Ghost Recon Wildlands / YMMV

Americans Hate Tingle: The game got flak from the Bolivian government for depicting their country as a corrupt failed state (according to them) and various South American outlets denounce the game for perpetuating the negative stereotype of Latin America being a crime-ridden backwaters region run by drug cartels. The Bolivian government even went so far as to file a complaint to their French embassy directed at Ubisoft themselves. However, Bolivian players adored the game on how well it represented their country's natural landscape and for simply giving Bolivia exposure.
Base-Breaking Character:
- Karen Bowman. Some like her for being a snarky and competent handler, while others chafe at her Jerkass behaviour, even to the more sympathetic Cartel targets like La Gringa.
- In-universe there's DJ Perico. To many people he's an insufferably annoying loudmouth, to some Rebels he's actually funny, and El Sueño himself finds him amusing and useful as Santa Blanca's mouthpiece and for propaganda spreading.
Complete Monster:
- Rodrigo Carlos Pérez Morales, aka "El Sueño" ("The Dream"), is the leader of the Santa Blanca Cartel, responsible for turning Bolivia into a narco-state. El Sueño personally oversees and partakes in cocaine production and distribution; trafficking of children; and the torture and murder of thousands, leaving bodies hanging from telephone poles across Bolivia. El Sueño has any opposition abducted and executed, having a mentally disturbed "cleaner" dissolve their remains. Discovering an undercover DEA agent in his cartel, El Sueño personally tortures the man over forty-seven hours. Should his subordinates fail him, El Sueño would arrange their executions, that of their loved ones, or both. When the Ghosts manage to dismantle his cartel, El Sueño secretly makes a deal with their government for immunity, using them to take down rival cartels, gloats about his victory by presenting the recently decapitated head of rebel leader and former ally, Pac Katari. Behind nearly every one of Santa Blanca's atrocities, El Sueño's religious and charitable front masks a vicious egotist, unfeeling to the suffering he brought about.
- Fallen Ghosts DLC: Los Extranjeros took over Bolivia after the collapse of the Santa Blanca Cartel and prove themselves to be amongst the most monstrous enemies the Ghosts have ever faced. While its leader Colonel Juan Ignacio Merlo is absent throughout most of the DLC, his three lieutenants in particular really stand out:
  - Major Luis Rocha, "El Espectro" ("The Specter"), runs the Western Precinct in Bolivia where he subjects the populace in that area to slave labor to rebuild cocaine production. Rocha would kidnap these people's loved ones to force them to work themselves to death, while also killing some of his own workers and nailing their corpses in the fields as "extra motivation". When one village didn't meet Rocha's expectations, he orders his soldiers to lure the villagers into one building for them to slaughter.
  - Captain Dante Cruzar, "El Diablo" ("The Devil"), runs the Northern Precinct of Bolivia where he carries out killing sprees on the Christian population, killing hundreds of innocent people and stacking their corpses onto a massive pile, with some of his victims being burned alive. When the Ghosts try to dismantle his hold on the Northern Precinct, Cruzar responds by initiating a massacre at a village, killing all the villagers there, while mocking their belief in God's protection.
  - Captain Tomas Ortega, "El Oso" ("The Bear"), runs the Eastern Precinct of Bolivia where he establishes an arena there where he has the populace there fight each other to the death for his amusement. Ortega would also kidnap innocent civilians and use them as target practice for his fighters to kill, and would even kill his own soldiers if they don't meet his standards as warriors. When the Ghosts arrive in his Precinct, Ortega lures them to his arena where he uses his prisoners as disposable fodder against the Ghosts before trying to kill them himself.
Demonic Spiders:
- Alarms in some area. If they get set off, they will often summon reinforcements for the enemy, especially bad if it calls...
- Helicopters, this is probably the sole reason many players always carry an LMG with them at all times. Shooting the pilot is tough when they move around erratically so often time your only option is to just shoot it down normally, which takes time and the deadly weapons they carry requires you to hit and run. Apache UNIDAD gunships are even worse since they have One-Hit Kill missiles and if you piss off them to Level 4 they'll usually send a pair of those to hunt you down.
