History VideoGame / GhostReconWildlands

** However, Bolivia ''did'' get very close to becoming a narco-state in the 1980s under the rule of cruel dictator [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_Garc%C3%ADa_Meza Luis Garcia Meza]], whose rule was among the darkest times in Bolivian history, and whose coup was funded with cocaine money, complete with hiring out army units to be security for narcotraffickers. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Su%C3%A1rez_G%C3%B3mez One of those narcotraffickers]], Roberto Suarez Gomez, was king of the Bolivian cocaine trade and very much like the BigBad.

** The TAR-21 is the best assault rifle bar none, with great damage, handling, stability, accuracy, penetration, noise reduction, and an insane rate of fire. It can be upgraded with a massive 50-rounds magazine, a grenade launcher, and the best assault rifle scopes in the game like the EXPS & G33, a red dot sight with optional x3 magnification for mid-range combat, making it useful for sniping as well. It's powerful enough to stop armored vehicles and bring down helicopters with a single magazine.

** Submachine guns are a strange thing in ''Wildlands'' because they basically do what assault rifles do, only worse[[note]]which is why RealLife militaries don't issue them to frontline combatants and restrict their use to support personnel like medics or vehicle crews[[/note]]. It effectively turns the whole weapon category into a MasterOfNone that's pretty much superfluous by definition. Their sole advantages tend to be slightly better handling (read: you can turn and aim faster because the weapon is less obstructive) and near-total noise reduction. If you really feel like using a submachine gun ForTheLulz, go for the [=MP7=] or the [=P90=].

** According to Sandoval, Pac Katari is [[spoiler:planning to ally up with a group of like-minded Peruvian rebels. It's heavily implied that these rebels are the remnants of the notorious Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency famed for its cruelty.]]

** {{Lampshaded|Trope}} in the game's very first mission. It's implied that Pac Katari is not happy about having to work with the Americans. A little later, one of the Ghosts expresses distrust of the Kataris 26 and remarks that their ideology (implied to be some form of agrarian communism) will bring more suffering to the people of Bolivia. Nomad remarks that they are in Bolivia on a revenge mission, not to get involved in local politics. This sentiment is carried on even by many cartel buchons, who agree to work with the Ghosts to take down their former employer, but aren't happy about working with Americans given the US's bloody relationship with Latin America.

* HighlyConspicuousUniform: Santa Blanca goons dress in all white even in dense jungle, and paint their vehicles in white colors. The Kataris 26 rebels, meanwhile, dress in a variety of bright colors befitting Bolivian indigenous dress, and charge into battle wearing brightly-colored pom-pom beanies. Of course, [[VirtualPaperDoll you can elect to dress in a number of bright stand-out colors]] if you so desire and join in on Bolivia's technicolor warfare.

** Both Nomad and Bowman have special dialogue in case one of their radio conversations gets interrupted by Nomad initiating dialogue with someone else, like when they capture and interrogate someone while Bowman is briefing them on a mission or a newly entered province.

** Bowman mocks 4Chan in La Plaga's briefing video, and when talking about Eddie Escovado in ''Narco Road'', mocks Objectivism.

'''Caveira:''' Not even with a knife to my throat.
** On an in-universe level, when the Ghosts discover El Sueño's mausoleum - a massive structure intended to rival those of kings - one of your teammates says he'd like to be buried in something similar. Another of the team, finding the structure distastefully gaudy, quips, "What're you, a [[UsefulNotes/NavySeals SEAL]]?" [[note]] The [=SEALs=] are infamous among US military veterans for being publicity-hungry showoffs who immediately make careers solely based off their military service, and brag about their top-secret operations and toughness to civilians. [[/note]]

* AKA47: A non-gun variant; all vehicles are given fictionalized names like "Decussine" and "Nakahawa", and most are modeled after real ones.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''Wildlands'' is essentially [[Literature/ClearAndPresentDanger Operation Reciprocity]]: The Game.

* LethalJokeItem: The Musket that's part of the Civil War pack has a subpar scope and is single-shot, but is powerful enough to one-shot helicopters and enemy vehicles with little difficulty.

