth for sure. Here, I’m trying the fifteen clams a month Ubiplay+, so by the time I’m bored with this thing I’ll probably just cancel and have spent fifteen to thirty bucks on the gametime I’ve had. Works for me.

But no, this is not an example of stellar game design. It’s an example, for me at least, of workmanlike game design that won’t be in the Hall of Fame but doesn’t embarrass anyone either. Sort of like Borderlands 3.

This might be one of the worst review scored Ubi games in quite awhile. Averaging a 59 right now.


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The common thread in the reviews, from an admittedly cursory overview of the headlines in that linked summary, seems to be that the game is a confused mish-mash that feels like something put together by a committee composed mostly of marketing types. Which, to be fair, is a very reasonable take on the game. The minute to minute play in the game isn’t bad, though, especially if you are in effect renting it via Uplay+.

Paying full freight though yeah the product is probably not at all worth it.

Watched the latest Crowbcat video, and now I want to replay GRAW:

HIGH FIVE!

GRAW2 on PC is still the best tactical shooter I’ve played in the last 15 years.

I’m enjoying it as well. It’s a fun game, great graphics and I am looking forward to the multiplayer. It is different without the AI teammates but they are planning to add it post launch.

Those old GR games were great…played with roomies so many custom maps.

The key to enjoying this for me is to ignore any pretense whatsoever of plausibility, realism, or narrative coherence. Sort of like Fallout 4, where you are presented with this dire crisis that should be Job One and hugely time sensitive, but which in reality can wait as long as you like before you tackle it, this game puts you in a position where it seems that you should be busting ass to do X, Y, and Z, but where really it doesn’t matter how long you take to save the foozles and widgets. I just go from one side objective, revealed cache, and enemy base to another, getting guns, leveling up, and generally enjoying the dakka dakka. Otherwise, the game is effin’ ludicrous to the nth degree, with a plot and narrative that is, to be generous, something I’d expect from my college game studio students (though they’d be more imaginative).

This is not actually throwing shade at the developers–I love Ubi, and they’ve demonstrated repeatedly that they can definitely craft some good stories and build some interesting places. I think this game epitomizes something designed with marketing and money goals in mind rather than with a focus on creating a gamer-centered quality experience. It is fun, but only if you ignore its pretensions.

My biggest gripe though is that, when it’s raining, Nomad doesn’t sit inside his tent in bivouac, but instead sits outside. In the rain. Covered in mud. smh

I wonder if there will be any meaningful patches. Like a quieter Erewhon :/

Or something to squelch the insufferable hipster-snowflake emoting of the civilians in the Skrelltech installations. Though perhaps this is an intentional bit of humor on the part of the writers.

I will use my imagination on what a hipster snowflake looks like :)

Heh, for me it’s their “Dude, you’re in my personal space!” or “You’re making me nervous!” and stuff like that. Constantly.

I realized I never canceled my UplayPlus so dl’d this today. It just kinda dropped you in with a brief intro. I haven’t played any previous GRs but it was similar enough to Division that I sort of had an idea of what to do…head towards the dots on the map! In my hour or so of playtime I found the enemies to be very hard of hearing and most seemed to have forgot to put on their glasses. I was running in what should have been plain site and they kept on with their patrols. I even hunkered down in what should have been in plain site of the first pair I stumbled across and after fiddling around with the ‘ground camo’ controls for a bit took them out. I got hit plenty of times and figured I was about dead, but when I finally glanced at my health I was at something like 80%. Then I auto-healed. After moving along past a few target spots I ended up in a tent-thingy with two openings and could hear bad dudes just outside (but I couldn’t tell from which door). Got the drop on them (entering from different doors) and heard some other bad dude yelling about finding me. I rushed out of the tent and never could see this other guard. I thought I saw him and shot him only to be told I’d shot a civilian. I had no idea there were any civilians so I quit rather than go on with that on my conscience.

Liked it well enough to get back in there. Hearing guards before I spotted them was cool. Gunplay was ok. It felt a little like a more open world Division. But I’ll prob play on the next hardest level (I played on normal the first time) in hopes the bad dudes are a little more observant.

I’ve found the enemy AI to be inconsistent. The Wolves tend to be more aggressive and a lot better shots than the average Sentinel mercs. The heavies also are pretty gung-ho. None of them are particularly observant, true, but I haven’t been able to walk around in plain sight with impunity, though it’s hard to tell given the tons of foliage whether plain sight is plain sight. But I did take one of the +stealth perks as soon as I could.

What I really hate is the constant shouting–no radio discipline, these guys–and the calls of “I have eyes on an enemy!” when, clearly, they do not.

I’ve never played the GRAW games but I apparently own them, so I’m playing the first one. Wow this is fun!

McMaster let me hop on his stream with a 3rd good fellow, whose screen name is perhaps best left to mystery, and we played Breakpoint for a few hours. Magic of co-op with all games, of course, but it’s a blast. Especially when everyone is as reckless as usual in co-op and stealth goes out the window.

Some great seat of the pants moments. AI machine gun turrets are no joke.

This made me realize I’ve never played the PC versions of the GRAW games, as they’re supposedly quite different from the 360 versions I played back in the day. So I tried to find out where I could get them: Steam, GOG or at least Uplay? But no, they’re not available anywhere. Weird.