- Snipers, they are very good shots and very deadly, but the worst thing about them is that they can spot you at long range and put the other enemies on alert, or even sound the alarm. If you alert a base with two of these aiming at you, you better get to cover or else they'll drop you before you even realize what happened.
- Mortars, they can hit you from long range and if you get spotted too early, you will have a hard time trying to find them.
- AA missile batteries. They're almost impossible to spot from the air, have a huge detection range, and their missiles are both One Hit Kills on any aircraft and very hard to evade (only small helicopters even have a chance). They're everywhere, and the more difficult provinces have so many of them that flying anything becomes frustrating. If one of those things wrecks you while you were piloting a captured resource aircraft to the rendezvous point, you can be forgiven for throwing a tantrum. For some baffling reason, none of the aircraft available in game carry countermeasures such as flares or chaff.
- Jammers will (mostly) disable your drone and force you to rely on binoculars to track down enemies (at least until you unlock the Spotting skill), they're usually located deep in the enemy base and while possible to disable with gunfire, mortar strikes or explosives this will inevitably put the entire enemy base on high alert since the damn thing will explode if deactivated like that. Bases on higher difficulty provinces usually have one, a few ones can have two just as an extra screw you to the player(s).
- UNIDAD in general. Whereas Santa Blanca only calls in two cars stuffed with mid-tier reinforcements plus the occasional helicopter if you trip an alarm, Unidad summons increasingly powerful top-tier troops the longer you're fighting them, and their patrol levels escalate very quickly. At the highest level, two to three armored cars full of heavily armed and armored soldiers plus at least two One-Hit Kill helicopter gunships spawn again and again every minute or so until you escape the area or manage to hide for a very long time. Even without actively searching for the Ghosts, Unidad is annoying because of their ubiquitous patrols that have an uncanny tendency to show up at the worst possible moment to make your life even more miserable. That even the most basic Unidad grunt is more resilient and better armed than Santa Blanca's most experienced veteran sicarios only puts the icing on the cake.
- In Fallen Ghosts, the Armored and Covert Ops Los Extranjeros units. The former are a Heavily Armored Mook using machine guns that are Immune to Bullets whose only weakpoint is their head. They also take multiple headshots to bring down, unless you use a .50 caliber sniper rifle. The latter are soldiers using active camouflage and silent crossbows, which can take a player down in two shots. Because they're cloaked, they don't appear on your minimap, nor can your allies target them, with your only real method of detecting them to use thermal vision.
Evil Is Cool: There's no denying that El Sueño is an awesome villain despite never appearing in person until the game's climax. He's also this in another way because he never, ever, loses his cool even while his world is crumbling around him.
Fan Nickname: A lot of players tend to refer to Cole Denholm Walker simply as The Punisher, due to him being played by and physically resembling Jon Bernthal, who played the Punisher in that series, as well as also being a One-Man Army out for revenge.
Goddamn Bats:
- Santa Blanca reinforcements. They aren't any different than normal enemies, save you don't have to spot their positions. But if you are too far away from an alerted Santa Blanca thug, that thug will call in reinforcements constantly. Normally, this is just a minor annoyance. But if you happen to alert a Santa Blanca thug you haven't spotted yet standing hundreds of yards away, you could have to fight carload after carload of sicarios while desperately trying to find the one guy who is calling them all in.
- Guards in buildings, watchtowers and gatehouses. They're prone to make players fuck up and miss shots which will alert the entire base and get the Hunted status up and it doesn't help that they usually stand in spots where you can't take them out easily from certain angles forcing you to relocate or use up your Sync Shot and hope the AI can actually mark them as sometimes even they have trouble doing it. They're also very frustrating to pinpoint with the drone or binoculars since sometimes they like to stay just out of their visual detection range and force you to move the drone around or relocate yourself until you tag the prick who's unwittingly hiding from you.
Good Bad Bugs:
- In certain missions that sets up road checkpoints, the AI is supposed to open fire upon seeing the Ghosts' vehicle. But if you just zip past them? The AI will not care a thing, unless you linger too long.
- During the Predator mission but before encountering the Predator, you can summon in rebel fire squads and diversion teams. Do this before encountering the Predator, the predator has more targets to shoot at before it becomes only you and the Predator.