* CrapsackWorld: The nation of Bolivia is treated as one with the Santa Blanca cartel having more or less completely conquered it from behind the scenes. They operate openly and advertise themselves as cocaine makers while having their soldiers spread throughout the entire nation. Their only real opponents in the country are the local military who cooperates with them, and communist rebels who have been forced into hiding at the game start, [[spoiler:led by a duplicitous backstabbing glory hound who won't hesitate to betray the Ghosts when he finally gets the chance.]] Even destroying Santa Blanca won't automatically fix things as much of the country's agrarian economy has been converted to cocaine [[spoiler:and removing it just plunges the country into an economic depression--which compels the government to hire a PMC full of PsychoForHire types. The rebellion continues, but their future is likely uncertain.]]

* CrapsackWorld: The nation of Bolivia is treated as one with the Santa Blanca cartel having more or less completely conquered it from behind the scenes. They operate openly and advertise themselves as cocaine makers while having their soldiers spread throughout the entire nation. Their only real opponents in the country are DirtyCop SecretPolice who cooperate with them, and communist rebels who have been forced into hiding at the game start, [[spoiler:led by a duplicitous backstabbing glory hound who won't hesitate to betray the Ghosts when he finally gets the chance.]] Even destroying Santa Blanca won't automatically fix things as much of the country's agrarian economy has been converted to cocaine [[spoiler:and removing it just plunges the country into an economic depression--which compels the government to hire a PMC full of PsychoForHire types. The rebellion continues, but their future is likely uncertain.]]

* ClusterFBomb: The Ghosts may be the most elite army covert ops but that discipline does not extend to their mouths, sounding like a script for ''Film/Scarface1983.''

''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands'' is a WideOpenSandbox ThirdPersonShooter video game developed by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} Paris and Milan and the tenth installment in the Creator/TomClancy's ''VideoGame/GhostRecon'' series. It places a large emphasis on open-world exploration and non-linear gameplay. It is an {{interquel}} set in 2019, five years after the ''Advanced Warfighter'' duology and five years before ''Future Soldier''.

** On a personal level, Cartel Buchon Antonio Garcia-Taylor shows a striking summary of just what cocaine addition can do to a life. After getting put in charge of warehousing, Antonio decided to start sniffing some of the product and slowly deteriorated into a paranoid mess cut off from his family, seeing threats everywhere, and liable to beat or nearly shoot someone.

* EverythingsBetterWithLlamas:
** This being Bolivia, llamas are present in the altiplano regions and can be interacted with.
** A King Llama shirt is available to players who participated in the game's closed beta test.
** A llama-themed SIG [=556xi=] is available to players who participated in the game's open beta test.
** An unique llama-themed minibus is available to players who purchase the game's Season Pass.

* NiceHat: At least one is always available for the PlayerCharacter to wear. Two more can be unlocked by defeating El Pulpo and La Plaga, respectively.

* VictoriasSecretCompartment: Taken UpToEleven. The profile video for the Beauty Queen reveals that one of her methods for smuggling cocaine is to hide it inside womens' breast implants. This is also very much TruthInTelevision.

** Unfortunately, dialogue with their leadership throughout the game demonstrates that their alliance with the Ghosts is ''not'' the friendliest, seeing the United States as one of the organizations responsible (both directly and indirectly) for Bolivia's current status due to the long and bloody history between the US and South America, and the Ghosts themselves simply being another tool to strike at Santa Blanca with. [[spoiler:In fact, once Pac Katari feels that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he can take it from here,]] he wastes no time betraying the Ghosts and trying to take down Sueno himself, resulting in his death.]]]]

** Also played straight ''and'' averted with cartel buchona Nidia Flores, who can be heard talking tough on the radio and even decapitates her daughter's badly wounded-but-alive father El Boquita in an attempt to placate El Sueño after the Ghosts disrupt her plans. But when the Ghosts arrive to confront her ... [[spoiler: she doesn't even ''attempt'' to fight back. Probably justified, though, as her daughter Valeria is in the room with her and the pair are planning to flee the country, and any semi-responsible mother (even one who's a drug-smuggling cartel boss) would be concerned for her child being hurt or killed in the crossfire.]]

