Red's Read - Ghost Recon Breakpoint - A Surprise

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Red's Read - Ghost Recon Breakpoint - A Surprise

Red Thomas finally gets a chance to try out Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint after a friend hounded him about it for the last couple weeks. Red explains the surprises the game held for him and whether or not readers should consider adding it to their own libraries.

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BluntedJ

Great article. I'm going to try the game out with my son, and it looks like it will be a blast.

Just some constructive editorial criticism:

1) Referencing vague games without better hints breaks the flow a bit. I had to think about the second game you referenced that you were waiting on. The first was easy enough, but still required a pause in the flow of reading (New World).
2) You mentioned some anacronym I can only assume is an Army thing, which I didn't bother looking up.
3) Thanks for mentioning the free trial and free play until June. However, could you have listed the platforms it's available on?

Just some minor thoughts. Please take them in the manner they are intended.

[Deleted User]

The user and all related content has been deleted.

Amathe

Looks inticing.

Samhael

It could be played single player but it shines in co-op. The original previews/articles from this website were bashing it and saying it wasn't worth buying. However, I picked it up on sale not too long after launch (and well before the Ghost patch shipped) and found it quite enjoyable. Then again, more and more I find my opinions differ greatly from the main writers so much that now I'll check to see who writes the piece before deciding if it's going to be worth the time to read it. Red's work, on the other hand, is usually well thought out and even when he's opposed to something, he deliberates calmly which is more of what I expect from a professional expressing opinions. (and much easier to read through than some of the rants of the last few months) So even when I have a 180 degree opinion from Red, I still like to read the piece.

TacticalZombeh

I enjoy it quite a bit, even at release. I originally wasn't sure I enjoyed the weapon leveling mechanic but after playing with gear score turned off I felt like I was missing something.

I definitely have my two favorite weapons: the TAC50 and the SC-20K, but I like occasionally having to use something different until I could acquire level-appropriate versions of them. Plus I liked picking up clothes and armor, so I may switch back to gear score.

Is it fun in single player? I have fun, but then I'm not a fan of multiplayer (I do admit multiplayer in Wildlands was a lot of fun). I will eventually try it in Breakpoint, if for no other reason than to level up Medic.

Honestly @Panzerbeorne39, if you don't like Div2 single player, this probably won't grab you either. The gameplay loop is similar, just more open-worldy, and highly repetitive. The AI doesn't feel nearly as smart as they do in Div2 either.

I enjoy it because I like to get lost in the map clearing/roaming and hitting each outpost/base in different ways depending on terrain and my mood.

And a caveat to my endorsement of Breakpoint, as I've stated before: I'm a sucker for Ubi's particular flavor of open-world nonsense, your mileage may vary.

torke90

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Can this be a fun single player experience? Or is it best with friends coop? I wasn’t a fan of division 2 as a single player. Have never played any of the Clancy games tho and this piqued my interest

It can be played in solo mode, and it feels great : ) give it a chance, its a nice game nowadays!

Red_Thomas

Panzerbeorne39 said:

Can this be a fun single player experience? Or is it best with friends coop? I wasn’t a fan of division 2 as a single player. Have never played any of the Clancy games tho and this piqued my interest

I've played SP a bit and I have a lot of fun.  I spent an hour clearing out a dock the other night just to see if I could do it without getting detected.  No mission or anything, just goofing off.   I think things like that make it a good SP experience, and there are a lot of interesting stories to uncover, as well.

Red_Thomas

Samhael said:

It could be played single player but it shines in co-op. The original previews/articles from this website were bashing it and saying it wasn't worth buying. However, I picked it up on sale not too long after launch (and well before the Ghost patch shipped) and found it quite enjoyable. Then again, more and more I find my opinions differ greatly from the main writers so much that now I'll check to see who writes the piece before deciding if it's going to be worth the time to read it. Red's work, on the other hand, is usually well thought out and even when he's opposed to something, he deliberates calmly which is more of what I expect from a professional expressing opinions. (and much easier to read through than some of the rants of the last few months) So even when I have a 180 degree opinion from Red, I still like to read the piece.

That's the goal.  Not everyone is going to like the same thing, but if you know what I like and why I like it, that should help you determine if you'd like the game.  There are plenty of content creators that like games I don't, but knowing that we differ on those points still makes their reviews incredibly valuable to me.