Heartwarming Moments: Though the Metal Gear Shout-Out is more sad than sweet, it is oddly poignant to hear Sam Fisher, of all people, react morosely to Snake's retirement. It goes to show that the Metal Gear games were widely enjoyed by players all across the globe, even by some of the people writing one of his greatest competitors. And then just a couple of months later, it turns out that Solid Snake wasn't entirely done after all.
Harsher in Hindsight: The game starts on July 27, 2019 in the then-near future. By then, El Sueño is ruling Bolivia with an iron fist, using its people for his cartel's upkeep. In November that year, the left-wing president Evo Morales (who coincidentally shares his surname with El Sueño) and his government, already plagued by allegations of drug trade involvement, had to resign amidst disputed election results and fled to Mexico. Though real-life Bolivia fared a lot better than in the game, the country nevertheless faced a severe political crisis under the right-wing caretaker government of Jeanine Áñez, with reports of political killings, bitter protests and shootings of protesters by security forces, while Morales' exile led to a diplomatic crisis with Mexico.
Hilarious in Hindsight:
- Operation: Archangel has the Ghosts work alongside Caveira, Twitch and Valkyrie from Rainbow Six Siege. The Rainbow operators are impressed with the Ghosts and suggest they should work together more in the future. In the Wind Bastion DLC for Siege, one of the new operators is named Nomad.^note
- Team Rainbow suggests the ghosts that they should work together more in the future. In Operation Shadow Legacy for Siege, we get Sam Fisher as "Zero". Seems like Sam was within earshot of the offer.
- You meet the rebel leader Amaru at the beginning of the game and as a corpse near the end. In Siege, we get an Operator named Amaru in Operation Ember Rise. Like Nomad above, this Amaru is a different person.
Magnificent Bastard: From DLC "Narco Road": Jose Vargas is El Invisible, an elusive and influential figure in charge of Santa Blanca's global smuggling network. Hoping to leave the cartel, Vargas disguises himself as the fisherman Señor Sonrisa and tells the CIA on how to dismantle his inner circle and recover the PDA containing the knowledge of his smuggling network on the condition that they give him immunity and sanctuary in America, while also fully aware the undercover Ghost operative trying to infiltrate his organization. Also seeking revenge on the US Government for the death of his friend, Vargas had a virus installed in his PDA which he unleashes onto the CIA servers, exposing their dirty laundry to the public, before he makes his escape, with the CIA unable to find him for two years.
Memetic Mutation:
- Shitballs!
- Nomad's crack about hand sanitizer has become this in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
- 'Can we get some coca for the altitude?'
- The vehicle spawning dropping vehicles in extremely far away or inaccessible indoor locations most of the time, and the rebels being in charge of it has led to jokes about that being the real reason why the Ghosts end up fighting Pac Katari.
Most Wonderful Sound: The "thunk" sound effect when your bullet hits an enemy a long distance away. It sounds like raw meat hitting a linoleum floor, but it means that you (probably) just scored a kill.
Narm: Some missions require the Ghosts to blow something up, than run like hell before the location (usually a mine or some other sort of tunnel) collapses all around them, accompanied by dramatic music. Thing is, the savvy player will just plant a brick of C4 or two, leave the hazard zone without any hurry and detonate the charges from a safe spot. The escape countdown including the dramatic music is triggered regardless, which feels really silly while you're standing around in bright sunlight, waiting for the mission to continue.
Scrappy Mechanic: So many examples it warrants its own page.
Sequelitis: The reception to the Narco Road DLC has been mostly negative due to the fact the missions focus heavily on vehicles, and vehicle control is one of the most criticized parts of the game. Also, the overall "tone" of the expansion feels more like a Grand Theft Auto game than a Ghost Recon game.
Scrappy Weapons: Submachine guns are basically just inferior versions of Assault Rifles. Less damage, less range and penetration with the only advantage is being able to aim a bit faster, better noise reduction and having a larger ammo pool... All paltry advantages to Assault Rifles which are more versatile in terms of damage and range and pistols can easily have maximum noise reduction.
Spiritual Licensee:
- It's the plot and politics of Clear and Present Danger mixed with the cigar chomping rip roaring antics of The A-Team and a healthy dose of the hard hitting adult content and tactics of the Rogue Warrior.