* BittersweetEnding: By the time you've done enough to reach the endgame (taken down at least two Cartel heads), the power vacuum left by Santa Blanca has caused things to spiral out of control in Bolivia. Santa Blanca is starting to crack apart, with Buchons going to war against each other and/or El Sueño, the rebels becoming more and more aggressive and openly attacking Santa Blanca in the streets [[spoiler: as well as trying to gun ''you'' down on Pac Katari's orders so he can take down Sueño themselves, with Pac getting beheaded for his trouble]]), and UNIDAD is completely and utterly outmatched (not to mention the commander of UNIDAD, despite wanting to help the Ghosts, has lost almost complete control of the force as most of his officers outright ignore him to pursue their own profit-driven goals with the the cartel). And to top it all off? [[spoiler: Just as the Ghosts are about to capture El Sueño, word comes down that ''he's been granted full immunity'' in exchange for the heads of other cartels and terrorist organizations in the region (who just happen to be his competition)]]. What happens next depends on the ending you get:
** [[spoiler: If you capture El Sueño after taking out the rest of the cartel, he turns informant for the United States. Things improve in Bolivia as any and all Santa Blanca-friendly politicians are swept out of the government, and Sueño's tips result in the dismantling of other cartels and terrorist organizations that traffic drugs. But the game implies that he'll eventually be released and have the tools necessary to return to South America and rebuild his cartel in another nation, which Bowman and the Ghosts will have to dismantle again.]]
** [[spoiler: If you take down El Sueño without eliminating the rest of the cartel, then Bowman [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight shoots Sueño before he can be extracted]]. Bowman justifies her actions by saying that the events outlined in the other ending would've come to pass (though this ending takes it a step further and predicts Sueño would become an outright ''dictator'' of another nation) and that she was willing to sacrifice her career and her freedom to see that doesn't happen. Bowman is sent to prison for her actions, and both the rebels and what's left of Santa Blanca descend into infighting, with Bowman predicting that it's only a matter of time before someone tries to take over Bolivia again to seize the coca.]]
** With the Fallen Ghost DLC, vicious mercenaries known as Los Extranjeros have crushed both the rebels and Santa Blanca, and are now terrorizing the country at their leisure. [[spoiler: However, the presence of rebel support in the DLC suggests that their rebellion, even with Pac's death, is NotQuiteDead, with the Ghosts even heading back to strengthening and supporting them again. Los Extranjeros' defeat results in the people finally rising up to demand fresh elections, and implications that the country will finally find peace.]]
** Also happens in game with the story of Ricky Sandoval: [[spoiler: You recover his body, but El Sueño gives you a recording of his confession while under torture. It turns out that Ricky was the one responsible for the bombing of the US Embassy and proceeded to pin it on Santa Blanca. Ricky saw it as the only way to get the US government to commit resources to fighting Santa Blanca.]]
* BlackAndGrayMorality: One of Nomad's first lines in the game is establishing this is a revenge mission, not an attempt to fight the evil drug cartel. Repeatedly, you run into ALighterShadeOfBlack or even {{Antivillain}} cartel members who are either forced into the job by Santa Blanca or have very legitimate reasons for being involved with drug trafficking. Despite this, you also meet some truly monstrous people who have had their worst instincts brought out and encouraged by the cartel.
** EvilVersusEvil: UNIDAD, the Cartel, and [[spoiler: Pac Katari]] all just want to take over the cocaine trade in the country despite the occasional charitable deed or providing security for Bolivian communities. The Fallen Ghosts DLC adds Los Extranjeros, who are even worse than Santa Blanca and UNIDAD, and see Bolivia as a place to terrorize for fun.
** {{Zig Zagged}} with The Ghosts, themselves are {{Antihero}} protagonists that are GoodIsNotNice at best and PayEvilUntoEvil at their worst. They destabilize the Bolivian government, empower a guerilla army at war with the government, kill cops (albeit DirtyCops), and threaten torture. However, the Ghosts are indeed a legal government agency, and indeed do have "government sanction" for their actions, simply not publicly. At the time of the game, the government itself is shown to be almost under cartel rule and has become complicit to the cartel's actions (with organizations such as the UNIDAD becoming corrupt itself and aiding the cartel). The Ghosts are at worst a darker shade of gray, due to their ruthlessness in dealing with their targets, but their overarching actions are not innately evil; they become particularly upset if any civilians are hurt, for example.

** At the beginning, Karen Bowman mentions she was in Moscow when the coup occurred in the first ''Ghost Recon''[[labelnote:note]]In ''Ghost Recon'' continuity, Russia has had two major coups[[/labelnote]] and wonders if the rumors of the Ghosts' involvement are true. Nomad simply replies [[BlatantLies that wasn't them]]. [[HalfTruth Half true]] in that it was a different team on the ground.

