Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint
full review
Following the success of Wildlands, Ubisoft has a new addition to the Tom Clancy’s series. Ghost Recon Breakpoint sees Nomad crash land on an island alone and vulnerable.
Breakpoint moves the series from Bolivia into the fictional Pacific island-esque world of island of Auroa. Not Aurora. This is one of the biggest changes and as you can probably guess, it’s an open-world setup.
We played through a level set in a forest starting with a hair-raising scramble down some steep cliffs. Auroa promises a wide range of scenery though, including snowy mountain peaks to deserted urban areas to sandy hillsides. The gameplay is very familiar if you’ve played any previous Ghost Recon games so there are no major things to adjust to really.
You can still use drones to scout out locations and enemies. In fact, you’ll need to in order to be successful really. And if you’re stuck to find a way into a particular area or just want to save some time, the introduction of the ability to cut through fences is a welcome one.
We played the four-player co-op demo at E3 but you’ll need the drone even more in the single player mode when there are no AI buddies to help you out. You’ll be taking on Cole D Walker, voiced by Jon Bernthal (Shane from The Walking Dead) and his mysterious agents known as the Wolves.
Whatever mode you pick, a new injury system is an important part of the game. Survival is a big part of Breakpoint and different injuries will affect you in different ways. As you might be able to imagine, you’re mobility or shooting skills will be hampered.
This is the highlight of the game really as you’ll need to really plan and be careful unlike so many games where it can be near impossible to die. Getting shot, hiding behind a tree to miraculously recover like Wolverine, then carrying on like nothing ever happened.
In contrast to rolling around in the mud to gain camouflage, the enemy is in possession of some fancy technology thanks to the Skell facility on the island. We encountered drones with guns and vehicles too. This tech is increasingly autonomous so you’ll have to be smart to take it down.
As well as the single and co-op modes, you’ll be able to put your skills to the test against others in PvP multiplayer. Within the first year of release, Ubisoft will introduce new content such as story-related content, new gear and special events. Raids will also arrive which are new to the series.
Although many of the games announced at E3 this year won’t arrive until 2020, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint will be released on 4 October 2019. It will be available on Xbox One, PS4 and PC in a confusingly large amount of different editions.
Also check out our previews for Gears 5 and DOOM Eternal.
Early Verdict
Breakpoint might be largely more of the same Ghost Recon action in a new setting but things are much more tactical when compared to Wildlands so requires carefully planned espionage. Although you can roll in like Rambo if you really want.
What we particularly like is the injury system, which might seem like a small element but has a big impact, making you think twice before making any moves.