- The plot of Americans arriving in a Latin American country to stop an infamous drug kingpin and his cartel makes this a video game adaptation of Narcos.
- Gameplaywise, it is Rainbow Six: Vegas meets Watch_Dogs (Or in that case Grand Theft Auto) meets Far Cry.
That One Level:
- Pretty much any mission where you instantly fail if you are detected. This also includes random Santa Blanca/UNIDAD patrols on the road if you're very unlucky
- Flor de Oro, the region that hosts UNIDAD's headquarters. Naturally, just about everything involving the province involves running into them, often in high concentrations, with AA coverage and road patrols almost everywhere. Trying to do a mission or get a collectible guns blazing here will see you get swarmed by UNIDAD soldiers and buzzed by attack helicopters very quickly. Thankfully, there are only four missions to do in the region, as opposed to the usual six or eight, though the last mission is an extremely difficult abduction mission where you quickly get a high UNIDAD patrol level.
- The final mission in the Barvechos province has the Ghosts escort El Pulpo from his hideout to the airport while Santa Blanca is trying to off him. The guy automatically chooses an unarmed, unarmored car for his escape and Drives Like Crazy while Santa Blanca sends whole squadrons of armed, armored and fully manned Humvees after him in a high-speed chase that makes it impossible to stop and use your own weapons. One of the only halfway reliable chances (not guarantees. Chances!) of beating this mission at all consists of stealing the Humvee in front of El Pulpo's hideout for your team, then tricking him into boarding an armored SUV you brought along for this specific purpose by damaging all other vehicles in his vicinity beyond usability, and then hoping that he doesn't get stuck on the way to the airport, doesn't do anything else stupid, doesn't get cut down by hostile helicopters once he leaves his car for his personal helo, and that your own vehicle survives the bullet storm long enough for you to fend off the last pursuers. You can also max out your vehicle skills, then steal an APC and drive it at full speed, tailing behind El Pulpo the entire time to the airport. Still, even setting the difficulty to Easy does little to make this mission less sadistic.
- The mission "Flight Plan" for Koani/Boston Reed, you are required to fly a plane to Media Luna. Sounds easy enough right? Nope! You have to pass several SAM sites, possibly a Unidad base, and finally a enemy guarded makeshift airstrip- assuming you didn't crash or miss the landing. While it's easy to just restart when you get hit by a AA missile, in Ghost Mode, you cannot afford being hit by any AA missile.
- For the Narco Road DLC you have the second-to-last El Invisible mission. First, you have six minutes to drive through a winding road in a car rigged with explosives, then halfway through, suddenly head to a safehouse when Bowman has to scan it using a chopper while defending the car from UNIDAD, then drive the car all the way to the river before it explodes, hoping not to bump or crash into anything because it'll delay you more. Next, your Ghost is knocked out and placed in a Unidad prison, and while Invisible gives you a head-start by unlocking your cell, you now have to fight your way out of the prison...which is swarming with soldiers, snipers, heavy guards, and all sorts of nasty business. Oh, and did we mention you've been completely disarmed? Good luck finding an armory before you're reduced to swiss cheese. Also, Narco Road is intended as a solo campaign so unless you have friends online, have fun taking on the entire prison by yourself.
- The final mission in Fallen Ghosts, where the leader of the Los Extranjeros is situated in the middle of a heavily fortified bridge. Ideally, the best way to do this is to sneak in, but the sheer amount of enemy coverage there makes it difficult. Jammers to block your drones and your vision modes, Covert Ops covering the perimeter, Armored soldiers on the bridge itself, two mortars covering the area and on top of that, UNIDAD soldiers are mixed in with the Extranjeros, who will call for reinforcements if engaged. A very tough nut to crack, especially if you haven't done the side missions to get Rebel Support.
- The Jungle Moved: At first, it seems pretty straight forward, you and your team are investigating some strange goings on in a village, and find every Cartel Member dead, except one woman who is claiming that the jungle itself came alive and killed everyone. As you investigate further, you realize you're not after a man, you're after the Predator, and he's just as much of a pain in the ass to kill as you might expect. You have zero support, you have one ammo crate that's out in the open, and you're facing a boss that can One-Hit Kill you, and your team with ease. Don't even attempt this mission without maximum ammunition, a Light Machine Gun, and maximum revival stats, because you will take those plasma caster shots to the face, and you will go down with one hit. Now, one way to cheat the system, is to hop into Multiplayer, have four people with the above skills and build, and then, assuming you've run a few rebel ops, get some "Hired Guns" into the area before you enter the zone[[note]] use the drone before you enter to aim at the specific area you want them to be , and when the fight's on, they will serve exactly one purpose, but don't worry about that. They'll take the blasts meant for you, and you'll still get to kill the Predator.