** The Operation: Watchman event is a heavily stealth-based mission where you team up with [[Videogame/SplinterCell Sam Fisher]].

* CrapsackWorld: The nation of Bolivia is treated as one with the Santa Blanca cartel having more or less completely conquered it from behind the scenes. They operate openly and advertise themselves as cocaine makers while having their soldiers spread throughout the entire nation. Their only real opponents in the country are DirtyCop SecretPolice who cooperate with them, and communist rebels who have been forced into hiding at the game start, [[spoiler: led by a duplicitous backstabbing glory hound who won't hesitate to betray the Ghosts when he finally gets the chance.]] Even destroying Santa Blanca won't automatically fix things as much of the country's agrarian economy has been converted to cocaine [[spoiler: and removing it just plunges the country into an economic depression--which compels the government to hire a PMC full of PsychoForHire types. The rebellion continues, but their future is likely uncertain.]]

* DrugsAreBad: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed.]] El Sueño boasts in the intro that he has "fed more drug fiends than the top three pharmaceutical companies combined" and the entire game shows what kind of nightmares emerge when you put that kind of money in the hands of a narcoterrorist. However. the game does not go into any heavy anti-drug rhetoric, and portrays the plight of Bolivia's [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocalero cocaleros]] and several cartel members sympathetically. In addition, there are plenty of discussions about how the United States' War on Drugs has negatively affected Bolivia and the region. But the side effects it does show are ugly...

* {{Expy}}: A vicious brutal special ops soldier whose default appearance is a bearded hard case who swears like a sailor: [[Literature/RogueWarrior Richard Marcinko?]] A foul mouthed off kilter CIA smartass who will do whatever it takes no matter how illegal or crazy: [[Series/HomeLand Carrie Mathison?]]

** In the good ending, [[spoiler: El Sueño himself gets full immunity from the U.S government despite effectively wrecking a good part of Bolivia and personally responsible for dozens, if not hundreds of murders, [[TheStoolPigeon all in exchange for him giving information on other crime organizations and terrorist cells]] -- not because he's suddenly TheAtoner like El Cardenal or because he wants to protect people he cares for like El Yayo and Nidia, but because [[LetsYouAndHimFight he wants to use the US government to hunt down all his major rivals in the drug trafficking trade]]. It is hinted that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he'll eventually run out of names to name]], but even then, he'll either be transferred from his LuxuryPrisonSuite in Florida to a CardboardPrison in Mexico (which he'll easily break out of), or would just be "cut loose" by the CIA, allowing him to build a brand new cartel, which Karen Bowman and the Ghosts [[HereWeGoAgain will have to dismantle all over again]].]]

** Unfortunately, dialogue with their leadership throughout the game demonstrates that their alliance with the Ghosts is ''not'' the friendliest, seeing the United States as one of the organizations responsible (both directly and indirectly) for Bolivia's current status due to the long and bloody history between the US and South America, and the Ghosts themselves simply being another tool to strike at Santa Blanca with. [[spoiler: In fact, once Pac Katari feels that [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness he can take it from here,]] he wastes no time betraying the Ghosts and trying to take down Sueno himself, resulting in his death.]]]]
** However, regular rebels are genuinely warm and friendly to the Ghosts after a few missions to support them are completed, and don't hesitate to salute them as fellow comrades in the rebellion. [[spoiler: Even after being officially crushed in Fallen Ghosts by Los Extranjeros, the fact the Ghosts work with the rebels again without any problems raised, and that the rebels continue to play a major part in the DLC's story suggests that all is forgiven on both sides.]] Nomad is also unusually friendly when talking with rebel lieutenants.

* MakeWayForTheNewVillains: [[spoiler: Pac Katari]] tries to do this at the end when [[spoiler: he turns on the Ghosts]] and tries to take all the credit for defeating the cartel from them.

* MooksButNoBosses: You'll be taking out your fair share of High Value Targets, including the Cartel's top leaders, but overall they're only marginally tougher than a regular [[EliteMooks Elite Mook]] (which makes sense, since this is a ''VideoGame/GhostRecon'' game and not ''VideoGame/TheDivision''). Also, the Boss of Bosses of the Cartel ends up [[spoiler: being TheUnfought, due to making a deal with the U.S. Government for immunity, much to the frustration of the Ghosts and Agent Bowman.]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Throughout the game, you're constantly reminded that even though you are removing some ''very'' bad people from power by capturing or killing Santa Blanca's leaders, and killing their cruel {{Mooks}} by the hundreds, in the grand scheme of things you're most likely making things ''worse'' for the people of Bolivia. [[spoiler: And, depending on the ending you get, when all's said and done you've either set up El Sueño to recreate his organization in Peru, or you've caused both the rebels and what's left of Santa Blanca to descend into infighting which is just going to create more problems for Bolivia, as the country teeters on the brink of outright civil war.]]