Though, I honestly just like a lot of games in general.  It's not common for me to find an entire game that I don't care for, and it's usually because I feel the publisher is being a little underhanded when I do.  Of course, then I usually just don't write articles about those guys because negativity is too easy and I'm not interested in that sort of thing.

Red_Thomas

TacticalZombeh said:

I enjoy it quite a bit, even at release. I originally wasn't sure I enjoyed the weapon leveling mechanic but after playing with gear score turned off I felt like I was missing something.

I definitely have my two favorite weapons: the TAC50 and the SC-20K, but I like occasionally having to use something different until I could acquire level-appropriate versions of them. Plus I liked picking up clothes and armor, so I may switch back to gear score.

Is it fun in single player? I have fun, but then I'm not a fan of multiplayer (I do admit multiplayer in Wildlands was a lot of fun). I will eventually try it in Breakpoint, if for no other reason than to level up Medic.

Honestly @Panzerbeorne39, if you don't like Div2 single player, this probably won't grab you either. The gameplay loop is similar, just more open-worldy, and highly repetitive. The AI doesn't feel nearly as smart as they do in Div2 either.

I enjoy it because I like to get lost in the map clearing/roaming and hitting each outpost/base in different ways depending on terrain and my mood.

And a caveat to my endorsement of Breakpoint, as I've stated before: I'm a sucker for Ubi's particular flavor of open-world nonsense, your mileage may vary.

That's pretty much my situation.  I'd really rather play full immersion, but I felt like I was missing out on a part of the game that way.

I have noticed that the game keep hosing up my settings though.  Not sure if that's common, but I'm having to go through and reconfigure my ghost experience every time I start the game.  It's quick and easy, but still irritating.

TacticalZombeh

Red_Thomas said:

TacticalZombeh said:

I enjoy it quite a bit, even at release. I originally wasn't sure I enjoyed the weapon leveling mechanic but after playing with gear score turned off I felt like I was missing something.



(snip)


And a caveat to my endorsement of Breakpoint, as I've stated before: I'm a sucker for Ubi's particular flavor of open-world nonsense, your mileage may vary.

That's pretty much my situation.  I'd really rather play full immersion, but I felt like I was missing out on a part of the game that way.

I have noticed that the game keep hosing up my settings though.  Not sure if that's common, but I'm having to go through and reconfigure my ghost experience every time I start the game.  It's quick and easy, but still irritating.

I know on release they had an issue with a few menu settings changing. The over-the-shoulder/ironsights would constantly reset, much to my aggravation.

It wouldn't surprise me to still be a problem. I haven't noticed but might just be overlooking something.

Wizardry

Tom Clancy's imo can't wear the same shoes as COD games but they are still high quality games.

The amount of detail that goes into these along with the many different animations is a lot of work.You cannot compare these games to crap like Animal Crossing.It bitters me when i see reviewers giving Animal Crossing a 9 or even a 6/10 would bother me.

So then the GAME PLAY,that is often talked about in games.I only look at game play from an angle of WHAT is the game suppose to be doing.So this setting is a military/merc type game.Does it give us a realistic feel with weapons,does it give you the immersive fear factor you would have if this was real life.

I feel it does a very good job,of course there is room for argument in the "difficulty"area but the design is still well done.I can simply go back to all those games attaining high ratings and the mobs are mostly just standing there out in the open.So are we really going to belittle this games mobs to games with MUCH simpler mob AI?

This version in the Tom Clancy's series has an area that gave COD Ghosts the worst score in the series.That is the forest area because that type of design is very lazy and very easy.There is no comparison when designing an area full of trees and an area full of homes/buildings with loads of detail.However like the COD Ghosts game,the rest of the game is quite well done.

I could give this game a 7/10 but the COD games are all just insanely well done and deserve to be the ACE of spades in the deck of shooter games.I have no idea how Destiny cost the most money to make,i would play THIS game over Destiny anytime any day.

Red_Thomas

I'm not really sure why you'd compare COD and the Tom Clancy games.  They're pretty different genres and aren't really trying to be like each other.  That'd be like comparing Battlefield and Arma.  The comparison would be how they're different, because there's not much between them that's similar other than nomenclature.

Of course, Tom Clancy games have diverged pretty dramatically from their initial direction, too.  These days, even Tom Clancy games aren't very Tom Clancy.