That One Sidequest:
- The rebel radio mission (the ones that improve the Ghosts' mortar support) in the northernmost part of Caimanes is insanely difficult, especially for a region that's rated a mere three out of five skulls. You have to Hold the Line for very long 2:30 minutes, the radio trailer you need to protect is made of tissue paper and parked squarely in the open with no cover whatsoever, the surrounding area is a nightmare to defend because it offers attackers countless avenues of approach, you can't lay nearly enough mines to block off even half of them, Santa Blanca always attacks from six or more directions at once, and they make copious use of armored vehicles and helicopters. Even with perfect preparation, tank support of your own, a large squad of rebels backing you up, and three capable fellow gamers by your side, making it through this hell is a lot harder than virtually any other mission-related shootout. It's probably the only instance in the whole game where you'll cheer when a patrolling UNIDAD helicopter spots you and sends soldiers your way, because they're very helpful for distracting Santa Blanca but won't shoot the generator.
- Ghost mode takes all of the above up to eleven. While optional and only netting you cosmetics, you CANNOT afford yourself to die, or be downed. Regular occurances such as trains becomes a nightmare, as the AI cannot wait for the train to pass. Flying planes and helicopters becomes VERY risky, especially in higher tiers. And worse, even OTHER ghost mode players can be risky, due to the possibility of friendly fire.
- Some reoccurring challenges can become this. Especially since most of them requires you to be on extreme difficulty.
  - Weapon only challenges. This means you are restricted to one weapon type and cannot use explosives (drone included), vehicle kills (Mounted and Car rams), The environment (explosive barrels, exploding cars), and even melee. Your saving grace is that AI teammates does not void any challenges, and you can also use Rebel reinforcements to do your work for you. Crossbow only challenges takes this up to eleven.
  - Speaking of crossbow only challenges, there is one recurring challenge that makes you play the El Sueno mission. When you trigger the second part of the mission, you CANNOT use Rebel support, They betrayed you for mission, and they will swarm your area. Your only save is to call a support helicopter, park it far from enemy gunfire, and while avoiding helicopter missiles, fly very high out of range of SAM sites to the designated area and parachute down to the destination without firing a bullet.
  - Any challenge clear mission and be undetected/without dying/Damage less/without firing. Thankfully, the AI teammates, rebels, and being hunted doesn't count for the requirements. Being spotted, however it also means the random spawns such as Unidad spawns AND Santa Blanca lieutenant spawns.
- Tier mode when it hits to Extreme difficulty becomes this, especially on ghost mode. If you want the golden camo for the exosuit parts, you better be careful on what you do. Being downed is a race to be revived... Unless your AI teammates gets downed too.
Values Dissonance: The unironic depiction of America Saves the Day and Torture Always Works against Always Chaotic Evil foreigners, all without any introspection or self-awareness, was generally a trend most shooters grew out of in the early 2010s after Spec Ops: The Line deconstructed the genre (though this is a pretty superficial interpretation of the game's plot, given how overtly cynical it frequently is about U.S. foreign intervention). Of course, it is a Tom Clancy game. Also, the fact that the Mexican military recently surrendered to the Sinaloa cartel after being defeated by them in open combat makes the premise of the game both Harsher in Hindsight and less inherently unbelievable.
Win Back the Crowd:
- After the disappointing Narco Road expansion, Ubisoft released the Fallen Ghosts expansion which fans unanimously agree is far superior.
- Update 6 includes a patch to improve both car and helicopter handling, one of the most heavily criticized features of the game (and a major point of contention with Narco Road).
- In an unusual move, Ubisoft decided to address Splinter Cell fan complaints by bringing back Michael Ironside as the voice of Sam Fisher for a special crossover DLC.

YMMV / Ghost Recon Wildlands

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