** When the Ghosts capture him, Santa Blanca chemist Marcus Jensen repeatedly states, "[[Film/{{Ghostbusters1984}} Back off, I'm a scientist!]]"

** According to Sandoval, Pac Katari is [[spoiler: planning to ally up with a group of like-minded Peruvian rebels. It's heavily implied that these rebels are the remnants of the notorious Shining Path, a Maoist insurgency famed for its cruelty.]]

* TakeThat: Subverted. Sam, in Operation: Watchman, notes that they don't "make em' like me anymore", before he mentions a guy in a bandana, seemingly setting up a joke towards ''Franchise/MetalGear'', ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'''s rival... But then Karen notes that he retired, with Sam sadly realizing he's the [[LastOfHisKind last]] of the old guard left, making the reference come off as respectful instead.
** Played straighter in Operation: Archangel, the crossover with VideoGame/RainbowSixSiege. Caveira mentions how Rainbow occasionally runs ops in South America, which prompts Nomad to quip about how he heard one of them went south.
--> '''Nomad''': Does Operation: Patriots[[note]] Rainbow Six: Patriots was originally going to be the next Rainbow Six game after the Vegas series, but was cancelled after lingering in DevelopmentHell[[/note]] ring any bells?
--> '''Caveira''': Who told you about that?!
--> '''Nomad''': I have my sources.
--> '''Caveira''': Tell your sources to mind their business. Patriots is ''very'' classified.
--> '''Nomad''': So you won't tell me what happened?
--> '''Caveira''': Not even with a knife to my throat.

** [[spoiler: It's later revealed that the Cartel ''wasn't'' responsible for the bombing. Sandoval, the man they killed, was]].

--> "What the fuck, man? That was a civilian!"

--> "Shitballs!"

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: As the character page can attest, the game fields several dozen named characters, most of which are targets of varying importance to Operation Kingslayer. Keeping track of who is who can become a tad difficult for non-Spanish speakers because many of the bosses' names and titles sound fairly similar to the foreign ear. Thankfully, the [=TacMap=] also offers access to a flowchart of sorts that links all known high value targets to each other, denotes the provinces where as-of-yet unknown targets can be found, and lists various other useful informations including their respective CIA briefing vids.

''Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands'' is a WideOpenSandbox ThirdPersonShooter video game developed by Creator/{{Ubisoft}} Paris and Milan and the tenth installment in the Creator/TomClancy's ''VideoGame/GhostRecon'' series. It places a large emphasis on open-world exploration and non-linear gameplay.

* GatlingGood: 7.62mm miniguns are very common throughout the game world, from Kataris 26 technicals to helicopters and watchtowers. Ironically, despite being much less sophisticated tech, the .50 BMG machine guns that [[VideoGame/FarCry2 other]] [[VideoGame/FarCry3 Ubisoft]] [[VideoGame/FarCry4 titles]] used in their stead were one hell of a lot more effective, especially against vehicles.

* WithThisHerring: You start the game out with a very basic loadout and have to acquire better weapons and equipment laying around Bolivia over the course of the game. Somewhat justified as the Ghosts had to make their own way into the country, either hiking, hitchhiking, or flying commercial airlines, and thus couldn't bring much equipment with them.

** If ''you'' try to play the game this way yourself, you'll quickly notice that it doesn't work any better because when all is said and done, you're still just [[RealityEnsues one to four squishy humans against an entrenched, well-equipped army]].

* RealityEnsues: Cross a busy highway (or any street for that matter) without looking left and right and you will get flattened by a car that couldn't brake in time. This can lead to some frustrating but strangely funny moments when an elite soldier who just massacred an entire army base single-handedly ends up as roadkill and fails their mission because they failed to observe basic traffic rules. Likewise, drive a motorbike offroad full-throttle and your squadmates will need to revive you very soon because you were thrown off of your ride at literally breakneck speed. Additionally, SoftWater is averted as falling from a high height into the ocean is as fatal as hitting the ground.